In-Depth Case Study: KCLSU Wellbeing

An illustration of figures putting together a mental health puzzle.

An overview

KCLSU Wellbeing is a student-led wellbeing service that equips and empowers student leaders to build communities of good wellbeing. The unique service is funded by the university but situated in the student union because all parts of it are student-led or run in direct partnership with students. Julia, the author of this case study, recently won the King’s Distinguished Alumni Award for her work founding this sector-leading service. Here, she talks through setting up the student-led wellbeing service, growing it and integrating it into the institution’s strategic, whole-university approach to student mental health and wellbeing.

Where it all started

At the start of 2016, a new service at King’s College London began called King’s Wellbeing, which offered one-to-one life coaching and outreach activities to promote health and wellbeing. As King’s Wellbeing believed that good wellbeing was subjective to each individual, they were proponents of the ‘5 Steps to Mental Wellbeing.’ The framework empowered everyone to define what good wellbeing meant for them and gain the knowledge to practice self-care. In this way, good wellbeing was intended to be accessible for every student, no matter their background or experience. The team’s health promotion approach enabled students to improve their own health and wellbeing whilst recognising that the environment and surrounding university community impacted this too.

King’s Wellbeing hoped to be embedded across faculties in the university and make widespread improvements to student wellbeing. The way they were setup, however, did not facilitate this. King’s Wellbeing sat in Student Services, which is inherently a deficit model assuming that students are in need of something that a professional service can help fulfil. King’s Wellbeing was engaging with fewer students as it tried to do health promotion through a the structure where students needed to identify they were in need of help – instead of focusing on creating healthy communities where issues may be prevented.

Meanwhile, student leaders from societies and sport clubs were approaching the KCLSU Student Engagement Coordinator because they wanted to do positive wellbeing activities in partnership with King’s Wellbeing. The placement of King’s Wellbeing in Student Services made working together difficult. KCLSU recognised the need for a formal partnership to foster these relationships and create wider change by working with engaged students in ready-made student-led communities. This would allow for students to be empowered and equipped to support each other’s wellbeing in ways that were relevant and meaningful to them, instead of offering wellbeing workshops by professionals that had little engagement.

In October 2016, the Wellbeing Coordinator role began at KCLSU with the financial support of King’s Wellbeing. The placement of this role in the Student Union meant that KCLSU and King’s Wellbeing took a coordinated, collaborative approach to building a community that bolstered positive wellbeing from the ground up in partnership with students. The plan was to focus on offering bespoke support to student leaders who were already part of student societies, sport clubs and activity groups. Student leaders themselves could be supported to run health promotion activities in their own student communities as a sort of ‘arm’ of the King’s Wellbeing team. This service was a unique offering in the UK as it partnered with students in creating a community of good wellbeing.

The KCLSU and King’s Wellbeing Shared Strategy outlined the purpose of the role:

KCLSU and King’s Wellbeing partner together to create a happier, healthier student community by:

Supporting more student-led wellbeing initiatives to happen
Empowering better-informed students how to access support and manage personal wellbeing
Growing communities and spaces of wellbeing

The student-led wellbeing work supported by the Wellbeing Coordinator grew year-on-year. Students clearly had an appetite for being part of a positive change. Unfortunately, King’s Wellbeing was dissolved in 2018. Nevertheless, because of its further expansion, King’s College London continued to invest in the work of the KCLSU Wellbeing Coordinator. The role was moved to a new university team, and its importance was recognised in the King’s 2018-2020 Student Mental Health & Wellbeing Strategic Plan.

2018-2020 Strategy

In 2018, KCLSU Wellbeing became a joint role with King’s contributing to the visions of both organisations and sitting across King’s Student Success and KCLSU.

The strategy was based on a new pyramid of support (Figure 1) that recognised there were many aspects in the university community that affected student mental health and wellbeing. The Pyramid of Support outlined that the curriculum at King’s affected all students and should be considered when thinking about student mental health and wellbeing. From there, five levels of the pyramid were laid so that the bottom support activity was relevant for the most students whilst the top of the pyramid affected a smaller proportion of students. The levels are all underpinned by the King’s Strategic Vision 2029, Education Strategy 2017-22, Internal enablers and External drivers.

Figure 1: King's College London Pyramid of Support

By investing in lower levels of the pyramid, the university hopes to reduce how many students need top-level support for their mental health and wellbeing. These levels of support are an important part of the strategic conversation at King’s in student mental health and wellbeing and will be referred here.

