1. Scottish National Access Conference
Carers Trust Scotland
Scottish National Access Conference
20th June 2017

2. About us:
Carers Trust Scotland (formerly The Princess Royal Trust for Carers) has been operating in Scotland since We are the largest provider of comprehensive carers support services in Scotland, reaching around 40,000 adult carers and more than 3,500 young carers from all groups and communities, through a unique network of independent carers centres and young carers services (Network Partners) throughout Scotland.
We work with these Network Partners to improve support, services and recognition for carers in communities across Scotland.

3. There are over 788,000 carers across Scotland
Describing carers: “A carer is anyone who cares, unpaid, for a friend or family member who due to illness, disability, a mental health problem or an addiction cannot cope without their support.”
There are over 788,000 carers across Scotland

4. What we do? Policy and campaigning
Emotional, practical and financial support
Training and education
Social and leisure activities
Breaks and respite
Grants
© Carers Trust

5. Where do we
operate?
Working with almost 170 Local Network Partners across the UK
Supporting over 450,000 carers

7. Identify Support Report Going Higher in Scotland - campaign
The Going Higher for Student Carers campaign is asking the Scottish Government and all institutions to include student carers when they look at widening access and participation.
It is calling for institutions to: 
Identify
Support
Report

8. Why is the Going Higher for Student Carers in Scotland campaign needed?
This campaign aims to raise awareness of student carers and the issues they experience. It aims to highlight the extremely challenging conditions endured by student carers that is negatively impacting on them being able to enter, sustain and meet their true potential in Further and Higher Education in Scotland. Carers provide an invaluable service to their cared for person/s, but also to their local community and to Scotland.
It’s is Student Carers’ Time to be Heard in Scotland

9. Research on young adult and student carers:
Carers Trust
Young Adult Carers at College and University (2014)
Young Adult Carers and Employment (2014)
Scottish Youth Parliament (2014)
A Costly Youth: The Impact of Caring on Young People in Scotland (2014)
National Union of Students (2013)
Learning with care: Experiences of student carers in the UK

10. Student carers are four times more likely to drop out of college or university than students who are not carers.

11. Putting student carers On the Map

12. UCAS campaign
We worked in partnership with student carers to ask UCAS to add a tick box which would prompt carers to identify themselves through UCAS Apply
In six weeks more than 2,500 signatures signed our petition to UCAS!
18 MSPs supported the Parliamentary motion raised on this.
Ben Jordan, a senior policy executive at UCAS, explained:
"We're working to allow applicants to disclose whether they are a carer or have care responsibilities as part of UCAS Apply.
Our ambition is that this option is built into our new Apply form, which is being significantly redeveloped for re-launch in September 2018.”

13. Top achievements to date?
15 of the 19 universities in Scotland have informed us about what they are currently doing or are planning to do to support student carers
A number of students’ associations have become formal champions of the campaign and are promoting it in their associations and across campus
21 organisations have logged their support to Going Higher for Student Carers, including the Scottish Youth Parliament and Caritas Legal Ltd
We have been working in partnership with the Students Awards Agency for Scotland and the Scottish Funding Council and HESA to plan forward national developments to improve support for student carers
In Members of the Scottish Parliament have signed the Going Higher for Student Carers motion S4M and noted a commitment that: “every effort should be made to ensure that student carers are identified and their specific needs are recognised and that they receive all the support that they require.”

14. Overview
This awards aims to make it easier for universities to support student carers and reward good practice.
It incentivises and encourages universities to adopt a sustainable, whole institution approach to Identify, Support and Report on student carers.

15. Key features of the Recognition Award:
No cost to apply
Direct support from Carers Trust Scotland to help you achieve
Clear guidance to develop student carer support
Raising awareness of students with a caring role
Encourages partnerships
Recognises good practice

16. Fair Access agenda and carers
Carers were not specifically examined in the Commission on Widening Access review
Recommendation 5: Universities should ensure their admissions processes are not to the detriment of learners who take a more flexible range of pathways.
Recommendation 6: Key transitions phases around SCQF levels 6 to 8 are better used to provide students from disadvantaged backgrounds with the qualifications and experiences required to support fair access.
Recommendation 26: By 2021, the SFC, in consultation with the Scottish Government, should explore options for more targeted funding models to better support the recruitment and retention of greater numbers of access students.
Carers are more likely to take advantage of more flexible range of pathways to pursue higher education.

17. Recommendation 11: By 2019 all universities should set access thresholds for all degree programmes against which learners from the most deprived backgrounds should be assessed.
Recommendation 12: All universities should be as open and transparent as possible over their use of access thresholds and wider contextual admissions policies.
Recommendation 15: Universities and colleges should increase engagement with our youngest children and their families as part of the provision of a coordinated package of support for those in our most deprived communities.
Recommendation 16: Universities, working with schools, should take greater responsibility for the development of the pool of applicants from disadvantaged backgrounds.
Recommendation 32: By 2030, students from the 20% most deprived backgrounds should represent 20% of entrants to higher education. Equality of access should be seen in both the college sector and the university sector.
Carers are more likely to be from financially deprived backgrounds. Time spent caring can impact a person’s education attainment. But many carers can feel unable to take forward higher education opportunities because of their caring role even when they have attained the required grades.

18. Recommendation 19: The Commissioner for Fair Access should commission research, within three months of appointment, to assess how student finance impacts on the participation of disadvantaged learners in higher education.
Recommendation 20: Disadvantaged learners and their parents, should be provided with clear, accurate information on both the availability of student finance and the conditions for repayment.
Improved information and advice for student carers on student finance and the conditions for repayment. Carers Trust Scotland hopes that the research will include how student finance impacts on the on the participation of student carers specifically in higher education.

19. Recommendation 17: Skills Development Scotland and schools should work together to provide a more coordinated, tailored offer of information, advice and guidance to disadvantaged learners at key transition phases throughout their education.
There is currently a lack of tailored information, advice and guidance to support learners who are carers at key transition phases in their education.
Recommendation 33: The Commissioner for Fair Access should:
• consider what further work is required to support equal access for other groups of learners and within specific degree subjects.
Carers Trust Scotland hopes that further work is undertaken on the student carer experience.

20. Carers Trust Scotland working in partnership with the Scottish Funding Council

21. 2017-2018 Outcome Agreement Guidance
All colleges and universities were asked to include a statement on Carers outlining:
Their current and future commitment to students (and staff) who are carers, and
(where known) state the number of individual students (and staff) who are carers)

22. Definition
The Scottish Funding Council asks institutions to use the Carers Trust Scotland definition:
“A carer is anyone who cares, unpaid, for a friend or family member who due to illness, disability, a mental health problem or an addiction cannot cope without their support”

23. Colleges have been collecting data on carers since AY 2013-14
In Scottish Funding Council is now asking who is being cared for.
Do you have unpaid caring responsibilities for a family member or friend who is ill, frail, disabled or has a mental health or addiction problems?  YES or No
Who do you care for?
Disabled child/children under 18
Child/children under 18
Adult(s) 18 and over
Prefer not to say

24. College data to

25. Going forward
It is our hope that going forward we will be able to offer Going Further for Student Carers: Recognition Award to assist and make it easier for colleges to support student carers and reward good practice.

26. E: ptraynor@carers.orgE: T: