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NOCN Group’s Tracey Patmore interviews Barnsley College’s Liam Garside for AoC Beacon Awards podcast

NOCN Group was proud to sponsor the Association of Colleges (AoC) Beacon Award for Mental Health & Wellbeing in 2023/24 and will be doing so again for 2024/25.

The AoC Beacon Awards showcase exactly why UK further education colleges are so important to every community and why people value them. The awards celebrate and showcase best practice and innovation and highlight excellence in the sector. They are designed to promote the interdependence of colleges, businesses, and professional and voluntary organisations and promote the far-reaching impact of colleges on their students and the communities they serve.


A new series of podcasts featuring the winners of the Beacon Awards 2023/24 provides insights into the initiatives that led to their success. In one of the episodes, NOCN Group’s Head of Products Tracey Patmore interviews Barnsley College’s Head of Student Services Liam Garside about why they won this prestigious award. Liam talks about how the Ofsted Excellent rated college has developed both its pastoral and tutor support over the last three years in response to the spike in demand for wellbeing and mental health services following the pandemic (which has seen a 33% year-on-year increase).


As someone who studied at Barnsley College himself and has worked there for 14 years, Liam discusses in-depth how health & wellbeing is embedded into everything they do and how they have developed a structure around this with the WRAP – wellness recovery action planning – scheme they’ve put in place.


The conversation covers everything from closing the gap between mental health referrals and accessing tailored support, and how this improves learner retention and builds a more resilient workforce for the future. Liam also references some of the “heartbreaking” situations students can find them in and how the college’s support enables them to overcome the hurdles placed in front of them.

Listen here