Privacy & storing your data for the Student of Concern process

We provide staff, students, third parties and members of the public with a clear referral pathway for situations where serious concerns about the health, welfare or wellbeing of a student have arisen. This is where there is a serious, but not emergency, concern regarding the safety of an individual or the wider community due to risk from self or other. 

This process allows members of the King’s community to either self-refer or to refer students who present with various serious concerns, including mental health and welfare needs. It enables us to understand, assess and help plan to contain risk to students and to others and from others in the short-term, to facilitate and coordinate internal and/or external support to appropriate services for students at the time of the referral as well as inform appeals and misconduct investigations.  

Providing an effective and efficient Student of Concern referral process at King’s includes multiple internal teams across King’s working together. Your personal information will be shared by us internally within King’s on a need-to-know basis and in compliance with the King’s Data Protection Policy and Procedure. 

Please see the Safeguarding Policy & Procedures for more information. 

We collect information via King’s online Student of Concern referral form. This form is hosted on our internal website and can only be completed by a member of the King’s community. You could complete the form if you needed support, or it could be filled in by another member of the King’s community who has concerns for your welfare/wellbeing.   

Personal data collected in the SoC referral form includes:  

• Your name  

• Your ID (e.g. King’s ID card) 

• Level of study 

• Contact details including your email address 

• Gender  

• Details of concerns related to your welfare for the purpose of facilitating access to support for you 

• The name, email address and department/service of the person who is referring you

Important to know: We also collect information relevant to the assessment of risk to self, others or from others and any relevant special category data such as physical and mental health.  

We rely on the following lawful bases to process your personal data:  

• Your consent in circumstances where you have a genuine choice about the processing, and the ability to change your mind at any time.  

• Legitimate Interests where the processing is for a legitimate interest of the university or a third party, and that interest is not overridden by your interests and rights   

• Public Task where the processing is necessary for the College to carry out its official functions 

• Contract where the processing is necessary to fulfil the terms of our contract with you 

As part of the Student of Concern referral process, we also need to process data that is considered more sensitive by the law (known as ‘special category data’). Because of this sensitivity, this data needs an additional lawful basis. When processing your special category data King's will rely on: 

• Your explicit consent in circumstances where you have a genuine choice about the processing, and the ability to change your mind at any time

• Processing necessary for reasons of substantial public interest. For example, where processing your data is necessary for the safeguarding individuals at risk. A full list of the substantial public interest conditions the College relies on can be found in our Data Protection Policy.

• Vital Interests where we have significant safeguarding concerns

We disclose your data to third parties where they are acting as authorised agents for the university for the purposes listed below or where we are permitted or required to do so under UK law. 

Typical third party data sharing includes: 

• Public authorities and public partnerships such as police or government departments, if required by law 

• Businesses contracted to help us deliver services 

• Professional bodies such as the General Medical Council, General Dental Council and the Universities and Colleges Employers Association (UCEA) 

Purposes for data sharing include: 

• Disclosure of a recent suicide or attempt ​​​​​​

• Disclosure of a serious mental or physical health condition requiring acute treatment in hospital or in a specialist service

• Breach of a university policy or regulation e.g. students on programmes that lead to a professional qualification and registration with a regulatory body

• Where the university is legally obliged to provide information to external authorities, such as the police or a government agency (e.g. breach of visa conditions) 

• Where a member of vulnerable group may be being impacted by a student's circumstances and this could result in a referral to an external statutory service 

• Where we have reason to believe that there is a serious risk of harm to yourself or others (including vulnerable adults/children). In this case we may need to share this information more widely within King's such as with the Security team, and externally with relevant statutory services such as the police, ambulance services, the Police, your GP, Social Care, non-statutory organisations supporting people at risk and your emergency contact. ​​​​​​

Examples of businesses contracted to help us deliver our services include: 

• AdvicePro, a third-party case management platform hosted by AdviceUK to help us manage our casework, events, competitions, marketing and flatmate finder requests.  

• We also use CORENet, an information management platform hosted by CoreIMS, to store our case notes, for example, counselling notes. 

• Our Money Housing, Advice & Guidance team also use external partners, Blackbullion and NASMA to help you grow your financial skills and to support you with advice on money matters.  

• Compliant data sharing agreements are always put in place with third-party suppliers in compliance with our Data Protection Policy.