All Leeds Conservatoire students can access occupational therapy support once enrolled. We are open to everybody and students who have previously accessed support are welcome to re-refer at any time during their studies.

To access support, you need to complete a short online referral form. 
 
Once we receive your form, we will match you with an appropriate member of our team. They will contact you via email with an invitation to an Initial appointment. 
 
Please note: Our referral form closes during the Christmas, Easter, and summer holidays. During the summer holiday, we operate a reduced service for postgraduate students and those resitting assessments. For more information about support outside of term-time, please email us occupationaltherapy@leedsconservatoire.ac.uk

If you’re in need of urgent support, please refer to the Urgent Support (SOS) page.

We don’t have a waiting list and will aim to offer you an initial appointment as soon as possible after receiving your referral form. In most cases, this will be within a few working days. 

The time between appointments can vary depending on your individual needs, staff availability, and demand for the service. There may be longer gaps between appointments during busy periods. 

If there are likely to be significant delays, we will do our best to keep you informed and discuss any available options with you. 

You will be supported by a member of the Occupational Therapy team. This may be one of our Occupational Therapists or an Occupational Therapy student on clinical placement, working under the supervision of a qualified Occupational Therapist. 

Where possible, you will usually meet with the same team member, helping to provide consistency and continuity of support. 

Occasionally, it may be helpful for you to work with a different member of the team. This could be to access a particular area of expertise, support your goals more effectively, or accommodate changes within the service. 

In our Occupational Therapy service, we offer short term support, but this is tailored to your individual needs, goals, and circumstances. 

During your initial appointment, we will work together to understand the challenges you are experiencing, identify what is important to you, and agree on goals for our work together. The focus and length of support will depend on your needs and the progress you are making towards your goals. 

We will regularly review your progress and discuss next steps with you. When we agree that Occupational Therapy is no longer required our support will come to an end. Where appropriate, we may discuss other sources of support or options available to you. 

We hold appointments in person and online via Microsoft Teams. You can indicate your appointment preference in the referral form, and we will try our best to accommodate it. 
 
In-person appointments are held in the St Peter’s Square building on the fourth floor. 

No. Just bring yourself and be ready to talk about your difficulties. 
 
Please be aware that as we do not have a waiting room and space outside our meeting rooms is limited, it’s best not to arrive too early for your appointment.  

To respect your confidentiality and privacy, we ask that you attend appointments alone. This also applies to online appointments. 
 
If for any reason, you require someone to support you, please email us prior to your appointment on: 
occuationaltherapy@leedsconservatoire.ac.uk 

Yes. Everything you tell us will remain confidential, unless we believe that you are at risk of harm, or that you pose a risk of harm to somebody else. 
 
In line with our professional standards of practice, our team regularly undergoes professional clinical supervision, during which we discuss the students we are supporting. These discussions adhere to the same confidentiality conditions detailed above. 
 
We will never speak to parents, guardians, family members, or friends about your access to the service without your explicit consent. Similarly, we will not share any details about other students accessing the service with you. 
 
Occasionally, we may share limited information with the Disability Support team to coordinate support (e.g. declared disabilities, access to the service). Sometimes, it may be appropriate to pass your details on to another staff member or external service (e.g. a support charity or NHS service). In normal circumstances, we will always seek your consent before doing so. 

If you are running late for any reason, please let us know as soon as possible by emailing occupationaltherapy@leedsconservatoire.ac.uk. We will advise on the best course of action depending on the length of the delay. 

If we do not hear from you, we will wait for 15 minutes after the scheduled start time. If you have not arrived within this time, the appointment will be cancelled and recorded as a ‘no-show’. Following a no-show, we will contact you by email to ask whether you would like to rearrange your appointment. If we do not receive a response within 5 working days, your Occupational Therapy support will end and we will stop contacting you to arrange appointments. 

If your Occupational Therapy support has ended and you would like to access the service again in the future, you are welcome to submit a new referral form. 

What if I can’t make my appointment? 

If you can’t make your appointment, let us know as soon as possible by emailing: occupationaltherapy@leedsconservatoire.ac.uk. We will cancel your appointment and help you to reschedule.  

Due to high demand for the service, if you cancel three appointments in a row without a valid reason, our support will come to an end. If you would like Occupational Therapy support again during your studies, you are welcome to submit a new referral form. 

At the end of our work together, we hope that you will feel equipped with the tools and techniques to manage challenges independently and participate in the activities that are important to you.  

In your final session, we will review the progress you have made and discuss any next steps or ongoing support that may be helpful.  

When our support comes to an end, we will no longer contact you to arrange appointments. This does not prevent you from accessing Occupational Therapy support again in the future. If you would like further support during your studies, you can submit a new referral form and we will consider how we may be able to help. 

Sometimes our support may end earlier if we are unable to maintain contact with you. This may happen if: 

• You do not attend an appointment and we are unable to re-establish contact. 
• You miss two appointments in a row without letting us know. 
• You cancel three appointments in a row without a valid reason. 

If this happens, you are welcome to re-refer to the service at a later date if you would like support. 

If you are worried about a friend and think they would benefit from our support, there are several actions 
you can take: 

• Talk to them: Share your concern and let them know that our team can help. Direct them to either the Health and Wellbeing or Occupational Therapy page on the Student Info site and direct them to the referral form if they wish to seek support. 
• Encourage them to email us: This allows them to explain their difficulties in their own words and seek support on their own terms. 
• Talk to us: If you think a friend would benefit from our support but may be hesitant to reach out, send an email to: OccupationalTherapy@leedsconservatoire.ac.uk . When emailing, please: 
• Include your friend’s full name, course, and year of study (if known) 
• Provide a brief description of their current difficulties 

Where possible, tell your friend that you are contacting us about them. When we reach out to offer support we will usually tell them that someone has raised concerns. 
 
If your friend needs urgent support, follow the guidance on the Urgent Support (SOS) page. 

Due to the nature of our service, we cannot offer drop-in appointments.  
 
Short notice appointments with the Health and Wellbeing Team can be booked via email healthandwellbeing@leedsconservatoire.ac.uk 

No, the Occupational Therapy team are not involved with Additional Consideration applications. It is the Exams team who process the applications and make the final decision. We can however support you with the issues that are causing you to apply for Additional Consideration in the first place. 
 
For more information, visit the Exam and Assessment Support Space page or email exams@lcm.ac.uk 

Your data will be generally collected and used in accordance with the Leeds Conservatoire HE Student Privacy Notice. This will include the personal data that you provide to us in the Student Support Referral Form, any subsequent forms and appointment notes made by our team. 
 

After every appointment, we make short written notes to record progress, document important information, and describe any interventions. These notes are stored in a secure digital system and can only be accessed by relevant Student Support staff. Handwritten notes are disposed of and destroyed as confidential waste. In normal circumstances, appointment notes will not be shared without your consent. 
 
All records are used for the purpose of providing support and information will be held securely on Leeds Conservatoire-approved drives for 7 years from the date that you leave Leeds Conservatoire. We also produce anonymised statistical data for the purposes of service analysis and development. 

You can email us at: occupationaltherapy@leedsconservatoire.ac.uk  
 
Make sure to contact us from your Leeds Conservatoire student email address, for security purposes we cannot respond to emails from personal accounts.