At King’s College London, we recognise that being a young adult carer can have a significant impact on educational opportunities and outcomes, and we therefore provide pre-entry support to young adult carers.

A young adult carer is a person aged under 25 at the point of enrolment who has (or has previously had) significant unpaid caring responsibilities for a family member or close friend with a medical diagnosis of long-term or terminal illness, disability, mental health condition, is elderly or frail, or who struggles with addiction or substance misuse. This does not apply to childcare or working/volunteering in a care setting.

If you are a young adult carer and you are applying to study at King’s, we strongly advise you to disclose this via your UCAS application. This will allow admissions staff to take your circumstances into consideration and will not have a negative impact on your application.

The first step in disclosing that you are or have been a young adult carer (young carer, if under 18) is by ticking the YAC box on your UCAS application. UCAS have a helpful webpage on carer responsibilities and how students should include this in a UCAS application.

We use this data to holistically assess an applicant’s future potential to succeed and to differentiate between similar highly qualified candidates.

As a young adult carer, you will receive additional consideration through the admissions process. Examples of how this might be applied are provided below:

• Students whose application is considered to be close to the standard required to gain an interview may be offered an interview.
• Students whose admissions test score is considered to be close to the required standard might be given an offer or interview.
• Students who narrowly fail to meet their conditional offer will be given additional consideration as to whether their place should be confirmed.

King's College London has a designated member of staff (pre-entry), who can assist with all aspects of the application process: you can talk about course choices, receive feedback on a draft personal statement, tips on interviews as well as guidance on King's other support services e.g., student funding or the disability services. For more information, please contact us on priority-groups@kcl.ac.uk.

King’s verification: Evidence needed

To be verified as a young adult carer on your King’s application, you must:

• Tick the box on UCAS to indicate you are a young adult carer
• Be under 25 at the point of enrolment on your undergraduate programme
• Have applied for an undergraduate programme
• Be assessed as a ‘home fees’ student by the university
• Be eligible for a maintenance loan from Student Finance.

If you meet the eligibility requirements, you will also need to provide us with evidence that you are a young adult carer. You will need to submit this to the King’s Apply portal. This evidence will need to be a letter on headed paper or an email from one of the following who can verify your status:

• A Carers’ Network letter
• Carers’ card (a scan or clear photo)
• A letter from your GP
• A letter from your teacher or tutor (a school designated safeguarding lead will be accepted)
• A letter from your local authority

Please only submit or send one of the pieces of evidence listed above.

If you are submitting a letter as evidence this should:

• Confirm that your referee knows you to be a young adult carer
• Provide brief details of your caring responsibilities e.g. who you care for, how often you provide care, and the nature of the care provided
• Explain the impact that caring responsibilities have/had on your education
• Include contact details in case we need further information

Evidence which does not include the above will not be considered for verification.

Please note, we do not require any personal medical information (e.g. Doctor or hospital notes) about the person you are caring for or have previously cared for to be submitted. Please do not include this as part of your evidence.

In addition to providing evidence, we strongly advise that applicants:

Refer to their care giving responsibilities in the personal statement

Ensure the teacher reference gives additional information and provides context. If you have mitigating circumstances, please visit the undergraduate admissions mitigating circumstances guidance webpage, and complete the relevant form.

If you have any issues with providing evidence, please contact us directly at priority-groups@kcl.ac.uk

Widening Participation projects

We welcome young adult carers who attend non-selective state schools to apply to any of our social mobility and widening participation programmes.

Whether you want to have a taste of university life, would like some tips on the application process, or to learn more about the different subjects on offer, then make sure you submit an application. Find out more about eligibility for our Widening Participation programmes on our webpage.

If you have any questions about applying to King’s for undergraduate study (or applying to one of our widening participation activities), we encourage you to email priority-groups@kcl.ac.uk where you can get information and advice about the application process, or help with navigating King’s admissions, support or funding services.

If you don't feel you quite fit the definition of a young adult carer but have caring responsibilities, then please visit Student Services Online where you can find out more about the support on offer.

King’s Living Bursary

King's is committed to financially assisting students who need extra funding to complete their studies. Students don’t need to apply for the King’s Living Bursary and will be contacted automatically providing they meet the eligibility criteria. To find more, please visit our funding opportunities catalogue

All students at King’s can access academic support from their Personal Tutor.

Prioritisation for paid Widening Participation Student Ambassador roles

Students can book an appointment with the Advice & Guidance team for more specialist support e.g., interrupting studies due to caring responsibilities

Access to King’s counselling service

A KEATS discussion board is available for peer support

The Chaplains are also available across the university for practical and spiritual support

Further information and useful links

The UCAS website also has information about what support is available to carers in higher education and useful tips for carers who want to go to university.

The Young Carers Trust have the most up to date resources and advice on anything from legal support and knowing your rights, through to wellbeing and mental health.

The Children's Society website also has lots of useful information and a website specifically for young carers called Include.

If you have any queries, please don't hesitate to contact us at priority-groups@kcl.ac.uk. You can also find out more about our department on our meet the social mobility teams webpage.