The Competency Framework sets out key approaches, skills and knowledge that enable all student-facing staff to actively participate in student support. Developed by the Higher Education Mental Health Implementation Taskforce, it acknowledges that not all students will engage directly with central or specialist support services. It acts as a guide to higher education providers and professional bodies as they refine their learning and development programmes for student-facing staff, ensuring that students receive a safe and helpful response from whoever they interact with.
The Competency Framework is in line with the University Mental Health Charter’s approach to training on mental health for staff who are not in clinical mental health roles. Its adoption by higher education providers would represent a proactive approach to supporting students as part of a whole university approach to mental health.
As a response to the Student Needs Framework, the Competency Framework supports higher education providers to take action to optimise students’ individual competence, confidence, and resilience. Once equipped with appropriate skills and knowledge, student-facing staff can feel more confident and supported in responding to distressed students in a helpful, safe and aligned way.
Competency Framework for Responding to Students in Distress
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Professional Bodies and the Competency Framework
UKAT has plans to map the Competency Framework to its professional framework for advising and tutoring. They already offer relevant training to their members, including a popular 1-day course on managing students in distress, and are planning to scale up this work and create greater capacity to meet demand. They also offer training on coaching mindset, and managing boundaries, which can similarly be mapped to the Competency Framework. UKAT will publicise the Competency Framework to its members on publication and will feature it at their annual conference in April 2025.
AMOSSHE is considering what this means for non-clinical staff that fall within their remit, noting that AMOSSHE members have differing remits in different HEPs, for example, some have accountability for library staff, and accommodation. They intend that the Competency Framework will guide their training strategy over the coming years. They have also offered to host case study material relevant to the Competency Framework, although a call-out for submissions among AMOSSHE members had a very limited response.
CUBO members have leadership over key aspects of the campus experience, including accommodation and catering, and as such their teams frequently interact with distressed students. There is already a culture of relevant training, especially among accommodation staff, and the Competency Framework is viewed by them as a helpful reference against which their members can benchmark. CUBO is keen to embrace the Competency Framework both at the leadership and front-line levels. They would like to feature it at their next annual summer conference, and at their ResLife conference in the Spring. They are considering creating bespoke training based on the Competency Framework and may additionally convene an Action Team to pilot the Competency Framework across pilot institutions and create case studies.
The National Code is managed by CUBO on behalf of Universities UK and Guild HE, and covers over 250k student beds across the UK. They intend to make reference to the need for training in line with the Competency Framework, so that compliance is a condition of achieving the Code. This will come into force in the next Code update in 2026. They will link to the Competency Framework as part of the supporting materials for Code members.
SEDA members have a strong commitment to student mental health through curriculum and assessment design, and sometimes are in the position of responding directly to distressed students. SEDA will be considering the implications of both Compassionate Communications and the Competency Framework for their members. They plan to embed them in their Fellowship criteria in a relevant way, and to share good practice blogs. They will also run one or more online community of practice meetings to engage with the Competency Framework and to have wider professional conversations on mental health and curriculum design.