Information for Students

Once you’ve registered for Listening Ear:

• A member of the Team will contact you by telephone within 2-3 days to have an initial
• conversation of up to 30 mins.
• You can chat with them to highlight your concerns
• If you both agree, they will arrange a further conversation

We may establish that your needs should be met by another service, for example, via our internal and external partnership support services. If this is the case, we can support you to access the most appropriate service. We may ask a member of one of the other Student Health and Wellbeing Teams to contact you to discuss options.

Sometimes a single conversation can resolve your current concerns and you may not need any further support.

Listening Ear is generally for registered students within the UK. If you are a resident outside the UK we can refer you to other support. If this is the case, please get in touch by email pastoral.support@newcastle.ac.uk and we can make arrangements.

We provide the Listening Ear service to offer a space where concerns may be raised and support given in an encouraging and sympathetic environment. Calls take place weekly or fortnightly (or less often by arrangement).

We have no limitation on the number of calls/weeks, but we do review ongoing participation at the end of each term to ensure we continue to provide effective support. In discussion with yourself, we may refer to other services or discuss future plans for ongoing conversations, including bringing these to an end.

Please note that Listening Ear appointments must not be recorded.

We will do what we can to ensure that you can have your first conversation with the member of the team, including trying to call on several occasions across one or more days. We will also attempt to make contact by email if we have been unable to contact you on a second or subsequent day. If after this contact we have not heard from you, we'll assume that you no longer require the service at the moment. You are always welcome to get back in touch with us though and we'd be happy to set up another call. We may also contact other Student Health and Wellbeing Teams or the person who referred you to the Listening Ear service.

For subsequent appointments, you will arrange these with the Team member. It is anticipated that you will make yourself available for these calls. The Listening Ear team member will make up to three attempts to make contact over one or more days. These may be followed up by email if no contact made. If after this contact we have not heard from you, we'll assume that you no longer require the service at the moment. You are always welcome to get back in touch with us though and we'd be happy to set up another call. We may also contact other Student Health and Wellbeing Teams or the person who referred you to the Listening Ear service.

If you need to make changes to your appointment, please contact pastoral.support@newcastle.ac.uk. This account is monitored during normal working hours.

Confidentiality is an essential part of the Listening Ear service. No personal information, either verbal or written, will be disclosed to anyone outside of Student and Academic Services without your consent except in exceptional circumstances.

For example, we would have a duty to inform a third party if:

• We were concerned that there was a serious risk of harm to yourself or others
• If there were concerns with the detection or prevention of serious crime or child protection

Disclosures will normally take place in close collaboration with you, unless to do so increases risk for you or someone else.

We keep brief records about your contact with us, your notes will be stored securely.

We want to provide you with the very best service possible and will ask you a small number of questions twice a year after or during your engagement with the Listening Ear service. This helps us to ensure we are supporting you effectively and makes positive changes to the service we provide.

If you have a concern or a complaint about the service we ask that you talk with the Listening Ear team member in the first instance and follow the University’s complaints process.

The Listening Ear Service is not an emergency service. We do not operate an out-of-hours service. If you’re concerned about keeping yourself safe, or need immediate help and support, you should contact your GP. If you feel your life is in imminent danger, you should call 999 or go to Accident and Emergency at the nearest hospital.

What to do if you have concerns about a student’s safety.

We contact you by telephone so it’s important you check your details are up-to-date on the Student Portal and that you check voicemail regularly. We’ll only use your University email address (rather than a personal one) so do please check your inbox and junk folder regularly.

We may contact you from time to time with information which we think you’d find helpful. If you’d prefer not to receive any communications from us, please let us know.