‘A statutory duty of care for higher education students’ debated in Westminster Hall

FOLLOWING several petitions, including Harry’s Law, parliament debated an e-petition relating to a statutory duty of care for higher education students.

On the 5th June, the Westminster Hall debate responded to concerns of 128,292 petitioners in addressing statistics and current concerns, alongside heart-wrenching personal experiences.

In the opening of the debate, Nick Fletcher made reference to those he had spoken to or those who had given evidence, including Harry’s mother, Alice Armstrong. He shared with the House that statistics "between 2017 and 2020 academic years, 202 male students died by suicide, as did 117 female students — 319 lives that could have been saved." The debate crucially noted that covid has revealed a lot about the mental health struggles of students. According to an online survey conducted by the Petitions committee, with more than 1500 responses, "around half felt that their university was very unsupportive." Similarly, parents shared concerns about support available, as the survey found 79 per cent of parents disagreed that "mental health support for universities is adequate."

As the debate continued, it was brought to the attention of the House that if a student attempts suicide whilst at university, it is not a requirement for their parents to be informed. Upon hearing this, Hilary Benn immediately responded that it is "inexplicable that this is currently not the case." Fletcher went on to explain that "some universities cite GDPR as an issue" and due to the the child being a legal adult, it is their decision whether their parents be informed. In agreement with Hilary Benn, Fletcher firmly stated that "safeguarding always overrides GDPR, so that is definitely something we need to look at." As the support varies greatly across institutions, introducing a statutory measure of care would seek to rectify this.

As the debate continued, members of the House began to consider the work that "needs to be done to see how we can better prepare all our young people before they go to university." It is currently estimated that there are around 70,000 in higher education who suffer with a mental health condition. MP Paul Blomfield drew a comparison between the existence of teaching excellence frameworks, questioning ‘‘why do we not have a student support excellence framework."

Introducing a framework like this would enable students to consider mental health support available when choosing their university, similar to how factors of course and accommodation impact a student’s decision.

While the debate did not end in a statutory duty being put in place, all universities have been written to, asking them to "sign up to the mental health charter by 2024" and "if we do not see any improvement in the way that young people in our universities are treated, we can come back to the Minister and ask for the issue to be looked at again." Though no concrete changes were made at this time, it remains crucial to raise these discussions at a time when mental health is often stigmatised.

A spokesperson from the University has stated that “student health and wellbeing is always the University of Exeter’s priority, and we are acutely aware of the current mental health challenges for young people and the difficulties facing external services.” They added that in recent years, they guarantee that students not only have access to the “broad range of services” but also that anyone needing assistance from their well-being staff, is seen as soon as possible to receive initial, confidential assistance or be referred to more specialist support if required. The University added that more recently, they have “undertaken a detailed review of the many ways in which we support student mental health and well-being, and we have introduced further enhancements across our University community”.

The University explained that they have embraced and backed the most recent Universities UK suicide prevention guidance, and had already implemented a substantial portion of the recommendations before the results of the inquest into Harry’s death. They then indicated that the University will “continue to engage with best practice in student mental health and wellbeing and will work with sector bodies and external partners to ensure our support is continually enhanced.”