Student Carers

Our student wellbeing adviser, Christina Kelly, is a point of contact for student carers throughout their time at university. Christina is happy to be contacted by prospective students and applicants as well as current students, and can support you in a range of ways:

Applicants are advised to get in touch early so that they can find out about pre-entry supports and opportunities to apply for scholarships.

Christina can provide practical and emotional support to student carers throughout their time at GCU. She is happy for students to contact her at any time, or can also discuss setting up a more regular wellbeing check-in with individual students. We would also recommend signing up to the Student Wellbeing newsletter.

Christina can offer advice, signposting and referrals to other services and resources within GCU and externally. Please visit the Student Wellbeing webpages to find out more about the supports and resources available.

Christina can help you to create a Student Carer Plan. This document will formally verify that you are a carer and provide a way of communicating with your department about how your caring role might impact on your studies. The Student Carer Plan also provides an opportunity to request flexibility to help you balance your caring role with your studies. Some examples of flexibility that may be offered are:

• Recognising the need to arrive late or leave early in order to place your cared for person(s) in appropriate daytime care
• Agreeing periods of authorised absence and making arrangements for you to catch-up on lectures/tutorials missed for reasons relating to caring responsibilities to ensure that you are not at an academic disadvantage
• Requesting advance notice of timetables where possible to allow you to make necessary alternative care arrangements and recognising that you may not be able to attend academic activities in the event of late changes to timetables
• Ensuring that you have adequate opportunity to make up missed time e.g. through access to any missed materials, or rescheduling of practical activities
• Taking account of caring responsibilities on courses which require an external placement. Priority should be given to ensuring the placement is within reasonable travelling distance to accommodate care arrangements
• Providing at least a few weeks' notice of placements to allow the arrangement of alternative care
• If viable, consideration of a transfer to part-time study (Please note that international students in the UK with a Tier 4 General Student Visa are not permitted to change to part-time study).

Christina is also happy to support students to participate in activism to raise the visibility of student carers and help you to have your voice heard. Please get in touch if this is something you would be interested in getting involved with.

At GCU Students' Association there is an a representation group for Student Carers. The Student Carers' Group exists to represent the interests of all Student Carers studying at GCU. The Student Carers Officer with GCU and GCU Students' Associations to enhance the student experience of students with caring responsibilities.

The officer team can be contacted at SCOfficer@GCUStudents.co.uk . Find out more by joining the group at GCU Students' Association. 

At GCU, we recognise the incredible contribution that unpaid carers make to individuals and society. We believe that the role of a carer supports the development of skills and attributes that are valued within communities. Therefore we recognise and reward this informal learning through The Common Good Award. To find out more about this award, please e-mail cgaward@gcu.ac.uk with your name and student number and someone will get back to you with more information about how to sign up.

Our Student Wellbeing Adviser and institution lead and contact for Student Carers spoke on the Common Good Podcast about the support available for student carers at GCU. This is available on Soundcloud and Spotify, and through our Student Carers Podcast Transcript

SAAS have created this document specifically for Student Carers to advise on what funding might be available to you.

You can also speak to our Student Funding Team who can advise on what funds could be accessible for you.

Young Carers Action Day: 16th March: Student Information Session for Student Carers

Young Carers Action Day is an annual event, organised by Carers Trust. It has taken place over the last six years to raise awareness of young carers and the incredible contribution they make to their families and local communities. GCU student and staff carers can access contextualised support. 

On Young Carers Action Day, GCU Wellbeing will be delivering two short information sessions:

12-12:30pm: Staff Lunchtime Session: Launch of new Carer Aware Module.

This session will provide a brief overview of the module with information about how support is contextualised at GCU.
The session is for any staff member at GCU

3-3:30pm: Student Event: Information Session about the supports available at GCU, the Students’ Association and wider community.

Any GCU student is welcome to attend. 

Both sessions will be informal and discussion/questions/feedback is very much welcome.

If you are looking after a friend or family member and it is having an impact on your studies, this would be a good opportunity to come along and hear about the support available from the university. Discussion and questions are always welcome, however, if there is anything personal you would like to discuss, please contact StudentCarers@gcu.ac.uk to arrange a confidential meeting.

Free Mindfulness Sessions for Student Carers

Glasgow East End Community Carers, in partnership with Glasgow Caledonian University are continuing to offer free mindfulness sessions for student carers on Zoom.

