Enabling principles

Leadership

We will continue to hold senior leaders accountable for integrating good mental health and wellbeing practices at the heart of what we do, supporting them to champion and model the behaviours, awareness and understanding expected of a mentally healthy university.

Shared accountability

We will include actions that support mental health and wellbeing in our strategic, unit and people plans and commit to measuring, evaluating and reporting on outcomes annually.

Engagement and feedback

We will use transparent engagement methods that are inclusive of all communities to gain insight and feedback from our students and staff about their mental health and wellbeing needs and expectations.

Collaboration and peer support

We will work collaboratively across the university to support good mental health and wellbeing and facilitate peer-to-peer support and mentoring programmes for our students and staff. We will continue to develop our strategic partnerships, integrated services, data sharing, and embedding the voices of students and staff in service design and delivery.

Developing and sharing resources

We will co-produce mental health and wellbeing resources for staff and students in parallel, sharing these and any associated best practice across all units. We want all of our communities to better understand mental health and wellbeing, reducing stigma and talking openly about the challenges that people face.

Supporting our students and staff

We will actively collaborate with the OpenSU, our trade unions and external providers to gain a fuller understanding of the mental health and wellbeing needs of our students and staff. We will take an evidence-based approach to ensure our mental health support services are appropriate, timely are aligned to improving student outcomes.

Compassionate communications

We will actively listen, show empathy, and provide clear, respectful, and supportive communication at all levels of the University.

Maintaining our policies and procedures

We will maintain our policies and procedures to ensure they contribute to positive wellbeing and support student and staff retention.

Data monitoring and evidence-based improvements

We will monitor and report on an agreed range of mental health and wellbeing related success measures and key performance indicators to understand progress, impact and improvements.

External validation – being a mentally healthy university

We will work in partnership with Student Minds and the wider sector to inform our approach and understanding of being a mentally healthy university.