Support for Young Adult
Carers at York College
Jules Dymond
Student Advisor in Welfare & Funding
Aims
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How we identify carers
Our barriers to identification
The support we provide
Making a difference to our carers
Identifying young
adult carers
York Carers Centre monthly drop-in
Referrals directly from YCC
Direct questions on the bursary forms
Working on the enrolment form to identify carers at the
start of their course
 Option to register caring responsibilities on the student’s
individual learning plan (with or without the tutor)
 Disclosure to tutors or other staff, often either due to an
escalation of difficulties at home or disciplinary issues at
college
 Information from feeder schools – forming closer links
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Barriers to
identification
 Not all students with caring responsibilities regard
themselves as a carer – “it’s just my mum”
 Admitting you’re a carer can make it feel more real
 It can be embarrassing to discuss home situations with
others
 Sometimes the cared-for person doesn’t want anyone
else involved
 The bursary form is the main source of identification but
not all students can apply for it e.g. apprentices, so they
need to be identified by other routes
This means that sometimes carers are only
identified when things reach crisis point
Providing support:
Funding
Standard discretionary bursary
Enhanced discretionary bursary
Income threshold of £25,000
Awards made to students where
household income is over £25,000
90% travel costs funded up to £10 a
day where students live more than 3
miles from college
100% travel costs wherever possible,
no minimum distance to college
Further education free meals awarded
based on set government criteria
Discretionary free meal vouchers
awarded
£200 limit on travel to university open
days and interviews
No upper limit on travel to university
open days and interviews
90% essential equipment costs funded 100% of essential equipment funded,
can include a printing allowance if
needed
Providing support:
Pastoral
 Extensions to deadlines for coursework
 Being able to have a phone on and take phone calls in
class
 Permission to miss classes for caring responsibilities
when necessary
 Counselling, mentoring and practical support from
specialist staff
York Carers Centre
Young Carers Card
http://www.yorkcarerscentre.co.uk/
Making a difference
 Support through the bursary enables students to:
 Get to college
 Eat a healthy meal each day
 Access all of the equipment they need for their course
 Plan for, and access, future study
 Worry less about being able to afford to study
 Pastoral support enables students to:
 Get support with attendance and deadlines rather
than disciplinary action
 Get free counselling and other non-academic support
 Focus on being a student
Making a difference
 “I feel incredibly fortunate that I was able to draw upon
the support of both York College and York Carers Centre
as without the complimentary support packages they
were able to provide I would not be where I am today.”
- York College student
Next steps
 We identify and support about 100 students a year with
caring responsibilities, but we know there are more who
don’t ever tell us about it
 There is more work for us to do, especially around
enrolment and pastoral support, and identifying student
carers who can’t or don’t apply for a bursary
 We work very closely with York Carers Centre, but about
half of our students are from outside York, so we need
to build relationships with other carers centres
 The support we provide for carers can be beneficial for
other groups of students too e.g. young parents and
students dealing with homelessness
Questions?