Apr. 15 2024
Source Page: Evaluation of the Suicide Bereavement Support Service: Final Evaluation ReportFound: Evaluation of the Suicide Bereavement Support Service: Final Evaluation Report
Mentions:
1: Miriam Cates (Con - Penistone and Stocksbridge) Since 2012, suicide rates for teenage boys in the UK have doubled. They have trebled for girls. - Speech Link
2: Miriam Cates (Con - Penistone and Stocksbridge) Occasionally, I’ll see triggering content on social media such as suicide or gory images.”Social media - Speech Link
3: Neale Hanvey (Alba - Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath) He also drew attention to sites that encourage suicide among young men.Many issues need to be addressed - Speech Link
Written Evidence May. 21 2024
Inquiry: Boys’ attainment and engagement in educationFound: Train all student teachers it what works for boys.
Asked by: George Eustice (Conservative - Camborne and Redruth)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 14 November 2023 to Question 149 on Universities: Mental Health Services, what information her Department holds on the (a) number and (b) proportion of universities that have amended their practices in line with the recommendations in her Department's letter.
Answered by Robert Halfon
It is a priority for this government that students are provided with the mental health support they need. The opportunity to enter, thrive and graduate from university should be open to everyone with the ability to do so. To achieve this, the department is taking an approach based on three pillars:
On 5 June 2023, the department wrote to all higher education providers asking for their strongest possible commitment to the mental health of our students, including by showing ownership of mental health at an executive level. The department has set a target for all universities to sign up to Student Minds’ University Mental Health Charter Programme by September 2024 so that they take a whole-university approach to mental health and wellbeing and follow the principles set out in the Charter. This programme is about continuous improvement from universities so that standards are raised within the sector.
61 universities had joined the programme by the 2022/23 academic year. Following the 5 June 2023 letter, nine HE providers wrote back to the department on action being taken to improve practice. A significant number of universities then applied to the Charter Programme during the summer 2023 application window. The programme has seen a greater than 50% increase in membership and now has 96 members for the 2023/24 academic year. The full list of members is available at: https://hub.studentminds.org.uk/charter-programme-members-23-24/.
The Higher Education Mental Health Taskforce is looking at the application of best practice among HE providers. The Taskforce will deliver a final report by May 2024 and will provide an update ahead of that early in 2024.
I continue to raise the value of Charter Programme membership with universities and sector representatives and hosted a roundtable on the mental health of students with university leaders at Leeds Trinity University on 23 November 2023. This roundtable addressed the important role that executive leadership have in setting the culture and practice around wellbeing for students on campus. We also confirmed at this roundtable that the National Confidential Inquiry into Suicide and Safety in Mental Health, a renowned centre of expertise on suicide prevention, will lead the National Review of HE Suicides. This will ensure lessons from tragic instances of student suicide are shared widely across the sector.
This roundtable followed a speech I delivered at the UUK Mental Health Conference on 21 November 2023 where I asked the sector to come together and finish the job of embedding best practice.
Mentions:
1: Lord Wolfson of Tredegar (Con - Life peer) of that wall which advances Palestinian self-determination because without it, there would still be suicide - Speech Link
2: Lord Sentamu (XB - Life peer) I was a great student of his; he taught me Hebrew and how to read the Hebrew scriptures. - Speech Link
3: Lord Willetts (Con - Life peer) All these issues being debated in student unions are part of the process of learning, growing up and - Speech Link
4: Lord Mann (Non-affiliated - Life peer) He was the student leader at Birzeit University at the time. - Speech Link
5: Lord Leigh of Hurley (Con - Life peer) centre and the encampment outside of the student union. - Speech Link
Mentions:
1: Margaret Greenwood (Lab - Wirral West) of Psychiatrists has found that autistic children are 28 times more likely to think about or attempt suicide - Speech Link
2: Yasmin Qureshi (Lab - Bolton South East) What assessment she has made of the potential impact of the plan 5 student loan repayment plan on levels - Speech Link
3: Luke Hall (Con - Thornbury and Yate) Our reforms make the student loan system more sustainable and fairer for graduates and taxpayers. - Speech Link
4: Gillian Keegan (Con - Chichester) In the internationally renowned programme for international student assessment, our secondary school - Speech Link
5: Dave Doogan (SNP - Angus) In 2024-25, Scottish students living away from home will be entitled to a minimum of £8,400 in student - Speech Link
Mentions:
1: Nick Fletcher (Con - Don Valley) in place careful monitoring and interventions to ensure that language and reading skills enable the student - Speech Link
2: Steve Double (Con - St Austell and Newquay) We need only look at the suicide rate among men, particularly young men, to wonder what is going on in - Speech Link
3: Alexander Stafford (Con - Rother Valley) In fact, suicide is the biggest killer of men under 50, with one suicide taking place every 90 minutes - Speech Link
4: Alexander Stafford (Con - Rother Valley) We have also talked about suicide prevention. - Speech Link
Apr. 23 2024
Source Page: I. Universal Credit guidance April 2024 [update of previous guidance, deposited Oct 2023, DEP2023-0791]. 204 docs. II. Letter dated 15/04/2023 from Jo Churchill MP to to the Deposited Papers Clerk regarding documents for deposit in the House libraries. Incl. file list at Annex 1. 9p.Found: Records V1.0 162 Statutory Sickness Payment (SSP) V7.0 163 Students-Eligibility, conditionality, student
Mentions:
1: Baroness Browning (Con - Life peer) for Work and Pensions, how many inquests relating to benefits claimants who have ended their life by suicide - Speech Link
2: Baroness Donaghy (Lab - Life peer) premium and the part-time student premium, which are crucial to the OU. - Speech Link
Nov. 21 2023
Source Page: Robert Halfon UUK Mental Health conference speechFound: Because we have all been deeply affected by the loss of bright, capable and loved young people to suicide