My University, My College

As an estranged, orphaned or care experienced person at college or university, there is lots of support you can access. However institution aren't always the best at advertising this or making it clear to students. In fact, most of the time the emphasis is on students to KNOW what they need and then advocate for it themselves. How do you know what to order if you don't know what's on the menu?

But - since this is the current situation - we've made you a guide for how to access this support. 🙂

We'd also super highly recommend you check out:

Our page detailing Official Support specifically for estranged orphaned and care experienced students (and CE&E people in general).
Our list of individual estranged and care experienced student-led groups on our Uni & College Groups page or our wider list of groups on our 'Meet other EaCES' page

Who do I contact at my institution?

We have created a Named Contacts List for Estranged, Orphaned and Care Experienced/Leaver students to find the right person to speak to at your prospective or current college/university/conservatoire.

The named contact at this institution will be able to advise you on the evidence you need to send to you student finance body in England, Wales, Northern Ireland, Scotland or Ireland. They can also help you find out what other support the university might offer (e.g. accommodation, bursary options, etc). We'd recommend writing to your University contact (see the Named Contacts List) and asking them to specifically detail what support is accessible to you in your time at their.

As part of Stand Alone's legacy, we worked with Susan Mueller, Director to take over their HE Contacts List of key contacts for estranged students in higher education providers, which we have combined into the above list.

What sort of support can I access in HE/FE?

Academic Support
Career Support and Guidance
Counselling
Disability & Dyslexia Support
Financial support in general
Graduation support
Grants for wider access to studies, sports, participation, etc

Medical/Health Centre
Mentoring or a peer-support/buddy scheme
Physically getting to your place of study at the start of the course
Pre-arrival and arrival support
Security Services and Campus Police
General Welfare & Pastoral Help

Universities and colleges tend to offer all of the above listed types of support for their students - plus often some extras. We would STRONGLY advise that you email the listed contact for your institution and specifically ask for the type of support you need.

UCAS helps explain more about student support services: https://www.ucas.com/undergraduate/student-life/getting-student-support/support-universities-and-colleges

Pledges and Covenants...

Stand Alone Legacy Pledge - Estranged Students

This Pledge was originally created by the charity Stand Alone for Universities and Colleges to commit to supporting estranged students. Pledging means that they are publicly committing to supporting students who are studying without the support or approval of a family network.

Having taken the Pledge, an institution will work towards creating the right environment and conditions for estranged students to complete their course by improving support mechanisms in four key areas: Finance, Accommodation, Mental Health and Outreach.

To find out who has taken the legacy pledge.

Care Leaver Covenant - Care Leaver Students

The Care Leaver Covenant (CLC) is part of the government’s keep on caring strategy to support people leaving care to become independent.

It allows public, private and voluntary sector organisations to pledge support, including universities.

All support given through CLC will help care leavers to make a transition to independence. This ranges from CV training to accommodation for care leavers in higher education.

Every care leaver has a personal adviser who can provide information on CLC offers. CLC complements the offers that local authorities make to care leavers. To find out more see: https://mycovenant.org.uk/

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