Care leavers or care experienced

Being care experienced means you will have spent time living with foster carers under local authority care, in residential care (e.g. a children’s home), looked after at home under a supervision order or in kinship care with relatives or friends, either officially (e.g. a special guardianship order) or informally without local authority support.

We use Care Leaver and Care Experienced terms for the benefit of Student Finance criteria. Please see below to see which you identify with.

Care leavers

This includes all students who were in the care of their local authority (council) for a period of 13 weeks or up to their 16th birthday. The 13 weeks could be all at once or a series of placements that add up to 13 weeks. They could have lived in foster homes, children's homes or other institutions like inpatient hospitals or young offender centres.

Student finance bodies will define you as a care leaver if:

• you’re under 25 on the first day of your course
• you’ve been in the care of or been given accommodation by the local authority (council) for at least 13 weeks before the age of 16
• their time in care ended after they turned 16
• you haven’t been reconciled with your parents between leaving care and starting your course.

Care experienced

This includes all students who can evidence they have been in care at any stage in time and for any duration before they turned 18 years old.

It includes those who were adopted (from care) before the age of 18, those who had a special guardianship order (which means they go to live with a friend or family member outside of fostering) and those who were care leavers but are now over 25 years old.

Eligibility and how we assess your application

The steps below explain how we assess for UWE Cares Support and explain the eligibility criteria for the UWE Cares Bursary and accommodation offer.

You must complete all of these actions to be eligible for our support and to be assessed for the UWE Cares bursary and accommodation offer.

Your legal right to support from your council

If you have experience of living in care and are under 25 years old, you may be legally entitled to further support from your local council/local authority's Children's Services. This may include additional financial support. 

• Understand what you are entitled to with Coram Voice.
• Search for your council/local authority's individual offer.
• Find out about your legal right to support.

You can also get information and advice direct from Coram Voice's Always Heard service for free:

• Tel: +44 (0)808 800 5792
• Email: help@coramvoice.org.uk

Guidance for prospective students

If you're thinking about studying at university and you are a care leaver or care experienced, these resources can help:

• UCAS guide about applying to university if you are a care leaver or care experienced.
• Call the Become care advice telephone line for help and advice about education, housing issues, money worries and more.
• Read the EaCES Handbook, which is written by Estranged and Care-Experienced Students (EaCES), to find out more about applying to university and the support you can access.
• Student Finance England short guide to applying for student finance as a care leaver.

Please tick the care leaver box on your UCAS application. This will help universities to offer you extra support. It will also enable us to give you the support you might need before you join us.