Advice Service Agreement

Advice Service Agreement

Please read this information before using the Advice Service.

It explains what you can expect from us, what we need from you, and how we decide what support we can provide.

What you can expect from us

How we will support you.

The Advice Service gives free, independent and confidential advice to University of Lancashire students.

We are independent

The Students’ Union is separate from the University. We are an independent charity and act in the interests of students.

We are impartial

We will explain your options based on your situation and the relevant University rules. We will not let personal views or bias affect the support you receive.

Where we can, we will help you understand the process, prepare your case and make your voice heard.

If there is a conflict of interest, we will explain what this means and how it affects the support we can provide.

We are non-judgemental

You can come to us with a range of concerns. We will not judge you or how your situation happened.

We will ask for information so we can understand your case and give accurate advice. Please be open and honest with us.

Our role is to help you understand your options.

We will explain what you can do, what might happen next, and any risks you may need to think about.

We may give a view based on our experience, but we will not pressure you to choose a particular option.

Your case remains yours. We will support you to make informed decisions.

We keep your case records securely. Electronic records are stored on a secure case management system for up to 7 years from your last contact with us.

If we receive paper documents, we store them securely, upload them to our system as soon as possible, and then destroy the paper copies.

We will not usually share your personal information or case details outside the service unless:

  • You give us permission
  • We believe there is a serious risk of harm to you or someone else
  • The law requires us to share the information

Where possible, we will speak to you before sharing information.

If we cannot speak to you first, we will follow safeguarding and data protection procedures.

If a data breach happens, we will tell you what happened, what information was affected and what we have done in response.

We are inclusive

The Advice Service is open to all students. We want every student to feel safe, respected and able to use the service.

We ask all students to respect the privacy of others who may also be using the service.

We are accessible

If you need adjustments to use our service, please tell us.

We will listen to what you need and record agreed adjustments on your case file so staff are aware before they support you.

Sometimes we may ask for evidence, such as a needs assessment or guidance from a qualified professional. This helps us understand what adjustments are reasonable.

Our staff are not disability assessors, so we may need professional guidance in some cases.

We need to stay independent and impartial. Sometimes this means we cannot advise, represent or continue supporting a student in a particular case.

A conflict of interest may arise where:

  • Two or more students are involved in the same matter
  • A case involves the Students’ Union
  • An adviser has been involved before in a way that may affect impartiality
  • A student gets external legal advice about the same matter
  • A student continues to act against the advice of the adviser

If the Students’ Union is a party to the case, the Advice Service cannot provide advice, representation or casework support in that matter.

If the Students’ Union is only mentioned as background or context, we may still be able to support you if we can remain independent and impartial.

Conflict What this means
Two or more students are involved in the same matter We will try to assign separate advisers and record the conflict on the case file. If there are more students than available advisers, support will usually be offered in the order students contacted us.
The case involves the Students’ Union We cannot provide advice, representation or casework support in that matter.
An adviser has prior involvement that may affect impartiality Where possible, the case will be assigned to another adviser.
The student gets external legal advice Advice Service support will be withdrawn for that matter.
The student continues to act against advice Advice Service support may be withdrawn.

If we identify a conflict, we will explain what support, if any, we can still provide.

 

What we need from you

How you can help us support you and other students fairly.

  • The Advice Service is often busy. We may not be able to support you fully if you contact us at short notice.
  • You remain responsible for meeting University deadlines.
  • Please contact us as soon as you know you need advice.
  • We assess each case and use our time based on the needs of all students using the service.
  • We may start by sending self-help materials, written guidance or initial advice before providing more detailed support.
  • Please read and use any guidance we send you.

Please contact us with more than 2 working days’ notice if you need support with a deadline or meeting.

This means contacting us as soon as you receive a meeting invitation, outcome letter, appeal deadline, complaint deadline or any other University deadline.

If you contact us with 2 working days’ notice or less, what we can do will depend on why the request is short notice, how urgent the case is, what information you have provided, and whether an adviser is available.

Situation What may happen
You only received the meeting or deadline from the University within the last 2 working days We may prioritise your case because the timescale was outside your control. You will need to send us all paperwork quickly and respond by the times we set so we can give appropriate advice.
You contact us within 2 working days of a meeting or deadline, but you knew about it earlier Your case will not normally be prioritised unless it meets our urgent or high-priority criteria. We may advise you to ask the University to postpone or reschedule if the procedure allows this. We may only be able to provide basic guidance.

We may not be able to attend a meeting, review documents or give detailed advice if we have not had enough time or information to prepare.

If we ask you to send documents or information by a specific time, please do this. If we do not receive what we need, we may have to limit the support we can provide.

Send us information when we ask for it

Please send documents linked to your case as early as possible. This may include emails, letters, forms, evidence, meeting invitations, University decisions or deadline dates.

We need this information to understand your case and give accurate advice.

Stay in contact with us

Please respond to our messages and keep us updated.

