Section 3: Improving support for student carers

Introduction

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Welcome to Section 3. This section focuses on carers’ suggestions for how universities can improve support for student carers. Their experiences can help you in developing your own practice. As you work through this section, make notes of your ideas as they will be helpful in the next section when we look in more detail at the criteria for the Going Higher for Student Carers: Recognition Award.

3.1  Getting in and staying in – the choice to go to university

In 2020, Carers Trust Scotland undertook research entitled The Student Carer Experience in Scotland (Martin, 2020). A total of 391 people took part in the research, including 137 student carers, university and college staff, and carer support workers. The aim of this in-depth study was to understand more clearly what is working well in terms of supporting student carers and what the barriers are which may hinder their access, participation and success in further and higher education.

In this section we will draw on findings from this research as well as the experiences of the student carers you’ve met throughout the course.

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Carers can often have feelings of guilt when applying to college or university. Taking time to prioritise themselves, rather than the person they care for can be a new and difficult experience for them. Carers are conscious that the person doesn’t feel abandoned, so thinking about their own futures and aspirations can be a challenge.

Balancing caring and university

Balancing time to attend class, to study, and to socialise alongside caring responsibilities is difficult for student carers. All the participants in the research identified time as a challenge for student carers. A carer support worker reported that the ‘biggest barrier I would say is time’ whilst a university staff member reflected ‘they’ve got no time to even rest’ (Martin, 2020, p. 16).

Unexpected incidents involving the cared for person, such as a fall, are what make caring roles unpredictable. It is not always possible to plan around caring, as carers can be needed at any time. Leaving class early or being unable to attend at all, does not just disrupt learning but can impact students’ attendance records. While missing class is sometimes an unavoidable feature of student carers’ lives, it can cause them stress and anxiety. For some, unauthorised absences can cause them to lose money from their bursaries or threaten their place on the course.

Socialising

Student carers don’t always have the freedom that those without caring responsibilities have. For many students, university is a chance to meet new people both on their course and through joining clubs and societies. This aspect of university life is challenging for student carers. Being unable to attend social events can make it more difficult to make friends.

Of 137 student carers who took part in the research (Martin, 2020):

• 74% said joining clubs and societies was challenging (p. 20)
• 57% of student carers said making friends was very challenging (p. 22)

Difficulty making friends and integrating into wider university life can make student carers feel very alone. This is often compounded by having very different life experiences and home circumstances to many of their peers. Carers shared that their peers often do not understand caring responsibilities, and it can be difficult for their classmates to relate to them.

3.2  What makes a difference for student carers?

Knowing where to go

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Student carers don’t always know where and how to access support at university. Making sure you promote the support that’s available can make a huge difference. Proactive contact with student carers before they start and during their student experience means they will know who to contact.

While information about support available for student carers is available on university websites, it may be hard to find. Talks or presentations from Student Services or referrals for support from teaching staff can be more effective. Student carers may find it easier to engage with support that is proactively offered rather than seeking it out.

Reaching out to student carers can make them feel that their circumstances are taken seriously and encourages them to engage. Knowing in advance what support is available for carers in advance, for example flexibility about deadlines, can relieve stress and anxiety and avoid crisis situations.

Student carers on proactive support:

‘They didn’t wait for me to look into it. They called me, and that was so much more useful than having to dig in a website to find what you need.’

‘It did take a weight off my mind.’

(Martin, 2020, p. 37)

Someone to talk to

Having someone understanding to talk to is highly valued by many student carers. Being seen and asked about their situation made the carers in the research feel recognised. Just as a lack of understanding can be upsetting for carers, for some, being met with compassion and empathy went a long way. Understanding from academic and support staff can make student carers feel supported and validated.

In the research, student carers perceived staff who were understanding as more likely to offer them support, such as extensions. Students were also more likely to approach staff members who were understanding.

3.3  Named contact for student carers

Having a dedicated member of staff who is the key contact for student carers is essential for Going Higher. A named contact can help to build rapport with the student, understand their needs, and facilitate access to appropriate services within the university and outwith the university. They can also advocate on the student’s behalf with colleagues across departments if needed.

Nothing is more disempowering to carers than having to repeat their circumstances over and over again to several strangers so that they can receive the support they need and are entitled too.

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Transcript: Video 3.1  Advice for universities from student carers

[Advice for universities from student carers]

REBECCA BAXTER

I put on my UCAS form that I was a young carer, so this meant that universities knew before I attended that I was. But before starting university and obviously my first year, I wasn’t aware that there was any support at my university, so I wasn’t getting any support or any advice or help from my university. Even if it was there, they didn’t tell me, so I didn’t know.

I think universities should tell students, either before they attend or in the first couple of weeks, that they can get help and support as early as they need it if they have a place that they can go to talk to someone or get advice, because I think that would have been helpful for me, especially in the first semester when I really did struggle. I think support they could offer could just be talking over stuff, like just talking through, like when my brother is really anxious, it makes me anxious, so mental health support would be good.

