Buttle can provide financial help to estranged young people who receive no support from their parents or guardians so that they can further their education or employment. To apply the young person must have a clear education, training or employment goal that they are pursuing or intend to pursue within three months of their application to Buttle. They can provide direct financial support to meet this goal, and also help them to set up home and/or to improve their emotional, mental or physical wellbeing. Each package of support can be worth up to £2,000. 

Website: https://www.buttleuk.org/need-support/young-people#help 

A Sussex-based charitable trust working to minimise the barriers in front of those who are care experienced in order to help them thrive. As a collective, they work to fund one-off grants that can be given to care leavers in order to provide the tools and/or resources they wouldn't necessarily have access to otherwise. 

Website: https://www.beyondtrust.org.uk/

The Capstone Care Leavers Trust (CCLT) awards grants to people aged 17-25 years who have been in Local Authority Care in England or Wales and are in need. The CCLT also offers advice and guidance to young people to help reduce their experience of social exclusion and enhance their life chances.

Website: https://www.capstonecareleaverstrust.org/

You may request anything related to your course which you feel will improve your situation. The one exception to this is that we do not contribute towards course fees. Grants may be in cash or kind (as in a laptop computer). We will look at your application seriously, and promise to give everyone a fair hearing.

Their grants are small with a current maximum award of €350

Website: http://careleaversireland.ie/

Aims to support care leavers intending to study an undergraduate degree at a UK university. Grants of up to £5,000 for 4 years are available to care leavers (defined as anyone who was the subject of a care order in the UK before they were 18), whose financial situation may hinder them from pursuing their studies. 

Website: https://leathersellers.co.uk/education-student-grants/

The School of Communication Arts is offering a FREE place for care leavers on their advertising portfolio course (usually £16.5k). Naomi (Gnome) Taylor came through foster care, won a scholarship to SCA and is now an award-winning creative working at GREY London. Naomi has launched this initiative to help others from similar backgrounds to succeed in advertising. If you'd like to have a chat with Naomi about the scholarship, please feel free to contact her at naomi.taylor@grey.com

Website: https://schoolcommunicationarts.ac-page.com/next-of-kin-scholarship

Rees Foundation can help care experienced people with grants for other ‘essential’ items where no other support is available. They often help with grants for training courses to help care experienced people into employment.  Please note that due to the high number of requests they receive they are unable to help everyone, but where grant applications are declined, they will do their best to help signpost to other potential sources of support. 

Website: https://www.reesfoundation.org/financial-assistance.html 

The Spark Foundation is a charity in England and Wales for young people who are, or were, in care. They offer grants so that care leavers can have the same chances as everyone else.

Website: https://www.sparkfoundation.org.uk/

Scholarships for students from ethnic minorities offer financial support throughout their time at university. This might be in the form of a tuition fee waiver, a grant to help with living expenses or a mix of the two.

Some universities and organisations refer to these scholarships as being offered to 'BME' (Black and Minority Ethnic) or 'BAME' students (Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic). For the most part, the scholarships below are for students from all ethnic minorities in the UK (unless specified otherwise) and, unlike normal Student Loans, these will never have to be repaid. Ever.

However, this is not an exhaustive list of all the scholarships available to ethnic minority students in the UK, so if none of these apply to you, don't be put off. This is just to give you an idea of what's out there!

Website: https://www.savethestudent.org/student-finance/ethnic-minority-scholarships.html 

Many universities offer scholarships, bursaries, fee waivers and reduced fees to help people who have claimed asylum in the UK access higher education. Most universities offer a Sanctuary Scholarship - you will be able to find out info about this on the University's website.

STAR Network have put together a list of all the universities and organisations they've heard about that offer this kind of support. (They try to keep this list as up to date as possible but recommend that you check with the university to make sure.) They also have a downloadable list of scholarships with application deadlines.

The Irish Refugee Education Fund was established in 2015 with support from the Community Foundation for Ireland to financially assist people in the asylum process in accessing education. Education Support | Irish Refugee Council 

The Tunstall Jubilee Foundation was established in 2013 to help and support people who have been or are currently in local authority care. They make Grants to both individuals and to other organisations working with young people in any part of the UK for the following areas:

• Promoting the education and training of young people

• Helping to develop talents and abilities

• Enabling the ability to lead independent and fulfilling lives

• Supporting young people leaving care by the provision or improvement of accommodation, financial assistance and mentoring

Applicants may apply for any amount and there is no age limit for beneficiaries.

Website: http://www.tunstalljubileefoundation.org/

A scholarship for UK Estranged and Care Leaver/Care Experienced (Scotland) students - No rent, no utility bills, 365 days a year for up to 3 years.  

The scholarship takes care of a place for you to live whilst you’re at university leaving you free to study, meet new people and plan your career. They’ve already awarded scholarships to 600 students building their futures without family support. They award scholarships to students with a wide range of backgrounds and academic grades. They will help you settle in and keep in touch with you throughout your studies.

Website: https://www.unitefoundation.co.uk/get-a-scholarship/ 

Offers grants to care-experienced adults to help with their career development and higher education fees.

Website: https://www.thewellandtrust.org/