Young carer

[user146539089]

Hi, does anyone have any experience of applying to university as a young carer? My DH has a major physical disability which has caused us a huge amount of disruption to our lives over the years. Sometimes things are fairly normal, other times he’s needed constant care. The DC don’t spend all day every day as carers. They usually do a few things every day to help out, fetching medical equipment, making tea etc. Other times they’ve had to help out more. I know there are organisations we can talk to but I would really like to talk to people who maybe in a similar situation before we say anything to prospective universities.

It’s good to hear @Bunnyannesummers that there will be no obligation to tell people all the details. As I’ve said, we definitely don’t want money. It also feels like reduced A level offers would be cheating. It’s a balance between getting some understanding and recognition of the difficulties they face and maintaining a life which is private and as normal as possible.

Can I ask why you don’t want money? It’s designed to help out - so could mean a student doesn’t need to take a holiday job so they can spend time caring instead/as a buffer in case they need last minute train fare to come home…generally, this kind of bursary would available for all eligible students so you’re not taking it away from someone, if you don’t take it up it just sits in the university bank account doing nothing so to speak. University is expensive and every little helps.

No one would be aware of the bursary - not lecturers or other students. I’d really encourage them to take it up if available.

I appreciate the balance of privacy and understanding but would always advise students/parents and carers not to do it to the detriment of the overall experience. I’ve seen students reject bursaries of thousands of pounds because they don’t wish to disclose a characteristic, it just feels frankly ridiculous and a bit daft.

It probably does look frankly ridiculous and a bit daft if that’s something you haven’t experienced. It’s actually very difficult to tell complete strangers about very personal, intimate details about our family life.

I don’t mean to put you in an uncomfortable position but the point is you don’t need to tell those kind of details to access bursaries or this kind of support.

for what it’s worth I was a carer at uni, also for someone with varying needs (mental health and physical in her case). I didn’t know this support was there (or really think of myself as a carer so wouldn’t have looked), so I didn’t access it. My experience would have been better, and I would have gotten more from it if I’d accessed support (and funding!) so I’m very passionate about students always going for what they’re entitled to, and trying to destigmatise accessing it - that’s why your DC wouldn’t be required to share lots of personal, difficult information.

please do consider encouraging your DC to take up the full range of support, if you and they feel able at the time.

There is no obligation to share any details. The privacy of the disabled person they provide care to is 100% respected. I say that as the disabled person my DC cared for. The Unis don’t even know what my disabilities are.

How would bursaries and contextual offers be “cheating”? The bursaries are to offset the fact that young people with caring responsibilities don’t have the time others have to work and save money towards Uni like regular students do. The contextual offers are meant to offset less time for studying that regular students have.

It’s levelling the playing field, not cheating. You will be punishing your DC and making things harder than they should be if you pressure them into not ticking off that they are young carers.

I don’t ever plan on punishing my dc @Onnabugeisha I do everything I can to help them.

I’m in a similar position with my two children. My eldest is 17 and applying to unis this Autumn. Both my children are carers, though they really struggle with seeing themselves as such. In part this is because they have both been doing it for a long time…I was diagnosed with MS back in 2015, so it’s been impacting them since then - so they don’t really remember life beforehand.

A few months ago I found out I have breast cancer which is a bit of a nightmare, to say the least, and it’s precipitated the conversation around special consideration for A levels and young carer/contextual admissions. From the research I’ve done not all universities offer contextual admissions for young carers and the process for verification varies between them. I’m finally now registering my children as young carers with the local council, I think this is the best way to make it ‘official’.

Of the universities my son is looking at the most proactive and supportive so far have been St Andrews, Glasgow and Exeter, all of who offer contextual admissions for young careers and lots of pastoral support.

My advice is:
Contact the university- they probably have a team focused on young carers to find out the support available and the process for applying
Speak to the school around how to mention it in the personal statement and reference/UCAS or even special consideration for exams or coursework
Discuss openly all decisions and approaches with the children so everyone feels comfortable. It’s helpful if children understand this isn’t about preferential treatment, but all about making it fair. A very tricky area though.

Hi I work for a young carer organisation (Scotland). We don’t count hours, being a young carer isn’t just about hands on care, some don’t do any hands on caring at all. Maybe they have a neurodiverse sibling that needs a lot of care by mum or dad and that limits the activities they can do or the time they can spend with parents. that young person would be a young carer. If the young person is impacted by a caring role they are an yc, they don’t have to be the main care giver. Every yc is entitled to a young carers statement, schools can also complete these with them or if not an organisation can meet and do this, we normally meet the up in school to do it. If that’s all the support they would like that’s completely fine. They can have that and only that, they can also get a supporting letter for universities. We do this quite often! We also have a membership service which has no in person support but the yc has access to lots of handy information and can reach out at any point if they feel they need a little extra.

My ds is a carer & at university now, he got a bursary by being a young carer plus one for being the first of his generation in the family to go to university & having 2 parents who didn't go to university, his bursaries add up to £6k a year on top of his maintenance loan.

We are in a similar situation,
My elder son who is a young carer has qualified for grammar school, the admission criteria says:
"Children who have exceptional medical or social needs (e.g. registered young carers), which can be met only at this school, supported by written evidence from a doctor, social worker, educational welfare officer or other appropriate person. "

Can some here guide me how do we mention that this school can only met the needs ?

Have you already made the application? Do you have any hcp or sw involved with the family who could evidence this?

Hi, OP -

This is a very moving thread.

As a former admissions tutor in a high tariff Russell Group School, I sympathise with your DC’s reticence and find it appealing, but agree that it is misplaced. The contextual offers, bursaries, etc, that being a YC make DC eligible for are just an attempt to level the playing field. To pass them up is to put oneself at a disadvantage.

Of course DC is doing the caring out of love (well, not everyone would, but many YP are fantastic, and would) but that is beside the point. It has nothing to do with the fact that there has been a cost. Why would DC not now give themselves the very best chance to succeed (and be in the strongest position to help DF in the future, should he need it)? Learn from the experience of @Bunnyannesummers and her excellent posts

It is important to mention the average time and intensity commitment of the caring in written notes for the referee, with an offer of documentation. DC can briefly mention it in their PS but a factual sentence concerning these aspects (not just limited to the fact that DF is an amputee) will suffice: the referee’s statement will carry the most weight.

Very best wishes to your family

@poetryandwine Zombie thread from 2023

@busySunflower the is a thread about applying to uni, not a grammar school from 2 years ago. You might be better off starting a new thread on the Education board.

This applied to my DC, I emailed their careers teacher who was signing off her personal statement and asked him to include her being a young carer in his reference. DD didn't even know, she'd be mortified.

yes we have already made the application, no social worker or health worker invovled, just GP, Community Padetriction are invovled