Overview: UWE Cares delivers an integrated strategy to welcome and induction with accommodation-based services centred.  The effectiveness of such a ‘whole institution’ approach has been acknowledged by TASO as being key to closing outcome gaps, and underpins the pivotal sharing of data across functional teams critical to coherence of student experience.  

The welcome and induction pathway is purposefully not linearly restricted; relevant students can access the components of the onboarding ‘menu’ from any point of being identified, thanks to the information sharing protocol, and the existence of a multidisciplinary, intersectionality team. 

• Pre-entry, first year students holding contextual offers (includes care experienced and estranged students) can access a free residential 3-day summer school on campus supporting orientation and self-efficacy
• UCAS tickbox students receive advance communication on university accommodation with integrated adjustments like no deposit, no guarantor, and variable check-in expedited on registration
• The integrated UWE Cares/Student Life working enables responsive problem solving that unpick housing (or other) blockers to the transition phase so that pragmatic factors eg physically moving items, can be addressed on a case by case basis at the time of need.  Care experience and estranged students get a ‘front loaded’ exposure to wider student services negating the, evidenced, barrier of students researching such services independently.
• Proactive student finance communications from the team seeks to counter the delays on loan settlement often experienced by this population of students due to the additional evidencing requirements, simultaneous exam pressure, and lack of other informed adult input.  Delays on loan settlement that affect rent instalments are routinely circulated back to the accommodation team to adjust to revised timetables.  

Resourcing:  The UWE Cares team comprises two full time staff and oversees an average student population of 270 (plus carers).  However the whole institution approach enables efficient utilisation of capacity across the university which inherently also provides a degree of resilience in times of constrained budgets.  The interdisciplinary team also provides the institution with a valuable cortex traversing across student characteristics like faith, ethnicity, disability & health conditions, mature, international as well as care experienced/estranged, to channel students fluently to academic provision and student services. 

Monitoring/Evaluation:  The effectiveness of the UWE Cares approach is not isolated to specific interventions due to the usual population barriers, but also as runs contrary to the ‘whole institution’ philosophy.    The university is awaiting the development of reliable national benchmarks to better explore the impact of their cohesive approach.

Transitioning into higher education is already tough, but the process for care-experienced and estranged students is lined with specific financial, personal and emotional barriers. A key issue for care-experienced and estranged students is the need for stable housing at university, but these students are particularly at risk of facing structural difficulties and therefore need access to more specialised support.

Having a home at university is a basic need, like having access to food and water, clothes, and money. However, care-experienced and estranged students are more likely to have experienced housing insecurity and/or homelessness prior to attending university – this makes accessing stable accommodation early and easily so important.

Care-experienced and estranged students often lack both formal and informal networks of support in finding accommodation. Not having emotional and financial support from parents/caregivers, or advice from financial advisors or university accommodation specialists, can make the process hugely isolating.

I know firsthand – from my own experiences, and the experiences of my peers – how emotionally and physically laborious it can be to organise moving between accommodation. When you’re trying to make the most of your rent in one place so you stay as long as you can to avoid paying double rent which you can’t afford, and when you’re asking around for friends whose parents would be willing to help drive your belongings because you can’t do it yourself or afford multiple train tickets or taxis, it can be hard to carry the burden of needing help but lacking the support. This is why HEIs must take action.

From my own experience, I have understood better what works and what doesn’t work in not only the transition to HE as an estranged student, but also transitioning between years of university. I became estranged during the summer after my first year of university, and this was a very hard time for me because as well as trying to find emergency accommodation during the summer. Seeking support from my university was really difficult to access.  Staff didn’t know what to do. I bounced between the Student Accommodation Centre, Student Services and the finance department – because they didn’t know what they could or should do to support me.. Eventually I was able to access some university accommodation over the summer, but it was a lengthy and emotionally draining process. Having specific support from someone who knew how to help me as an estranged student with practical support  would have been immensely helpful.

While my university did eventually offer me accommodation during a portion of the summer period, not only did I have to leave in early September (when my second year started at the beginning of October) leaving me with one month of nowhere to stay, but I also had to move three times between on-campus halls because each one had a different summer accommodation availability. This meant that I repeatedly had to carry my belongings between halls, often during sweltering summer days, all by myself, making multiple trips across campus.

Providing support for the transition to university for care-experienced and estranged students has a significant impact on their lives and university experience – especially in the early days when so much rests on feeling like you belong and are welcomed in your new space.

When the basic need of secure housing is met, students are able to focus on their academic attainment, as well as ensuring they have good physical and mental health. Care-experienced and estranged students also often prioritise employment during their time at university, in order to pay their rent because they’re not supported by the bank of Mum and Dad. Early access to accommodation has other benefits, as well as being able to stop periods of homelessness it also means care-experienced and estranged students can find paid work more easily – supporting students to feel more secure in their choices

There are so many reasons why supporting with early access to housing at university is important but whatever the reason – when care-experienced and estranged students housing needs are met with the fewest barriers and reduced stress, they are more able to succeed at university.