Glacial progress on student mental health is in sharp contrast to ministerial promises

During a debate in Westminster Hall where he was resisting the establishment of a legal duty of care, Halfon also said that he “would not hesitate” to ask the Office for Students (OfS) to introduce a new registration condition on mental health if “sufficient progress” wasn’t evident.

And for Labour, then universities shadow Matt Western said that absent a statutory duty of care, clear and unequivocal statements such as the charter would “go a long way in assuaging the concerns” that he said many people have over student mental health provision.

Fifteen months on it’s deadline day – and Student Minds, which was given extra funding to cope with the additional activity, tells us that 112 providers in England are now participating, along with Glasgow Caledonian.

Eligibility and design is focussed on degree awarding powers – and there’s 162 of those in England. That’s fewer than 7 in 10 signed up. Of those, so far, only 10 have actually got an award – despite the thing launching five years ago.

Plenty of the non-participating providers are quite small – but it’s not hard to argue that if you think you have the wherewithal to award your own degrees, you can surely sign up to a charter that is supposed to work “across a range of organisation types and contexts”.

There’s also still no plan for everyone else on the register.

And there’s a notable list of fully blown public universities that still haven’t signed up, or have actually dropped out of the programme since signing up. Student Minds seems to be thrilled that the programme has a 94 per cent retention rate, but that’s 6 per cent that are not bothering anymore. It doesn’t feel like a cork popping moment to me.

OfS also seems pleased, tweeting about the 113 number. I’d remind OfS that it’s outcomes that matter.

Of course unlike students and their assignments, participating providers don’t have to enter for the award until they’re ready. And so the low awarding rate by definition suggests very few think they’re ready. How long are they going to get, exactly? Forever?

Maybe Jacqui Smith will now send that letter to OfS. It shouldn’t be impossible – her Labour counterpart in Wales has directed Medr to do just that, with the development of a proper registration condition in its plan published this week.

While Halfon was fobbing off MPs, he also promised that by the end of 2023, his taskforce would be asked to put in place an interim plan for better early identification of students at risk, because “we need to waste no time in rolling this out, [and] there needs to be a clear action plan, backed by the sector and students, to ensure that it happens.”

That hasn’t happened yet.

He said that the sector needs to get behind a student “commitment”, that was due by the end of 2023, on more personalised and compassionate academic processes, so that students are dealt with sensitively when they face course dismissal or receive difficult assignment results.

That hasn’t happened yet.

He told MPs that ensuring that best practice on information sharing with trusted contacts, whether parents or otherwise, is fully implemented would be a key focus of the implementation taskforce, with a plan for improvement.

That hasn’t happened yet.

He also promised that by December 2023 we’d see a set of strong, clear targets for providers, followed in May 2024 by a final report outlining next steps, including how the sector would publicly report on the progress measures over the coming years.

None of that has been achieved so far – just ongoing work and consultation in the working group minutes.

In the debate, Halfon said:

It is time that parents and students have the confidence that a safety net is in place, whatever university they have chosen to study at.

It was then, and it still is now.