As outlined in the 2018-2020 Student Mental Health & Wellbeing Strategic Plan, part of the remit of Student Success was to ‘Embed support for student wellbeing at the heart of academic support structures that are a key work stream under our Education Strategy.’ To strengthen Level 3 delivery (pastoral support) in the pyramid model of support and make the student experience more consistent, the central university team was dedicated to support faculties and departments in:

personal tutoring and related structures
local peer-to-peer support schemes

As part of the Student Success team, KCLSU Wellbeing was given the responsibility of improving peer-to-peer support schemes. In addition, KCLSU Wellbeing oversaw the development of an online wellbeing hub that supported Level 1 (self-knowledge) and was also responsible for the Level 2 (student-led support) action in the strategy to ‘Further enhance our support for student-led wellbeing-related activity,’ including:

continuing to support our student societies and activity groups to deliver wellbeing activities
exploring the scope for establishing a new student-led wellbeing forum.’

With KCLSU’s vision for ‘Every student to have the opportunity to thrive’ and King’s Education Strategy goal to ‘support positive wellbeing as a fundamental ethos of the university,’ KCLSU Wellbeing bolstered both of these strategies well. Thus, KCLSU Wellbeing managed work delivered at three levels of the support model and built the relationship between King’s and KCLSU through the 2018-2020 Student Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategic Plan and period of time.

KCLSU Wellbeing Aim

From this journey, KCLSU Wellbeing is now an established student-led support of psychological wellbeing through self-managed initiatives by the student population. It sits across the newly named King’s Transitions & Outcomes Team (previously Student Success) and KCLSU. The service aim is that King’s & KCLSU work together so ‘

wellbeing activities and resources that students co-create so that good wellbeing is accessible for all students, no matter their background
consistent, high quality peer support throughout the student journey

The following will give an outline of KCLSU Wellbeing.

Organisation

The conceptualisation and establishment of KCLSU Wellbeing being a student-led support service for students’ psychological wellbeing took years to develop. It took even longer to be organised into a sustainable model that could grow despite constrained capacity and resource. The following discussion will outline the organisation of this service. KCSLU Wellbeing is divided into two sections and three areas of work that align with the Pyramid of Support from Levels 1-3.

Wellbeing Activities & Resources

The first section of KCLSU Wellbeing is ‘Wellbeing activities and resources,’ which create spaces where students can go, virtually or in-person, to improve their wellbeing (Figure 2). Led by King’s/KCLSU, students themselves or a mix of both, they are open to all. These not only bolster positive wellbeing, but they also empower better-informed students how to access support and manage personal wellbeing.

1. Wellbeing Initiatives

Wellbeing initiatives aim to promote positive wellbeing for students and focus on one or more of the ‘5 Steps to Mental Wellbeing,’ or the ‘King’s Way to Wellbeing’ (Figure 3).

They also contribute towards Level 2 (student-led support) of the Pyramid of Support. Wellbeing initiatives are sometimes run by King’s or KCLSU staff for students (Community Wellbeing Initiatives). Mostly, however, wellbeing initiatives are run by student leaders themselves (Student-Led Wellbeing Initiatives) or in direct partnership with student leaders and King’s or KCLSU staff (Partner Wellbeing Initiatives). Although these activities run throughout the academic year, there are certain times of the year when KCSLU Wellbeing runs campaigns to raise awareness of the wellbeing initiatives happening. These campaigns happen during mental health awareness days (i.e. World Mental Health Day or University Mental Health Day), a wellbeing awareness week (Wellbeing Week) and an exam wellbeing awareness period (Take Time Out). During these times, student-led activities still make up the majority of events that are offered.

These activities or events vary based on what students feel their communities need. They can be anything from a ‘tea and talk’ event to an expressive art night to a 5k run that raises money for charity and opens up a conversation about mental health. Instead of being prescriptive about what these activities should look like, we train student leaders to understand how they can contribute towards creating a community of good wellbeing.

Student leaders from activity groups, societies, sport clubs, networks and associations who are responsible for supporting their communities’ wellbeing and running wellbeing initiatives for them are called ‘Wellbeing Leads.’ To equip and empower these Wellbeing Leads, training is mandatory and funding/support is available.

