Driving Change in Higher Education

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28 11 2023

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Our Driving Change in Higher Education (HE) project is working with universities across England to review and improve the support they offer to young adult carers. The project offers support, free of charge, for each university to develop and embed support that will make a difference for young adult carers. Keep reading for details about how to get involved.

Young adult carers are young people, aged 16 to 24, who provide unpaid care to a family member on a regular basis. L&W estimates that young adult carers provide over £3.5 billion of unpaid care per year. Despite this, on average they achieve 9 lower GCSE grades than their peers, they are five times more likely to drop out of college, and they are 38% less likely to achieve a degree qualification. However, these outcomes are not inevitable.

These young people deserve to go as far as their talent and hard work will take them, yet our work and wider research shows that they often don’t feel supported to go to university. Findings from UCAS in 2024 show that almost two thirds (63%) of young adult carers say they did not receive support tailored to their circumstances to apply for HE, and 69% were unaware of the support available for students with caring responsibilities at their university.

We want to break down barriers to HE and ensure that young adult carers have the same opportunities to go to university, and achieve their potential, as other young people.

Supporting young adult carers in higher education

Delivered in partnership with Carers Federation, and supported by The National Lottery Community Fund, The Driving Change in HE project aims to:

  • Support successful access and transition to HE for young adult carers
  • Improve the support they receive in HE, ensuring that they have a positive experience of university and the same opportunity as their peers to fulfil their potential and achieve better outcomes.

Universities on Driving Change in Higher Education

DC in HE logos (4)

Starting in April 2024, the project will work with 25 universities over three years. The actions of an initial cohort of Driving Change universities are already having an impact ensuring that the support they offer really meets these young people’s needs. This includes:

  • Introducing new processes to improve early and ongoing identification of students with caring responsibilities so that support can be offered as they start university
  • Offering specific packages of financial support, such as bursaries
  • Production of a young adult carers/carers policy or incorporation of young adult carers into other key policies
  • New awareness raising activities which mean that academic and support staff better understand and feel more confident in supporting this group of students.
  • Better join-up with local carers services, for example to run specific young adult carer events, is helping young adult carers and their families to identify that the university is carer friendly, encouraging them to consider an HE pathway and helping to support their transition from further education to university.

We are recruiting more universities to take part in Driving Change

The project offers one-to-one support tailored for each university for between 12 and 18 monthsincluding:

  • An initial online meeting to review the university’s current support for young adult carers at the university
  • Advice and support to develop a university action plan to address identified areas for improvement across the eight criteria of the Quality Standard in Carer Support Framework (QSCS), specifically adapted for HE.
  • Bi-monthly catch-up meetings with key staff to check-in on progress, discuss any challenges in implementing plans and share good practice.
  • Access to two online courses.
  • An online pre-assessment preparation meeting to help the university get ready for the QSCS Final Assessment, and a final online assessment meeting to review how the university’s support has progressed and developed over the course of the project.
  • A final assessment report and QSCS accreditation for 3 years

In addition, the project offers:

  • Support to establish an internal project working group across the university, with one person leading and others supporting the work
  • Training for key staff to understand what it means to be a young adult carer, how caring responsibilities affect young people and what effective support looks like
  • Networking opportunities to connect with other universities and agencies supporting young adult carers in the local area
  • Wider sharing of good practice between universities through a series of themed webinars

To join Driving Change, universities are required to identify and secure commitment from a member of the senior management team to participate in and fulfil the requirements of the project, including taking part in a light touch evaluation to explore the difference that the project makes for young adult carers and universities.

Get involved

For more information, get in touch with the project manager, Jackie Woodhouse

Find out about Driving Change in Further Education

Driving Change in HE builds on the success of our previous work in Further Education (FE), where we worked with 39 colleges and college groups to improve and embed their support for young adult carers.
YAC infographic 2023