Transforming our wellbeing support at York
Last updated: 2 May 2025
We have recently undertaken a thorough review of our wellbeing services and our college offer, to ensure that we’re providing an inclusive, supportive and safe community for all of our student members. Our wellbeing services include all the ways in which we support the mental health and physical and social wellbeing of our students.
We want a consistency to the quality of wellbeing provision for all students, regardless of your academic department, college membership, year of study or accommodation status.
We also want to make sure that our wellbeing services are well connected and straightforward to access, for all students and staff.
Reviewing our current wellbeing support
The scope of the review took into account all the ways in which students currently access wellbeing support. It has taken six months, and has been extremely comprehensive, and has included:
- Mapping current services and the many places students currently go to access support
- Surveys with Student Life and Wellbeing colleagues, campus services, academic departments and the Students' Union
- Input from the Student Expert Panel
- Input from a recent PWC independent mental health strategy audit of the University
- Structured interviews with groups including York Students’ Union
- A best practice and comparator review
What has the review identified?
The review has identified three key areas for improvement:
1. Helping students feel connected
- Belonging and connection is important to all students. Our colleges provide a strong sense of community and belonging, particularly in the first year of study, but this can tail off when students do not live within the college itself.
- Additionally, when college staff are asked to focus reactively on supporting individual student wellbeing cases, they have less time to dedicate to community-building and proactive wellbeing initiatives.
"In first year I felt more connected, I would go along to the free events. There are very few people that engage with their college beyond first year."
Student Expert Panel
“A lot of the work that colleges do well is surrounding preventative wellbeing and increasing community for this reason, however it is difficult to make this a priority where there are high levels of reactive wellbeing cases to manage.”
College colleague
2. Helping students feel supported
- We have outstanding staff doing fantastic work to support our students, but they’re spread across lots of different departments in the University. Accessing their support is overly complicated and can be inconsistent and confusing for students, with too many routes and unclear signposting.
- It is important for students in their departments and in their colleges to have colleagues who can provide the right help and support to students in that context.
“There needs to be a more streamlined process of who is the initial person to reach out to for support - don’t think I’ve ever seen this outlined anywhere.”
Student Expert Panel
3. Helping students feel confident
- Once students have reached out for support, it can often take a number of different staff members across different teams to resolve their issues. In some instances, students are required to meet with multiple staff and explain their problem more than once.
- We are not equipping our staff with the most effective structures, systems, processes and training to be able to quickly support students with their wellbeing needs and prevent problems and complaints arising.
“Current support teams are working in silos from each other and not in tandem from a student facing perspective. Badly needs increased investment in systems in order to create a network of support and avoid students re-explaining themselves.”
Students' Union
What do we hope to achieve and how
We hope to transform the student wellbeing experience at York by better defining our college life offer for all students. This means simplifying and centralising how students access wellbeing support, as well as focusing on our staff, systems and processes to improve the quality and consistency of the experience we provide to all students. As a consequence of the changes we make, all students should feel better connected, supported and more confident.
Feel connected
A better community experience for all students through more proactive support, friendships and a sense of belonging.
Feel supported
Easier ways to get the right help when you need it through clearer routes to access support.
Feel confident
A more supportive environment around you through empowered staff and smoother systems and quicker responses.
What will change and when?
From May 2025, we will be working to deliver plans that bring about changes across the three areas identified, including changes to how we organise ourselves and the implementation of new systems and training.
We are aiming to launch these changes during the academic year 2025/26, and at that point you might see alterations to staff in certain teams and simplified ways of accessing support online or in person via your college or the Student Hub.
We will make sure we keep you updated as our plans progress and you will find answer to some questions on the project below:
Frequently asked questions (FAQs)
We have reviewed wellbeing services and our College offer, to ensure that we’re providing an inclusive, supportive and safe community for all of our student members.
Based on the feedback, we now want to simplify how students access wellbeing support, as well as focusing on our staff, systems and processes to improve the experience we provide. As a consequence of changes we make, all students should feel better connected, supported and more confident.
We aim to implement changes in the 2025/26 academic year. We will communicate changes to impacted students as they happen and provide answers to questions and support where needed.
Colleges will remain a central part of university life for students, however the focus of college support will evolve to help us meet the belonging needs of all students.
There is a targeted voluntary severance scheme running at the University from April - May 2025, and we have roles that are targeted because we expect them to significantly change. In June, we will review applications to understand what changes this may mean for how we may organise ourselves, but this will be in discussion with these teams first.
During 2025/26 we anticipate working with existing student leaders and York Students’ Union to review how we best support student leaders in colleges and how we can best deliver student- led sports and events. Planning for Welcome 2025 will continue but we will be finding ways to simplify our work towards it whilst we are implementing these changes.