We may send you guidance to read or steps to complete yourself. Please do your best to follow this guidance.

If we do not hear from you, we may close your case. We may reopen it when you get back in touch.

If your case is closed because of non-engagement more than once, and the same issue happens again, we may limit or withdraw support.

Be honest with us

We rely on the information you give us. Missing or delayed information can affect the advice we give and how quickly we can help.

Please tell us if you are also getting advice from another organisation, solicitor or legal adviser about the same issue.

In some cases, we may not be able to support you at the same time as another adviser. This helps avoid mixed messages or conflicting advice.

If a student deliberately misleads us or withholds important information, we may limit or stop our support.

Treat staff and other students with respect

Please treat Advice Service staff and other students with respect.

We may stop supporting students who behave in an abusive, threatening or intimidating way towards staff.

We also ask students to use the service reasonably. This means avoiding:

  • Excessive contact
  • Repeated requests for updates before we have had time to respond
  • Requests for work outside our role, capacity or expertise
  • Attempts to bypass service processes
 

What the Advice Service can help with

What we advise on, who can use the service, and the limits of our role.

The Advice Service provides academic advice related to the University of Lancashire.

At our discretion, we may also help with Compelling Personal Reasons claims to Student Finance England.

We are also a hate crime reporting centre.

  • The service is funded to support University of Lancashire students and members of the Students’ Union.
  • We cannot advise parents, guardians, family members or friends unless the student has given clear written permission.
  • We cannot advise a student’s legal representative or add to advice being provided by a third party.
  • We are not an emergency service.
  • We cannot provide counselling or mental health treatment.
  • We cannot advise outside our knowledge, role or professional limits.
  • Where we cannot advise on an issue, we may refer you to a service listed on our Other sources of support page.

We may attend some University meetings with students. We decide this based on the procedure, the stage of the case, the possible outcomes, our capacity, and whether we have enough information to prepare properly.

We cannot attend every meeting. If we cannot attend, we can usually still help you prepare.

Procedure We may attend We will not usually attend Support we can provide
Academic Misconduct Panel hearings Low-level meetings, initial meetings, information-gathering meetings and stages before a panel hearing, unless the case is high risk or attendance is needed as a reasonable adjustment. Advice on the procedure, review of evidence, feedback on statements, discussion of possible outcomes and preparation for the meeting or panel.
Fitness to Practise Investigation meetings, formal meetings and panels Cause for Concern meetings Advice on the process, discussion of options, review of documents and preparation support.
Student Disciplinary Investigation meetings, formal meetings and panels Interim Measures meetings Advice on the procedure, discussion of possible outcomes and help preparing responses.
Student Appeals Meetings with Chairs where we have assessed the appeal as having a reasonable prospect of success. Meetings where we have advised that the appeal does not meet the grounds for appeal or is unlikely to succeed. Advice on the appeals process, discussion of strengths and weaknesses, and feedback on draft submissions where appropriate.
Student Complaints Complaint investigations Resolution meetings, informal complaint meetings and other complaint-related meetings outside formal investigations. Advice on the procedure, review of evidence and preparation support.
Support to Study Stage 3 Case conferences Stage 1 and Stage 2 meetings Guidance on the process, discussion of options and preparation support.
Practice Issues Panel hearings Other stages of the process. Advice, guidance and preparation support.
Any procedure Attendance may be considered as a reasonable adjustment where appropriate. Meetings where we have not been given enough information to prepare, or where a student declines a reasonable request to reschedule so we can support them properly. Advice and guidance based on the information available.

Meeting attendance is not guaranteed. We will only attend where it is within the scope of the service, where we have capacity, and where attendance is likely to help you take part effectively.

If we agree to attend a meeting, you must send us the meeting invitation, all relevant documents, the deadline and any University correspondence as early as possible.

 

Service capacity and response times

How demand and staffing may affect response times and support.

Demand for advice changes throughout the year. We may also have reduced capacity because of staff leave, training, University closure days or a high number of student cases.

We will be clear about how busy the service is, how quickly we expect to respond, and whether any parts of the service are temporarily reduced or paused.

Green

We are responding to advice enquiries within our usual service standard of 5 working days.

Amber

We are receiving more cases than usual. It may take longer than 5 working days to respond. We will continue to prioritise urgent cases.

Red

We are receiving a significantly high number of cases. Response times are likely to be longer and urgent cases will be prioritised.

Sometimes we may need to reduce or pause parts of the service for a short time.

This may happen because of high demand, staff absence, University closure periods, training or planned service development work.

If this happens, we will explain:

  • Which parts of the service are affected
  • Why the change is happening
  • How long we expect it to last
  • Where else support may be available

Temporary changes could include:

  • Longer response times
  • Prioritising urgent or time-sensitive cases
  • Pausing new advice enquiries for a short period
  • Providing written advice only for lower-level issues

We will notify relevant University services of any pauses or severe delays.

We will update the main Advice page when there are temporary changes to the service.

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