Additional Open Door support in departments
Posted on 12 December 2019
In November 2019, following recommendations from the Student Welfare Support Task and Finish Group, UEB approved a tiered student wellbeing support model with additional student-facing staff in the Open Door team.
Based in geographical zones and embedded in departments will be ten generalist first response staff called Student Life and Wellbeing Officers.
The main purpose of this new Student Life and Wellbeing Officer role is to provide a comprehensive advice and support service to students across the University to ensure our students receive a holistic approach to their support. And also, to work to develop an inclusive model of wellbeing across academic departments that encompasses student support, welfare and wellbeing.
These ten officers will report to and be managed by three professionally qualified Open Door practitioners.
This new wellbeing model has many benefits including:
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An increase in overall wellbeing support with the addition of 13 staff
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More accessible support as Open Door staff will be based in departments
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More consistent support as the new staff will all have the same training, job descriptions and be managed by Open Door
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Reduce some of the pressure on staff in academic departments and potentially free up some time as staff will be able to refer students to their nearest Student Life and Wellbeing Officer
The Grade 6 Open Door Practitioner roles will be advertised in early January and the Grade 5 Student Life and Wellbeing Officer positions will be advertised a few weeks after that. The plan is to get the new system in place as quickly as possible. Realistically this could take three months or more and we will update you again when we have a more precise implementation date.