Supporting students with caring responsibilities
A carer is anyone who is responsible for providing unpaid care to a family member or friend who could not cope without their support.
A carer is anyone who is responsible for providing unpaid care to a family member or friend who could not cope without their support.
A carer is anyone who gives unpaid care to a family member, partner or friend who could not cope without their support. This may be due to a long-term illness, disability, a mental health condition, or an addiction.
A caring responsibility may be short term — such as supporting someone with their recovery following an accident, or long term — such as helping someone with a long-term illness.
Caring responsibilities might include physical care (e.g. helping someone out of bed), personal care (e.g. helping someone wash), emotional support, collecting prescriptions and helping to give medicine, and providing emergency care. For young adult carers, this might also involve practical household tasks (e.g. cooking and cleaning), managing the family budget, and looking after siblings.
There are many different types of caring responsibilities – and many different types of carer. Here are some examples:
Some students with caring responsibilities might think it's not worth telling the university or college about their circumstances, perhaps because they think it's a temporary situation, or because they don’t think it ‘counts’. However, all carers deal with their responsibilities alongside their education differently, and may still find some occasional support helpful, especially if their circumstances change.