Mental health is a priority for this government, which is why we continue to work closely with Universities UK (UUK) on embedding the Step Change programme within the sector. Step Change calls on higher education (HE) leaders to adopt mental health as a strategic priority and adopt a whole-institution approach to mental health, embedding it across all policies, cultures, curricula and practice.<\/p>
<\/p>
In addition, the government actively backs the introduction of a sector-led University Mental Health Charter, launched in June 2018. This will drive up standards in promoting student and staff mental health and wellbeing. It will invite universities to meet high standards of practice, including in areas such as leadership, early intervention and data collection.<\/p>
<\/p>
HE institutions (HEI) have legal responsibilities under the Equality Act 2010 to support students, including those with mental health conditions. It is for HEIs to determine what welfare and counselling services they need to provide to their students to offer that support.<\/p>
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The information requested is not held centrally regarding student suicide. However, in June 2018, the Office for National Statistics released experimental statistics estimating suicide among higher education students in England and Wales which can be found following this link: https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/deaths/articles/estimatingsuicideamonghighereducationstudentsenglandandwalesexperimentalstatistics/2018-06-25<\/a>.<\/p> <\/p> The government has worked with UUK, the Office for Students, and other stakeholders to develop guidance on measures to help prevent suicide and deal sensitively with issues that may arise when tragedy does occur. This guidance was published in September 2018, ahead of the 2018/19 academic year.<\/p> <\/p> As independent and autonomous bodies, HEIs are responsible for decisions regarding required training for their staff and have a duty of care to their staff, like all employers, as well as to their students.<\/p>"}
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], "answer" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/resources/1020416/answer", "answerText" : {"_value" : " The information requested is not held centrally.<\/p> However, the Office of National Statistics (ONS) release \u2018Suicides in the UK: 2017 registrations\u2019 is available at the following link: https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/deaths/bulletins/suicidesintheunitedkingdom/2017registrations<\/a>. This provides statistics on the number of registered suicides by five-year age groups for England between 1981 and 2017. Specifically, the figures are shown in table 10 of the accompanying dataset, which is available at the following link: https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/deaths/datasets/suicidesintheunitedkingdomreferencetables<\/a>.<\/p> In 2017, there were 155 recorded suicides for those aged 15 to 19 and 261 registered suicides for those aged 20 to 24. However, the figures are based on the entire population for the associated age groups and they do not indicate whether the suicides were among higher or further education students.<\/p>