Liaising with a family following a student death: a half-day, online training event

It is not easy to support a family, on behalf of your university or institution, at what is inevitably an incredibly difficult time for the family. It’s made more difficult by the fact that this kind of family liaison work might not be a part of the role we have been trained to carry out, and it might be something that, thankfully, does not happen frequently enough for us to quickly build up a depth of experience at handling these situations.

This half-day course is designed to make you feel more confident about every aspect of family liaison – from making the first telephone call to the family through to meeting the family in person and providing the family with longer-term support.

The training is interactive and practical, with a focus on key skills that we can take away to use in our respective roles.   The event is also an important chance to ask questions and explore some of the trickier aspects of family liaison.

We have designed this course to complement our broader training course on “Coordinating actions and providing support following a student death”. You do not have to have attended our broader course before attending this course. However, colleagues who have already attended our broader course will still benefit from this course on family liaison, given that it explores family liaison much more deeply than we are able to do in the broader course.

Who is this session for?

This session is relevant to colleagues whose role involves being a family’s point of contact following a student death.  This can include:

• Directors and managers of student services teams
• University secretaries, registrars or other senior/executive-level managers who may be asked to be a point of contact for a student’s family
• Student services practitioners – including colleagues from welfare teams, wellbeing teams, mental health teams, international student support teams or other specialist support services
• Senior colleagues in faculties or academic leaders who may be asked to lead on family liaison
• University chaplains
• Accommodation managers who may be involved in family liaison

While this training is aimed at higher education, colleagues in further education or other similar settings will also find the content very relevant.

Learning outcomes

By the end of this event, participants will understand:

• The challenges of the context in which this family liaison work takes place and what a family is needing from us.
• Effective ways to manage the initial phone call to the family.
• How to manage practicalities associated with face-to-face meetings with a family.
• The importance of issues relating to community, faith, identity and ritual in conversations with a family. 
• Key aspects of longer-term liaison with a family.

Fees

• Standard rate - Individual attendee - £70 + VAT (£84 incl. VAT)
• Discounted rate (15%) available for 3 or more attendees in a single booking - £59.50 + VAT (£71.40 incl. VAT) per attendee

You can either pay by debit/credit card or request an invoice. To pay via invoice, click on “Pay by invoice or bank transfer” when you get to the debit/credit card details page; we will then get in touch with you to arrange an invoice.

For any colleague unable to secure funding from their HEI/employer to attend this session and unable to afford the standard cost themselves personally, we hold a couple of places at each session which we can offer at a significantly reduced cost. Find out more about how to request one of these places, subject to availability.

Looking for training for your whole team or cohort? Does the date of this course not work for you?

It's easy to book a dedicated online session of this training at time that works for you. Find out more about our ready-to-run training.