Staff Training - Trusted Contacts

A trusted contact is someone who a student nominates to act in a similar way to a next of kin. Usually, students will choose a parent or guardian, although it can be any individual over the age of 18 such as a family member or friend. It’s entirely the student’s choice, but we encourage students to choose someone they trust and who they can ask for help.

At the University of Cumbria we are committed to fostering a culture of care, support and to protecting student welfare. As part of this commitment, we ask all students to provide up-to-date contact details for a trusted contact throughout their registration at the University.

When a student joins us, they are starting a new phase in their life and will probably have a network of people outside university who can help them along the way. This could be parents, family members, guardians or other supporters. A trusted contact might be someone students tell about how they are settling into university life and someone they rely on for advice and support.

Additionally, the University also provides support to students to help them transition to university and thrive whilst they are here.

We ask that students obtain their chosen trusted contact’s permission to fulfil this role before they register with us, make them aware what the role entails and that their contact details will be shared with the University. A good way of doing this could be, by sharing this webpage with a chosen trusted contact.

It is essential that students keep their trusted contact details up to date. Students can review and update these details at any time.

Any student struggling with their mental health is encouraged to reach out to Student Services Mental Health and Wellbeing Support for help. This can be done via the online Student Enquiry Point Online Form (StEP) or via the Student Enquiry Point (StEP) desk on campus. 

When accessing support from the University, students are informed of the Student Services Mental Health and Wellbeing Support and Safeguarding Team’s approach to confidentiality and asked whether they give consent to share information with other professionals – internal or externally to the University. Where consent is given, this can be withdrawn later on, and the team will work with students to encourage them to involve other people in their support. That could include their GP, family or trusted contact.

In a small number of cases and in exceptional circumstances, the University may decide to contact a student’s trusted contact without consent, if we judge that doing so is in the student’s best interests.

The following quick guide has been produced to direct staff to the relevant parts of the Policy. It is not a substitute for reading the whole document.

i) All students are required to provide details of at least one trusted contact to the University (this is in addition to emergency contact or next of kin details). 

ii) Staff should only contact a student’s trusted contact with the student’s explicit agreement. Students should provide this consent in writing wherever possible, for example through an email from their University email account. Staff should document that consent has been obtained for information sharing and confirm what information the student has consented to share. Where it is not possible to obtain written consent verbal consent can be sought and the reason for this should be documented. Staff should also submit a Cause for Concern report detailing the reason for the concern, the consent obtained from the student and the information shared with the Trusted Contact, in order that the contact can be appropriately recorded and to ensure the MHWB team can facilitate appropriate follow up with the student. If a student does not or cannot provide consent then approval must be provided by two of the following: 

• Director of Student Services, 
• Head of Student Support, 
• Mental Health and Wellbeing Manager,

iii) University staff that have concerns about a potential missing student, or who receive a report that a student is missing, must in the first instance raise this as a Safeguarding Cause for Concern via StEP.

You can find out more in the Trusted Contacts policy.