Bristol Uni plan to cut student wellbeing roles by 14 per cent and restructure services

Services are due to be restructured despite staff concerns over student mental health

2 years ago

Laura Butler | News

Bristol University plans to restructure the wellbeing service from September which includes cutting 14 per cent of roles. This restructuring will see the wellbeing services reduced however new mental health advisors and a sexual assault liaison advice team have also been suggested.

Some staff members have suggested this restructuring is a money-saving decision which will cause more students to “fall through the gaps.”

This comes 2 years after the Bristol County Court ruled that the university had contributed to Natasha Abrahart’s death, a Bristol student who took her own life in 2018. The court ruled the university discriminated against Natasha on the grounds of disability and her parents said the university had received “worrying information” the day before her death.

12 students including Natasha took their lives at Bristol Uni between 2013-2018 and Bristol World reports 14 students have taken their lives at Bristol Uni since 2018.

The ongoing consultation is about assessing how the services should look going forward in response to student feedback.

The new suggestions include increasing the amount of specialist mental health adviser support available, replacing the current request form with a self-service booking system and creating a dedicated sexual violence liaison team.

In this restructure the access team would be scrapped for the online booking service. The access team currently manages applications to support students, assessing their needs and signposting them to the correct service.

The wellbeing team is here to help students dealing with difficulties with their mental health, however, it is not a specialist mental health team.

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Staff concerns are around the service becoming more impersonal, not allowing for meaningful contact with students instead resembling a production line approach.

No changes have been implemented yet and the consultation and review process is dynamic and open to changes. The university has said the changes are aimed at repurposing and rebalancing the services to keep them running effectively for students.

A University of Bristol spokesperson said: “The mental health and wellbeing of our community is at the heart of decision making across the University. Bristol has one of the highest levels of investment in this area in the sector at £5 million a year.

“We are seeking to rebalance and refocus the work of the wellbeing service replacing the need for referral with direct and immediate access to appointments with wellbeing advisers. Under the proposals, which are based on feedback from students, we are investing in new specialist mental health and sexual violence liaison roles. We have over 100 FTE staff working in our wellbeing and mental health services – this includes 43 FTE roles in the wellbeing service currently. Under our latest proposals which include newly created and some redistribution of existing roles, we are looking at an overall reduction of approximately six FTE roles so we will continue to have some of the largest and best resourced services of any university in the UK.

“We recognise that any change will cause uncertainty and concern and we have spent the last six weeks actively seeking feedback. During this time, we have received a wide range of views, which we have listened to very carefully, and in some cases changed our plans to reflect. No changes or decisions have yet been made and colleagues will continue to be fully involved as this process progresses.”