The sessions are every Wednesday at 13:30pm and student carers could spend time with a supportive group wherever they are!

Students who are interested to attend the sessions can send a text to Anastasia: 079 3280 4479 including their name and university/college and she will get back to them with a confirmation text.

If you have any questions about the sessions please contact the Student Wellbeing Service. 

Carers Week: 7th - 13th of June 

Carers Week is an annual campaign to raise awareness of caring, highlight the challenges unpaid carers face and recognise the contribution they make to families and communities throughout the UK. It also helps people who don't think of themselves as having caring responsibilities to identify as carers and access much-needed support.

Carers Rights Day: 26th of November

Carers Rights Day is an annual campaign with Carers UK to raise awareness of your rights and the support available to you as a Carer. Find out more at the Carers UK Webpage.

Feedback from student carers has indicated that it would be helpful to include student carer stories on our web pages to help illustrate their experiences. If you would be interested in sharing your story, please go to our Student Carers Stories webpage.

Our Student Carer Officer, Abbie, has been working with Carers Trust Scotland’s Young Adult Carer Advisory Group. Over the past 8 months, this group of young adult carers has been planning lots of fun and informative events to reach as many people as possible. This year's theme is "protecting young carers futures" and is focusing on helping young carers to overcome barriers to getting to university and other positive destinations,.

Abbie would like to hear from student carers to get an idea of what would have been helpful when transitioning to university.

Abbie has created an anonymised form so that the voices of student carers can inform this campaign and improve support for carers throughout university.

All questions are optional so you can write as much or as little as you want.

During 2020 we asked our Student Carers to tell us more about their experiences of lockdown and the impact of Covid19. We have collated their responses below: 

Impact of Covid 

What would help under a blended learning model?

General Comments about Support 

Carers Trust Scotland and The Open University in Scotland have joined forces to help improve support to thousands of student carers in Scotland, who are studying alongside providing unpaid care for a family member or friend who is ill, frail, disabled or has mental health or addiction problems.

Carer Aware is a new online training module which has been developed by Carers Trust Scotland and The Open University in Scotland with funding from The Scottish Funding Council. The module will help university staff to better understand the challenges faced by many student carers and provides guidance on how to improve support for these students at university.

East End Community Carers are continuing to offer free mindfulness sessions for carers on Zoom.

The sessions are every Wednesday at 13:30pm. There is no need to sign up ahead of the session.

The session can be accessed here, (there will not be a session on the 19th of August). Find out more at their website. 

HOPE have created this fantastic guide for students who are supporting ill or disabled family members. It is written by young people and offers tips for students in similar situations.  

The Open University offers these free online modules for carers and for managers supporting carers in employment.

Glasgow City Health and Social Care Partnership provides a range of community health and social care services for children, adults and older people within Glasgow City. Some services cover the entire NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde Board area. The services are either directly provided by the Partnership or purchased by the Partnership from another provider/contractor of community health and social care services.

You can find more information on how to:

• get a community health service or
• get a social care service

There is also information for carers on the Glasgow website or the carers area of Your Support Your Way Glasgow.

The National Wellbeing Hub for the health and social care workforce has been launched. This includes resources for unpaid carers. This is a ‘front door’ to the wide range of support and wellbeing resources available in Scotland.

Housing Options Scotland can offer excellent support in this are for those looking to secure appropriate, secure housing (aimed at disabled people, older people and veterans).

Find out how to apply for the Young Carers Package, Carer's Allowance and the Young Carers Grant. Hear stories from other young people on their experience of being a carer and get loads of info on caring for someone.

Find information about how to look after your emotional wellbeing, support from organisations around Scotland and tips on how to promote a positive mindset at Young Scot's Aye Feel webpages. Check out the #AyeFeel tag on social media for the latest updates.

To help carers and their families have some time-out from their caring routines while other supports may not be available, Shared Care have pulled together a collection of ideas, resources and activities which we are calling – ‘Short Breaks for Strange Times’.  These include everything from online courses, virtual museums, exercise programmes, read-alongs, and websites for children and young people, as well as support services that are delivering online.

the NHS have dedicated online resources with information for carers using NHS Services.

Lanarkshire Carers have created an online Wellbeing Library with self-care videos. These short videos are designed to give you a short break away from your caring role and to help you cope better with life as a carer. These are particularly helpful when you are feeling stressed and overwhelmed. Make sure you take the time to look after yourself.