Members: Policy On Health And Welfare#

The College has developed a variety of processes for dealing with serious matters concerning the health and welfare of its Members. The Registrar and Dean take the lead in offering pastoral care and support to Members, who are warmly encouraged to share with them any concerns over personal or medical circumstances. The Registrar has a wide network of external contacts in many areas of health and wellbeing and, if unable to help identify a solution herself, can often direct Members to a specialist who can. For Members who prefer to approach a representative of their faith community, the College Chaplains and religious leaders in other faiths, known to the College, are available to hear problems and offer advice in confidence.

Sharing worrying issues can be very helpful. All matters relating to the health and welfare of individuals will be treated as wholly confidential unless the welfare of the individual or the community at large requires the information to be shared on a need-to-know basis.

Naturally, some Members will wish to share their problems with other Members. Those consulted in this way should be aware that they have the same obligation as College staff to respect the confidence and wellbeing of the Member concerned. Members should bear in mind that the primary responsibility for supporting other Members’ health and wellbeing lies with the Registrar and Dean and should avoid taking that responsibility upon themselves. Members who have professional medical/healthcare qualifications should be particularly alert to this risk and seek to avoid being manoeuvred into such a role, particularly at high-stress points in the academic year. Members with medical/healthcare qualifications should also assess their boundaries for care in relation to their professional bodies, professional indeminity and insurance and ability to practice in the UK.

The Registrar and Dean are both available during normal office hours and there is a roster of senior staff on call over the weekends. Members are welcome to approach the Registrar or Dean with any issue of concern. Outside office hours, Members should approach their House Reception team in the first instance: Reception staff are briefed to offer help and can contact the senior staff on call if required.

Respect for Confidentiality#

A general respect for privacy means that matters relating to the health and welfare of individuals will be treated as confidential.

Seeking Consent#

The Registrar will, where possible, seek the consent of the individual for the onward disclosure of relevant information to those with a clear need to know (e.g. the senior staff member on duty overnight or to a relevant medical professional). Where such consent is not forthcoming, the Registrar should make it clear that in exceptional circumstances, it may be necessary to disclose the information to others, whilst also making it clear that such disclosure would be on a need-to-know basis only, preserving strict confidentiality in relation to any other third party. Before anything is disclosed to a third party, with or without consent, a risk assessment will be carried out.

Duty of Care#

Notwithstanding the expectations of an individual who provides information in confidence, the College is aware that in certain circumstances it may owe a duty of care to individuals that cannot be discharged unless the institution takes action on information provided in confidence. It is not possible to provide an exact delineation of the extent of such a duty of care. However, where information concerns potential harm to an individual or to others, the College must weigh the duty of confidentiality against that potential harm. For example, if an individual provided information in confidence about a serious sexual assault, the College would be acting illegally if it failed to take steps to ensure that the alleged perpetrator was not a continuing risk to other individuals. For example, if an individual was assessed to be at serious risk of self harm.

Seeking Advice#

College Members to whom information has been given in confidence, or who have acquired information which they regard as confidential, may not always be sure whether they should disclose this information or not. In these circumstances, it may be sensible to seek advice from the Registrar or Dean on whether the matter is sufficiently important to breach confidentiality and, if so, to whom they should report their concerns. This should be done without divulging the name of the student concerned. A concern for confidentiality need not and should not prevent communication that is necessary to help Members in difficulty.

Promises of Confidentiality#

It is not always appropriate or sensible to give absolute assurances of confidentiality to those who may wish to talk about personal problems. It may be necessary to say that information may be shared with senior colleagues, if this is in the best interests of the individual and the community, and that this will be carried out with the utmost discretion. The Registrar and Dean, given their pastoral and occasional disciplinary responsibilities, may judge that matters of a disciplinary nature may need to be discussed with others.

Discussion with Outside Agencies#

College Members may choose to receive counselling at their academic institution rather than in College. In the event that the Registrar wishes to consult a particular counselling service with regard to a particular Member, the individual’s consent will always be sought to do so. If consent is not forthcoming, general advice may still be sought, without identifying the student concerned.

Contact with Families#

The College will not contact a Member’s family without their consent, except on the rare occasion when such contact can be justified in the member’s best interests, for example, where there is a risk of self-harm or a serious physical or mental illness. The decision to make this contact would be taken by the Registrar in consultation with the College Director.

Members on Professional Courses#

Where a Member’s course of study brings them into contact with the general public (e.g. medicine, social work, education), any concerns about the health or behaviour of that Member may be discussed with their academic department, in the first instance without divulging the name of the Member concerned. From that point on, the College would be guided by the policies of the institution concerned and would hope to proceed with the consent and active participation of the Member.

Specific Issues#

Behavioural and emotional problems: The Registrar must act in the public interest for other Members of College and therefore may have to intervene if a Member becomes mentally ill. The Registrar will always try and work with a Member to ensure appropriate consultation of outside agencies (GPs, counsellors, specialist support units). There may be circumstances in which the College will feel that concerns about individual welfare or disruption of College life are so great that the Registrar, in consultation with the College Director, must insist upon a medical report as a condition of continuing residence.

• Discharge from hospital: The Dean will do everything possible to ensure appropriate care of Members discharged from hospital into the College, in liaison with local GPs and support agencies.
• Crime: The Dean or another senior member of staff will always accompany Members to any interview with the police if requested, however minor or serious the incident, including for the giving of witness statements.