Blog: Developing the Common Mental Health and Wellbeing Framework

In Medr’s Strategic Plan 2025-2030, we set out our long-term ambition to improve learner wellbeing. The creation of Medr, and our ability to work across the whole of the tertiary education and research sector, creates a unique opportunity to bring consistency and coherence to the wellbeing offer available to learners in Wales, and support clearer expectations of what support they can expect.

The publication of the Common Mental Health and Wellbeing Framework is an important step forward for us in realising this ambition.

The development of the Framework began with the question: how can Wales promote greater consistency in learner mental health and wellbeing support without creating unnecessary burden or requiring providers to abandon effective existing approaches? We know from our work with providers and stakeholders that tertiary providers operate in very different contexts with different learner needs, structures and resources. Stakeholders were clear that any common framework needed to add value, avoid duplication and work across higher education, further education, apprenticeships and adult community learning.

Recognising this diversity, we began our work on the Framework by reviewing existing evidence, sector practice and established improvement models using a theory-of-change approach. Although there are many examples of mental health and wellbeing frameworks in the tertiary sector, no one existing framework could be adopted directly. Instead, we used those existing frameworks to test assumptions, structure workshop discussions and sense-check whether the emerging approach reflected the factors known to influence learner wellbeing, including learning, support, environment, relationships and leadership.

Across workshops, several themes came through clearly:

• learners should be able to understand where to go for support
• providers should not be required to replace effective existing arrangements,
•  support should be proportionate to context,
• and the framework should focus on learner experience rather than prescribing service models, staffing levels or organisational structures.

Participants also stressed the importance of clear boundaries, recognising that providers play an important role in supporting wellbeing but do not replace NHS, social care or other statutory services.

These discussions informed a draft of the Framework which we tested with provider, sector representatives, learners, Welsh Government, Estyn and other partners. Learner engagement reinforced the importance of clear information, simple language, visible support routes and a better understanding of what happens after asking for help. Consultation feedback also strengthened the emphasis on accessibility, work-based learning contexts, existing sector practice and the need to position the Framework as a common approach rather than a new compliance requirement.

We were supported on this journey through the expert advice of the Common Mental Health and Wellbeing Framework Group. The group brought together representatives from higher education, further education, work-based learning, adult community learning, learner mental health partnerships, NHS Wales and sector bodies.

The resulting Framework reflects that collective input. It is intended to provide a shared learner-facing approach in the proposed Support Map concept that can sit alongside existing provider arrangements. The use of Support Maps asks providers to populate their existing offer into template which is made available to learners to help learners better understand available support and navigate it with confidence. Importantly, it focuses on a learner experience rather than a common delivery model, allowing providers to continue building on the effective practices already in place recognising that no provider is working in the exact same circumstances.

This is not the end of the process. Medr sees the Framework as a foundation for continued improvement and collaboration. We will continue to engage with learners, providers and partners to understand how it is being used in practice, share emerging learning and refine the approach over time. By building momentum collectively and maintaining a focus on learner experience, we hope this Framework will contribute to a more understandable, accessible and consistent approach to mental health and wellbeing support for learners across Wales.

Medr would like to thank all members of the Common Mental Health and Wellbeing Framework Working Group for their time, expertise and commitment throughout the development of this Framework:

• Anne Jones – Cambrian Training
• Beth Allender – HE and FE Student Mental Health Partnership Programme
• Chris Laity – Universities Wales
• Emma McCutcheon – educ8training
• Dr Emma Roberts – Adviser – University of Salford
• Gemma Hartnoll – educ8training
• Hannah Wenden – Suicide Prevention and Self-Harm Programme, NHS Wales Performance and Improvement
• Ian Munton – Aberystwyth University / AMOSSHE Wales
• James Donaldson – Gower College Swansea
• Kay Smith – Learning and Work Institute
• Marcus Westmoreland – Gower College Swansea
• Robert Baynham – ColegauCymru
• Sally Lambah – Wrexham University / AMOSSHE Wales
• Samantha Gunnarsson – The College Merthyr Tydfil / FE Mental Health Network
• Sarah Quibell – Powys County Council / Adult Community Learning Network
• Tamara Garnault – Adult Learning Wales

For a conversation related to the Framework, please email [email protected].

Sam Bowen
Senior Equality and Welfare Manager