A blog written by your Care Experience Rep, Jodie Roberts, expanding on her current Big Idea submission “UCLAN to support Care Leavers and Care Experienced Students by expressing an interest in signing the NNECL Quality Mark”

CW: Brief mention of suicide

What does it mean to be Care Experienced?

In legal terms, a Care Experienced student is “Any individual who has been in care or a looked-after background at any point in their life or is still in care. This includes care leavers and adopted people”, but to have care experience will mean something different to everyone and everyone is welcome in the spaces I create as Care Experienced Representative.

What is the NNECL Charter Mark

The National Network for the Education of Care Leavers and Care Experienced people (NNECL) is a charter mark that aims to improve the student life cycle of care experienced people from the admissions process all the way to graduation destinations.

Three in five care experienced people receive no support relative to their circumstances in applying to university, yet the proportion of care experienced university students has doubled from 2008 to 2022. If this shows anything, it is that even though the system might keep pushing us out, we keep pushing forward and we will keep persevering. At the same time, we will be asking for the support that we deserve because it is time that we were represented and supported in higher education.  

Well, how is this relevant to me and my community?

Being care experienced is an intersectional identity. We are more likely to be ethnic minorities, 69% of us are mature students, we are 2x more likely to be disabled, we are 3x more likely to have a mental health condition, 79% more likely to identify as LGBTQ+ and 4x more likely to commit suicide. If you are part of any of these groups, you are more likely to know someone who is care experienced and would appreciate this support.

The Quality Mark starts with outreach and finishes with destinations beyond graduation. It also looks at the institutional culture and leadership within the university towards care experienced students. This is something I believe staff should have more awareness of to help them put content warnings on lectures with strong themes of the care experience in all schools. This can also help them to learn more about the general language they are using. For example, the avoidance of blanket statements such as “why didn’t you learn this at school?” which improves not only the life of care experienced people but international students and anyone who has had a different educational background for any reason.

This charter mark is not meant to demean the university, it is to identify the problem areas and provide the university with continuous support by being reviewed every 3 years. It isn’t for no reason that UCAS recommends this charter mark and many universities including Edge Hill have signed up to this. UCLAN, promise to look after us!

Read more and vote on Jodie’s Big Idea here 

"The university should put forward an expression of interest in signing up to the “National Network for Care Leavers (NNECL,)” quality charter mark. This is not a one-off charter mark which should encourage the university to consistently uphold their commitments to students. The framework will cover the entire student lifecycle from outreach to graduation and onwards. This is especially important for UCLAN as a widening participation university."