Trusted Contacts
Providing the University with your trusted contact details
As part of our approach to support your safety and wellbeing we require all students to provide details of at least one Trusted Contact, on an annual basis, when registering for their programme.
Students are asked to provide this information so that it is available in the unlikely event that a situation arises where we consider a student’s health, wellbeing or safety to be at significant risk.
A Trusted Contact is someone who can be contacted in the event of an emergency or serious concern about a student and/or other’s mental health, wellbeing or safety. Students can nominate anyone they choose to be their Trusted Contact. We expect that for the majority of our students the Trusted Contact will be a parent or guardian. However, this could also be another responsible adult. The relationship the Trusted Contact has to the student will be recorded.
A Trusted Contact should be someone who is:
- known to the student
- a UK resident who is readily contactable and able and willing to act on the student’s behalf in the event of a serious incident or emergency where we consider the student’s health, wellbeing or welfare to be at risk.
- NOT a member of University staff
Students should ensure that the Trusted Contact they nominate has agreed to be a Trusted Contact and has been made aware that their contact details will be shared with, and stored by, the University in accordance with the University’s legal responsibilities pertaining to data protection.
Students will be asked to provide the following information regarding their Trusted Contact:
- full name and relationship to the student
- a mobile phone number (or primary telephone number, such as a landline)
- permanent home address
Trusted Contact details are held on the University’s student record system, in accordance with the University’s Current Student Privacy Notice. It is important that all students keep this mandatory information up to date and they can update it at any time via My Student Details.
How the University decides to contact a trusted contact
Where a member of staff believes there is a requirement to share information with a student’s trusted contact, consent should ordinarily be sought from the student before any further action is taken. Students should provide this consent in writing wherever possible, for example through an email from their University email account.
Any decision to get in touch with a trusted contact or to share personal information without the student consent would be taken on a case-by-case basis and authorised by two of the following colleagues (and informed, where required, by advice from the Governance and Data Protection Manager):
- Director of Student Services,
- Head of Student Support,
- Mental Health and Wellbeing Manager,
We would inform the student that we had decided to contact their trusted contact, unless to do so would increase the risk of harm to them or another person. Whenever we share personal information about a student with their trusted contact, we keep a record of the justification for this decision, the nature of the information shared, with whom, and the time and date of the disclosure.