When the Wellbeing Coordinator was created in 2016, bespoke support was given to individual student leaders to run wellbeing initiatives. Although this was an excellent way to start, it was not a sustainable model for growth because the one Coordinator could only support about 20 student leaders per year. Because of this, training and resources were developed so that students could be upskilled how to run initiatives more independently. The following training is required for students:

Wellbeing Lead Training: This asynchronous online training can be done at any time before the start of the academic year. It covers the KINGS Way to Wellbeing, how to run wellbeing initiatives, how to apply for funding through KCLSU Wellbeing (up to £150) and how to evaluate the initiatives. This training is paired with an online resource that is available all year.
Look After Your Mate (LAYM) Student Minds Training: a 2.5-hour training delivered synchronously by accredited King’s trainers of Students Minds, the UK’s Student Mental Health Charity.

Wellbeing Leads who complete this training are given a certificate of completion and allowed to apply for the Wellbeing Fund to financially support their wellbeing initiatives. This funding is overseen and allocated by KCLSU Wellbeing. All trained Wellbeing Leads are connected through a Teams channel so they can work together to run wellbeing initiatives for different student communities.

There is also a small group of Wellbeing Leads who put themselves forward to be part of the KCLSU Wellbeing Union Development Committee (UDC), made up of a select group that leads change, facilitates collaborative working and represents a collective voice at University Mental Health Strategy Steering Group, which leads the universities strategy. So, Wellbeing Leads not only lead the health promotion activities in student communities across King’s, but they are also recognised on a high level for contributing to the strategy of King’s with the UDC Chair sitting on the university steering committee.

2. Wellbeing Hub

The Wellbeing Hub is a website for all wellbeing events, activities and resources for students, contributing towards Level 1 (self-knowledge) of the pyramid. The website was co-created with student leaders in response to Covid-19, but its utility and need have been recognised beyond this so that it is now a permanent area of work for KCLSU Wellbeing.

The Wellbeing Hub is broken down into web pages that outline the wellbeing initiatives that are happening across the university, and it also has self-management resources that are outlined according to the KINGS Way to Wellbeing. Each page has information on what is happening at King’s, which students can do to improve their wellbeing in that particular area, followed by recommendations from students.

It also offers a ‘Support Cinema’ with videos on various mental health topics, ‘Wellbeing Templates’ created by students to boost wellbeing and a ‘PGR Wellbeing Hub’ link to highlight what the King’s Centre for Doctoral Studies offers its students.

Finally, it gives basic signposting for university support services. Currently, the team are making plans to update the Wellbeing Hub based on student feedback so that it includes more mental health information for students from specific subpopulations (i.e. LGBTQ+), clearer signposting to support services and better promotion.

Peer Support

Peer Support is defined as university students supporting each other based on their lived experience of being a student. At King’s, we believe that peer support should be embedded throughout the student journey to improve retention, belonging and overall wellbeing. By developing peer mentoring, the Positive Peers and Black Students Talk (BST), the impact of these programmes has grown and demonstrated how central peer support can positively benefit the student experience. Here’s what these look like in practice.

Positive Peers

The Positive Peers are university students trained to help their fellow students to thrive by creating student-only events and spaces at King’s. Whether students are looking to boost their wellbeing, meet new people or are finding things a bit difficult at university, the Positive Peers are in a position to help.

When the Positive Peers were established in February 2017, they were one team of around eight volunteers. Now, the Positive Peers are divided into three teams so that each can flourish in their area and receive support from a paid student supervisor who is in charge of its organisation, administration and implementation. The three teams are:

Peer Health Education Team: Delivers health education workshops based on needs of student population (e.g. nursing faculty) and general wellbeing peer support groups, which is ‘Thrive’ - structured and written by Student Minds.
Peer-Run Support Team: Delivers one-to-one and group peer support for students who are having a difficult time. Group peer support is 'Positive Minds,' a structured peer support group aimed at students experiencing low mood.
Engagement and Online Support Team: Delivers health promotion and education whilst also marketing the activities of the Positive Peers through social media, a podcast, newsletters and partnerships.

All Positive Peers run ‘King’s Check-Ins’ at the start of the academic year, which are conversations with students to talk through the support services available to them, including peer support. They all receive training based on the team they are part of. The Engagement and Online Support Team receive the following training:

Look After Your Mate (LAYM) Training: the same one that the Wellbeing Leads receive
King’s Check-In Training: outlines how to run an effective conversation with a new student

The Peer Health Education and Peer-Run Support Teams attend the above training and an in-depth training beyond this (16 hours), which is delivered by the Student Minds’ accredited KCLSU Wellbeing staff.

