Wellbeing Officer

Position Details

College of Life and Environmental Sciences

Location: University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham UK

Full time starting salary is normally in the range £33,002 to £35,608 with potential progression once in post to £39,906

Grade: 6

Full Time, Permanent

Closing date: 4th January 2026

Our offer to you

People are at the heart of what we are and do.

The University of Birmingham is proud to have been a part of the City of Birmingham and the wider region for over 100 years, and we are equally proud to be recognised as a leading global university. We want to attract talented people from across the city and beyond, support them to succeed, and celebrate their success.

We are committed to helping the people who work here to develop through our sector-leading Birmingham Professional programme which provides all professional services staff with development opportunities and the encouragement to reach their full potential. With almost 5,000 professional services jobs in a wide-range of functions in Edgbaston and in our campus in Dubai, there are plenty of opportunities for you to be able to develop your career at the University.

We believe there is no such thing as a typical member of staff and that diversity is a source of strength that underpins the exchange of ideas, innovation, and debate. We warmly welcome people from all backgrounds and are committed to fostering an inclusive environment where diversity is at the heart of who and what we are, and how we work.

Supporting our people to achieve a healthy work/life balance is important both to our employees and to the success of the University and, depending on the role, we offer a variety of flexible working arrangements. We therefore welcome discussions on all forms of flexible working. In addition, you will receive a generous package of benefits including 40 days paid holiday a year, one paid day a year for volunteering, occupational sick pay, and a pension scheme. We also have three high quality subsidised day nurseries.

The University is situated in leafy Edgbaston and there are excellent transport links to our beautiful campus, including main bus routes and a train station on site. On campus we have a state-of-the-art sports centre with pool, shops, places to eat and drink, our own art gallery, museum and botanical gardens.

Find out more about the benefits of working for the University of Birmingham

Role Summary

The Wellbeing Officer provides wellbeing, pastoral and education support to students of all levels within a School and College, to ensure that a professional and proactive wellbeing support service is provided to all in need.

Within their school or department, the Wellbeing Officer acts as a first point of contact for any wellbeing related queries. They advise on a range of wellbeing and process-based queries and signpost where appropriate, making escalated referrals to partner services and to internal and external agencies. The Wellbeing Officer manages several academic related administrative processes including Extenuating Circumstances, Extensions, and Leaves of Absence.

Main Duties

• Provide appropriate, accurate and expert advice to students of all levels, on a wide range of issues. This includes following up with individuals, ensuring a professional end-to-end wellbeing service is delivered.
• Acting as first point of contact for students with support needs. Providing initial advice and guidance and signposting them to support services internally and externally for more appropriate, complex or longer-term support.
• Provide and schedule regular and accessible opportunities for students to engage with wellbeing services both face to face, and online.
• Manage and prioritise a high volume of wellbeing and / or academic process related emails case notes and follow-ups ensuring students and staff are responded to in order of triaged priority and in a timely manner.
• Maintain accurate and timely records and statistics of student interactions to inform and support the department in identifying potential risk and proactive activities.
• Manage a varied student caseload, identifying any risk to individuals or the organisation and escalating where appropriate; including severe mental health crises and under 18 students at safeguarding risk.
• Effectively and accurately manage a range of academic related administrative processes including, but not limited to, the preparation of cases for Extenuating Circumstances Panels, the management of extensions and leaves of absence.
• Act as the primary contact within the department for monitoring the implementation of reasonable adjustments. Liaising with and advising Academic and Professional Services staff on student reasonable adjustments whilst helping to ensure that programme and module level learning outcomes are met.
• Provide advice and guidance so that academic process decisions are compliant with any professional or accredited programmes within the department.
• Informing appropriate Academic and Professional Services staff regarding changes and updates in practice and policy relating to student wellbeing / academic processes.
• Support the local attendance and reasonable diligence processes, to ensure that wellbeing issues are proactively identified and managed appropriately.
• Provide support to colleagues and students at induction, Welcome Week and other relevant student experience activities.
• Develop and deliver a range of communications to all students, prospective students and staff around student wellbeing and support, and regularly review and improve the effectiveness of these.
• Promote equality, diversity and inclusion within their role and their wellbeing practices.
• Any other duties commensurate with the post as directed by the line manager or departmental lead.

