Somebody halfway through an intensive programme is sleeping badly, eating at a desk and asking a tutor whether she should be taking something to concentrate better.
He is a teacher. He has no business answering that, he wants to help, and if nobody has told him where the line is he will say something well meant and wrong.
The checklist
Publish these and everybody knows where they stand.
1. Say what support actually exists
Academic help, catch up sessions, a pastoral contact, a tutor's office hours. Named, so participants know what they can ask for.
2. Say who to ask for what
Because a question about falling behind and a question about coping are different, and participants default to whoever is standing nearest.
3. Publish the wellbeing signposting
External services, what is available locally and how to reach them. A provider's job is to point, promptly and without assessing anything.
4. Say plainly what staff will not advise on
Health, diet, sleep, medication and anything clinical. Stated as a boundary rather than a refusal, so nobody feels dismissed when they ask.
5. Train the tutors on it
Because the question arrives in a corridor and the answer is given in three seconds. Staff need to know what to say before it happens.
6. Acknowledge the toll honestly
That an intensive programme is genuinely demanding, that people find weeks four to six hard and that this is normal. Saying so prevents somebody assuming they are uniquely failing.
7. Publish practical guidance that is genuinely yours
Managing the workload, planning a week, when to rest and how previous cohorts have coped. That is within a provider's competence and it is what people actually need.
8. Explain the break structure
Because a programme that runs without proper breaks causes the problem, and publishing the schedule shows whether it has been thought about.
9. Explain the adjustment route
For anybody whose circumstances need one, which is a separate and practical matter handled without any clinical judgement.
10. Explain what happens if somebody needs to stop
Deferral, a later cohort and the financial position. It is the fear underneath most wellbeing conversations, which sits with funding and payment questions for bootcamps.
11. Explain the confidentiality position
Who hears what somebody discloses, what is shared with tutors and what is not. People disclose far more when they know where it goes.
12. Check in rather than waiting
A brief conversation at the halfway point with everybody, so somebody struggling does not have to raise it first.
13. Never let published content stray
Anything automated should describe the support available and signpost, never advise on health, which is the boundary in what a nutrition website must never prescribe.
14. Answer support questions at any hour
Because people worry at midnight, and knowing what exists is what gets them to ask, which is the readiness ground in fitness level and suitability questions from beginners and the careful handling in how to handle discount and coupon questions with a chatbot.
Getting started
Publish what support exists, who to ask and what staff will not advise on, then answer at any hour without straying into anything clinical. SpideyChat for education providers answers from your published pages. Try SpideyChat on your own site, or read about routing on the features page.