Student Minds Peer Support Training: covers how to facilitate a safe, effective group with issues of safeguarding, signposting and challenging situations including suicide covered in-depth

The KCLSU Student Wellbeing & Welfare Coordinator manages this programme with the help of each team’s Peer Support Supervisor(s).The Positive Peers receive monthly supervision from KCLSU Staff. Positive Peers are effectively ambassadors of KCLSU Wellbeing and contribute towards Levels 2 (student-led support) and 3 (pastoral support) of the Pyramid of Support.

Black Students Talk

Black Students Talk (BST) is a peer support group that provides safe, supportive and therapeutic spaces for Black (African, Caribbean, Mixed with Black heritage) students to meet, share, learn and manage their mental health and wellbeing at Kings. BST peer support facilitators are Black, paid student staff who are trained for approximately 16 hours in areas similar to the Student Minds Peer Support training, but they also receive training specific to the role through Black People Talk (BPT), the CIC. BPT also provide monthly supervision for the BST Facilitators so that they can safely and effectively run bi-monthly group peer support sessions. The KCLSU Wellbeing Peer Support Coordinator manages this programme with the help of a student staff member, a Peer Support Supervisor (special projects).

Peer Mentoring

Peer mentoring programmes across King’s connect incoming undergraduate and postgraduate students with higher year students to support the transition into university. Mentors meet with mentees (first-year students) on a one-to-one basis or in small groups.

A mapping of peer support at King’s that started in 2018 showed peer mentoring lacks consistent training, expectations, rewards or evaluations across the university. This affects our ability to share good practice and improve these programmes to become consistent, high quality and well-evaluated support for students transitioning into King’s.

In an effort to improve this work and demonstrate impact, the Peer Support Development Project launched in March 2022. The project runs centrally through KCLSU Wellbeing and is funded by King’s College London; it is the newest addition the student-led service.

The scope of the project is to improve the quality and consistency of peer support programmes across King’s by partnering with faculties, departments and students to understand unique programmes, provide resources, implement changes and evaluate impact. There are 5 Phases of this project:

Phase 1: Mapping & Understanding (March/April 2022) – With the support of nine Faculty Peer Support Assistants (student staff), the Peer Support Coordinator gained an in-depth understanding of all the departmental peer mentoring programmes at King’s in order to compare and evaluate their organisation and delivery.
Phase 2: Building (June - August 2022) – The Peer Support Coordinator and Faculty Peer Support Assistants will used the knowledge gained in Phase 1 to plan and design appropriate resources, training and evaluation for the peer mentors. The resources included a set of expectations peer mentors will need to fulfil in order to receive recognition from King’s Careers and Employability in the form of an Award. A single evaluation was developed for all faculties so that peer mentoring programmes can be compared and learn from each other.
Phase 3: Implementation (August–December 2022) – The resources and training created by the Peer Support Coordinator and Faculty Peer Support Assistants were rolled out to the KCL faculties in time to be used for the next cohort of peer mentors, who were recruited over the summer. These resources and training are being used for the first time in the 2022-23 academic year.
Phase 4: Project Evaluation (January 2023) – Following the trial of the new structure in Semester 1, the Peer Support Coordinator will provide a report and recommendations to guide the future of this work moving forward and understand the budgetary needs for continued growth,
Phase 5: Award & Recognition (April 2023) – Based on the groundwork laid out in this project, all peer mentors who complete the required expectations of their role will be awarded a new Careers & Employability Leadership Award, which will be indicated on their HEAR Record.

The Peer Support Coordinator is now working with two student staff, Peer Support Assistants, to continue developing this project and evaluating it.

Conclusion

This case study outlines the conceptualisation and organisation of KCLSU Wellbeing.

The established student-led support of psychological wellbeing through self-managed initiatives by the student population continues to grow and demonstrate impact. In addition, the three areas of work, wellbeing activities, resources and peer support, all contribute to the bottom levels of the Pyramid of Support (see Figure 6).

Figure 6: Summary of KCLSU Wellbeing contributions to the levels of Model of Student Mental Health & Wellbeing Support.

In this way, KCLSU Wellbeing makes a positive difference in the King’s community by preventing students from potentially needing further professional help after gaining the skills, knowledge and self-efficacy to know how to practice self-care. Thus, KCLSU Wellbeing works with King’s so ‘Students are empowered to build a community of good wellbeing where they feel able to support themselves and others to thrive.’