Required Knowledge, Skills, Qualifications, Experience

Essential

• Experience of supporting adults or young people in a wellbeing role and/or educational setting.
• Knowledge and experience of managing confidential and sensitive situations with discretion and integrity.
• Experience of working with confidential data and information, with a working knowledge of data protection policies.
• Ability to collate and analyse large volumes of complex data, with an ability to present data in a clear and effective format to a range of audiences.
• Ability to manage a high volume of emails and front-line wellbeing queries in a systematic manner.
• Knowledge of equality, diversity and inclusion and the protected characteristics of the Equality Act 2010, ensuring that those with protected characteristics are treated equally and fairly.
• Understanding of the Wellbeing needs of our diverse student population in higher education including International Students, students with disabilities, commuter students and mature students to name a few student groups.
• Understanding of child protection and safeguarding best practices.
• Ability to form positive working relationships with a wide range of internal and external stakeholders.

Desirable

• Vocational qualification in Mental Health or Wellbeing and related areas.
• Significant proven experience of working in Higher Education preferably in a wellbeing related area.
• Significant understanding of the wellbeing challenges faced by students and the Higher Education sector.

Dimensions

This role may have management responsibility for an administrative staff member.

This role does not own or manage budgets.

Planning and Organising

The post holder will be a self-motivated individual capable of working on their own initiative and as part of a team in the planning and tailoring of wellbeing support for students. This requires being responsive to students as well as a high level of co-ordination and planning with other services and colleagues within and beyond the college and University. They will be required to plan activity according to the academic lifecycle of the programme(s) they support and under the direction of their department and College lead.

Problem Solving and decision making

Working within the codes of practice and policies relating to student wellbeing, the role will shape and develop the wellbeing services within a specific area, in conjunction with colleagues and according to the direction and strategy of the college. The post holder will need to develop and improve ways of working to provide the most efficient and effective service.

The role will manage a case load of students experiencing wellbeing issues, which will include difficult and complex issues. The post holder will need to make decisions relating to specific student cases and the support offered, referring cases to other specialist and expert services as required and effectively judging risk to the individual and organisation.

Internal and External relationships

This role is a crucial interface between students, academic staff and colleagues in the wider wellbeing network and specialist support services. The post holder will work closely with other Wellbeing Officers across the College. The role will involve regular communication between a variety of stakeholders and the development of successful working relationships to ensure effective management of student cases.

DBS required

The University is committed to safeguarding and we promote safe recruitment practice, therefore all associated pre-employment checks will be undertaken before any appointment is confirmed. Due to the nature of the work undertaken in this role all successful applicants will be subject to a satisfactory DBS clearance prior to appointment.

Informal enquiries to Grace Page, email:

View our staff values and behaviours here

Use of AI in applications: We want to understand your genuine interest in the role and for the written elements of your application to accurately reflect your own communication style. Applications that rely too heavily on AI tools can appear generic and lack the detail we need to assess your skills and experience. Such applications will unlikely be progressed to interview.

We believe there is no such thing as a 'typical' member of University of Birmingham staff and that diversity in its many forms is a strength that underpins the exchange of ideas, innovation and debate at the heart of University life. We are committed to proactively addressing the barriers experienced by some groups in our community and are proud to hold Athena SWAN, Race Equality Charter and Disability Confident accreditations. We have an Equality Diversity and Inclusion Centre that focuses on continuously improving the University as a fair and inclusive place to work where everyone has the opportunity to succeed. We are also committed to sustainability, which is a key part of our strategy. You can find out more about our work to create a fairer university for everyone on our website .