But also if something happens to my brother and I have to go home, I’m going to have to maybe get an extension on an assignment or miss a tutorial, which at my university it’s mandatory to go to all tutorials, you can fail the class if you miss more than two. So, if something happens at home and I have to go home to help my family, because it’s not happened to me, I can’t get a doctor’s note to prove it, so sometimes lecturers don’t allow you an extension or to miss a tutorial, they don’t count it as an agreed absence, and I could fail to that.

And I think if the student has said they’re a young carer, just having it in place that something could happen at home, that they might have to leave or get an extension for so that if it does happen, I know that I will be able to go home as well as do my work just a bit later. And that way I’m not worried about my work while I’m worried about my family and trying to help them.’

BETHANY COPLAND

I think the first thing you have to do as a university to support carers, advice I would give universities to support carers, the first thing you would have to do is make it clear, your stance on student carers. Don’t make them have to go to you and ask, because it’s not going to be a consideration to ask half the time. They’ve got too much else on their mind. Make it clear, have it as a whole section on your website. In your support section, make sure that they know you have at least a paragraph about what you’re giving a carer. Or put it down in your prospectus or brochure. Even going in to schools, to the high schools, having someone go in when they’re in third year, so before they sit their exams, to make sure they know that university is an option and that they’re going to get support to go is going to make it a lot more likely that they’re going to try harder in exams and actually consider going, because you don’t; as a carer, you don’t consider uni as a feasible option half the time. So make you stance clear, so any carers in school know they can go to your uni, that you will support them in their education.

… don’t make the carers jump through hoops. Don’t make them go to you, go to them. Don’t make them have to go and tell each of their lecturers separately that they’re a carer as well as a student. Have it so that their lecturers will have it on system and have it clear to them that they have so many carers in their class, and that they need to consider that. And my uni, you do authorised absence forms. So, as a carer, you don’t always manage to make it to class. If you’ve got to take the person you care for to an appointment, or if you’ve been up with them all night because they’ve been ill and you’ve had no sleep and you don’t make it to class, then have it so that they don’t have to lie on the authorised absence for that they were unwell or they had an appointment. Have it clear that you can put down ‘I am a carer, I had a care issue.’

End transcript: Video 3.1  Advice for universities from student carers

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Video 3.1  Advice for universities from student carers

3.4  Income maximisation

The term ‘income maximisation’ comes from the Carers (Scotland) Act 2016 Part 6 (Care Information Scotland, 2020) which states that:

We saw in Section 2 that having unpaid caring responsibility often means a reduction in income and an increase in financial hardship. Many student carers come from low-income households and some are living in poverty. This can negatively impact on their studies in a number of ways and force them to make difficult choices between fulfilling their studies on limited income and their unpaid caring role.

Universities can support carers to maximise their income while studying. Student support and funding teams in your university will have knowledge about funding available to student carers and can help them to apply for it or put them in touch with local carers centres who can provide income maximisation support.

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Transcript: Video 3.2  Finance issues for student carers

[Finance issues for student carers]

BETHANY COPLAND

The halls of residence need to take into consideration that a student carer isn’t always going to be there. I know I was going home twice a month at least for four days at a time. I know people that go home even more frequently when they were in halls. I have a friend that couldn’t stay in halls because of their caring role, and they physically couldn’t afford to go back and forth, from halls to home, and stuff like that. So, if the halls of residence were taking that into consideration, even if it’s a case of they can get a small discount on their rent, it will make a difference, especially if that carer has to send money home. Because carers do that, it’s something we have to do. We don’t get the funding required. We don’t have parents that can pay it for us, most of the time. We have to pay ourselves. And so that small discount for being a carer for your rent, maybe because you’re not there all the time, will make the world of difference.

So, even as a university, if you can put aside a small chunk of money where you’re willing to give the carers just £50 or £100 or money towards textbooks or something like that, it makes so much difference, because then you’re taking off the stress of having to get a job and split the time again across even more… you’re helping them with that and it will make the world of difference to them.

End transcript: Video 3.2  Finance issues for student carers

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Video 3.2  Finance issues for student carers

Supporting staff to support carers

As part of The Student Carer Experience in Scotland research, practitioners were asked what would be most helpful in supporting them to support student carers.

Table 3.1  Challenges for college and university staff in supporting student carers

(Adapted from The Student Carer Experience in Scotland, Martin, 2020, p. 41.) 

Conclusion

Well done, you’ve now completed Section 3. After listening to the student carers’ experiences, exploring the findings of The Student Carer Experience in Scotland research and completing the activities, you should be more aware of:

• the practical support and strategies you can develop and implement to enable student carers to learn successfully participate in university life, maximise their income and keep healthy and well
• the resources available to support you in your university to become more carer aware.

If you choose to move on to Section 4 you’ll use what you’ve learned so far to look at how your university supports student carers. If you are interested in working towards gaining the Going Higher for Student Carers: Recognition Award, or if you have already achieved the award, this will be an opportunity to reflect on where you are on this journey.

Next move onto Section 4: Going Higher Award.