1. Providing the University with your trusted contact details
As part of our approach to support your safety and wellbeing, we require all our students to nominate and provide the University with details of at least one trusted contact as part of the annual registration process. We ask you to provide this information so that it is available in the unlikely event that a situation arises where we consider your health, wellbeing or welfare to be at risk.
You will need to nominate at least one trusted contact but we would encourage you to provide the details of at least two where possible. Whilst it is your choice of whom you nominate, usually your trusted contact will be a parent, family member or guardian. Most importantly, they must be in a position to be able and willing to act on your behalf in the event of a serious incident or emergency where we consider your health, wellbeing or welfare to be at risk.
You should ensure that your trusted contact is;
- aware that they have been nominated and that their contact details have been given to the University for this purpose;
- readily contactable - wherever possible, please provide a mobile phone number as well as a landline so that contact can be made quickly;
- if possible, able to speak.
Your trusted contact details are held on the University’s student record system, in accordance with the . It is important that all students keep this mandatory information up to date and you can update it at any time by logging into My Liverpool.
2. Circumstances under which the University may use trusted contact details
We recognise that you are an individual, with an expectation that information about you is held securely and not shared inappropriately. We will always balance these considerations with your personal circumstances before using the details you have provided and sharing information about you with your trusted contact. It is unlikely that during your time as a student we would ever need to get in touch with your trusted contact and share any personal information, if we do we would wherever possible try and get your consent first unless to do so would increase the risk to you or others.
Under current data protection legislation, we are permitted to share personal information about you without your consent where we believe that this is necessary to protect your vital (immediate) interests or those of another person and where it is not possible to obtain your consent or where to do so would increase the risk to you or others. This usually means that you will have been involved in, or that there is a risk of, an incident or an emergency situation where we believe you or others may come to serious or lasting harm.
The following are examples of circumstances in which we might get in touch with your trusted contact and share personal information, but each case is considered on its own merits. These examples include but are not limited to:
- You are exhibiting behaviour that may pose a serious risk to your safety and wellbeing or that of others.
- You have attended or been admitted to hospital in an emergency.
- You have suffered a serious physical injury, including significant self-harm.
- You cease to engage with your studies and we have been unable to contact you to confirm your safety and wellbeing.
- You have not recently been seen in your accommodation, we have been unable to contact you and you are considered missing.
- You have an ongoing serious illness and you appear to be deteriorating.
- You are experiencing a mental health crisis.
- A third party has reported significant concerns and we are not able to contact you to establish your safety and wellbeing.
In the event that there are concerns about the health, wellbeing or welfare of a student who is under 18 years old, the University will normally contact the student's parent or guardian.
3. How the University decides to contact a trusted contact
Any decision to get in touch with your trusted contact or to share personal information without your consent would be taken by two of the following; Director for Student Experience and Enhancement, Director of Student Administration and Support, Head of Student Services, Counselling and Wellbeing Service Manager and Mental Health and Disability Manager informed when required by advice from the Data Protection Officer. We would inform you that we had decided to contact your trusted contact, unless to do so would increase the risk of harm to you or another person.
Whenever we share personal information about a student with their trusted contact, we keep a record of the justification for this decision, the nature of the information shared, with whom, and the time and date of the disclosure.
Page added: 12 June 2023
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