Support for care experienced students

LEAPS supports care experienced students. By 'care experienced' we typically mean where a student has been, or is currently, in care. For instance this may have been in a formal setting such as looked after at home, adoption or foster care, or it may have been in an informal setting such as kinship care and living with a relative who is not their mum or dad. Who Cares? Scotland provide a helpful guide (linked below). Students who are care experienced may be known as ‘care experienced’ or as a ‘care leaver’ by colleges and universities. 

We have information below about some of the support available to care experienced students who are thinking about higher education, and remember to check out our other articles on the LEAPS website including our LEAPS blog (linked below) and our Financial Support for Care Experienced Students blog post (linked below).

Planning for higher education study can feel unfamiliar. If you are considering applying to college or university, it's important to know that support is available. This can be provided by LEAPS (if you attend a LEAPS school), your school, or local groups or services. There is also a range of support available at colleges and universities to help you access and continue in higher education. The type of support varies across institutions and can depend on the context of your care experience, but lots of information is available below and LEAPS can help you find out more.

At LEAPS we have a named contact for care experienced students:  Sarah Macpherson. Sarah can help you with the following:

• Advice on considering college or university
• Support during the application process
• Information about financial support available
• Emails throughout the year with relevant information and advice for care experienced students
• Introduce you to named contacts at colleges and universities
• Connect you to other support or advice services
• A friendly chat in person, on the phone or email to answer any questions – big or small!

You can reach Sarah at leaps@ed.ac.uk or by phone (see details on our contact us page).

We’d suggest that you tell universities that you are care experienced on your UCAS application so that the universities you are applying to know from the point at which you apply that you are care experienced. College application forms should also have an option for you to do this. This means that colleges and universities can consider the type of offers that they make to you in the context of your care experienced background (including the entry requirements you would need to meet), and there may be support available specifically for care experienced students (for example accommodation, bursaries, or named contacts). This will vary by institution, and it’s up to you if you take up any offers or support available, but it’s good to be informed about it – then you can make your choice as to whether or not it’s the right thing for you.

Follow our guide to identifying as care experienced on the UCAS application (linked below).

Find some more information about the different types of support that care experienced students can receive in higher education on the UCAS website (linked below).

College application forms will usually have the option to identify as care experienced/a care leaver as well, again to help with information for admissions purposes and support.

Colleges and universities differ in their definition of care experienced students, so it’s worthwhile researching who they consider to be care experienced and what support they offer them.

It is worth noting that there should be a named point of contact at every university in Scotland for care experienced students who you can contact for information and advice, and most colleges have someone in this role too. We’d always recommend that you contact the college or university you are interested in if you have any queries about the support they offer to care experienced students, so that they can provide you with up-to-date information. 

Find details in our University and College Named Contacts for Care Experienced Students blog post (linked below).

Another organisation that provides support to care experienced students is the HUB for SUCCESS. The HUB for SUCCESS is a collaborative organisation in South East Scotland supporting those with care experience to get in, stay in, or return to education. Find out more at the link below.

https://www.whocaresscotland.org/

https://propel.org.uk/UK/

https://thisisusatuni.org/

https://www.celcis.org

http://www.nnecl.org/