Passing the Baton: Enhanced transitions into further and higher education for care experienced school leavers

We know a smooth transition sets students up for success.

That’s why the Hub for SUCCESS has created a transitions toolkit, designed for students preparing to leave school. It focusses on important aspects to consider when looking at college, university, or employment.

The Toolkit aims to provide a set of easy-to-access actions and resources to enable an enhanced smooth transition for care experienced young people into further and higher education.

We want to ensure that a scaffolding of support is in place from the very beginning of your time at college or university, so you are confident you have a support network to lean on if waters become choppy and know who to turn to pre-crisis point. Students are more likely to be able to address the barriers to education they face with the support of their named contact, and wider support staff within college or university, and continue with their studies – this increases retention and the number of our care experienced students who are able to complete their studies.

We know that the numbers of care experienced students at college and university is at a record high in Scotland and how transformative education can be to future outcomes.[1] Across the Hub for Success partnership institutions alone we have seen a rise from 60 full time care experienced students in higher education in 2017/18 to 310 in 2022/23 and in further education a rise from 265 full time care experienced students in 2018/19 to 470 in 2022/23.

It is great to see such a rise in the number of care experienced students in both further and higher education. However, evidence tells us that care experienced students face several barriers to staying in education:

Number of full-time care experienced students completing Higher Education courses successfully (in 21-22) is 50.1% compared to 63.0% for their non-CE peers (Scottish Funding Council, 2021-22)
When asked whether they had any concerns about starting university or college, 69% of care experienced applicants reported that they were concerned about their finances. (UCAS, 2022)
44% of CE students were unable to pay their rent in full at some point during their studies (compared to 26% of students overall) (Who Cares? Scotland)
Three in five care experienced applicants receive no support specific to their circumstances (UCAS)

Care experienced young people are likely to face difficulty in some form when completing their studies. They are:

Nearly twice as likely to have poor mental health
More than twice as likely to have experienced homelessness during their studies
More than 1.5 times more likely to have financial difficulties.

We know an enhanced transition package for our care experienced students will aid retention at college or university and enhance/support student experience:

“Transitioning into university was helped by being informed that support was available from the earliest stage, i.e. when I left school 5 years before – even though I had no intention of going into higher education at that time. My residential unit staff, housing support workers and throughcare workers kept reminding me that if I wanted to study there was financial support and that I would get a guaranteed offer if I met the minimum requirements, and this gave me reassurance and confidence when I was ready to apply.”

“My transition to university was quite hard emotionally and financially. I came from England and only had £20 in my bank account which was meant to last 3 weeks before my bursary came in. For those couple of weeks, I had no idea the support that the university offered until my first meeting with our university’s widening participation officer. They introduced the discretionary fund to me.”

It is part of everyone’s corporate parenting duties and commitment to work with the Promise to work collaboratively to provide greater equity and opportunity for care experienced people.

In turn, supporters of care experienced school leavers emphasise the need for:

Early access to support services while still receiving support from school
A joined-up approach to support care experienced before joining
Clear guidance on funding support at each institution
Teaching staff to know about steps and support for a smooth transition
A ‘warm handover’ type model
Info on the named contacts at each institution to make bespoke arrangements for students
A directory of support for care experienced young people in Edinburgh to support transitions at all stages.

Key to ‘Passing the Baton’ and providing an enhanced transition are four broad themes, which are: