UMHAN July Newsletter

Hello from UMHAN, and welcome to our July newsletter.

Specialist Mentor: Mental Health - role and qualifications

Those of you following us on social media may have seen the announcement that the Department of Education (DfE)?has recently published a long awaited update to the Mandatory Qualifications document for Disabled Students' Allowances (DSA) funded roles.?

All roles funded through DSA require relevant qualifications/training which helps to ensure that students receive the best quality support, which are audited through the DfE. In addition, there are role descriptions for each role, designed to ensure some consistency in provision; the actual tasked performed and quality of this provision are?currently not audited in anyway. We believe this creates the?potential for wide interpretation of the role and some bad practice. UMHAN therefore welcomes the updated role description for Specialist Mentors, particularly around the following points:

• The role requires Mentors to have practical?skills around time management, organisation and other issues which may effect students' abilities to manage their workload and deadlines alongside a Mental Health Condition.
• Mentors should be alert to and be able to follow up concerns around increased risk - this is an area where Mentors, agencies and universities should be working together to ensure there are clear lines of communication.

There have been some minor updates to the required qualifications.

For more information, see our Linked In post:

Linked In

Risk management training

We are delighted to be able to open up our Risk Management Training to non-members. This in-person training will be delivered in person, in Glasgow,?by the Association for Psychological Therapies. Recommended by UMHAN members, this training is aimed at staff who already have some awareness of the principles of risk assessment.?There will be a maximum of 15 participants.

Date: 31/8/23

Cost: ￡240

This training may be useful for Scottish Student Mental Health Agreements,?University Mental Health Charter submissions/assessment, to evidence good risk management to external bodies, for FE colleges signed up to the AoC Mental Health and Wellbeing Charter.?

To find out more and to register for a place:

Event page

Blog

New on our blog:

UMHAN Trustee Phil Scarffe uses his extensive experience of working in student mental health, and background as a social worker, to?comment on issues at the heart of student safety after recent discussions around statutory duty of care.

Student safety blog post

UMHAN member Jay shares his insight into ADHD after being diagnosed at 30. His post uses his reflections to highlight common issues, but also some of the strengths of having a neurodivergent mind.

ADHD post

There won't be a newsletter in August, so we'll be back with more news in September.?

Sam Gamblin, Charity Manager

July 2023