At King’s College London, we recognise that any time spent in care can have a significant impact on educational opportunities and outcomes, and therefore provide pre-entry and on-course support to students who have spent any time in care. This can refer to time spent in local authority care in the UK, or time spent in care overseas before being adopted in the UK. King's support includes additional financial support and advice on accommodation, finances, and academic matters.

Please note the information on this webpage is for pre-entrants before starting university. If you're a current King's student or would like to learn more about the support available once you've enrolled at King's, please visit our support offered to current undergraduate care-experienced and care leavers at King's webpage.

Our definitions of care-experienced and care leavers are below. At King’s, care-experienced and care leaver students have the same entitlements, however knowing which definition applies to you helps us to best advise you, as care leavers can access more support from their local authority and third sector organisations.

Care-experienced

Our definition of care-experienced is anyone who, at any stage in their life, for any length of time (no matter for how short a time period), has lived in public care or as a looked-after child, including with foster carers under local authority care, in a residential children’s home, or have been adopted after being in care.

Individuals would also need to meet the following eligibility criteria in order to receive additional support from King's:

• Under 25 at the start of your course
• Assessed as a home fee payer*

This does not refer to being in kinship care (i.e., being looked after by other relatives or friends), time spent in boarding schools, working in a care or healthcare setting, being admitted or detained in a healthcare setting under the mental health act, or if you are or have been a carer yourself. If you have been a carer yourself, please see our young adult carer webpage.

*If you have been in care in the UK, but are not a home fee payer, please contact us to discuss this in greater detail.

Care Leaver

The term care leaver refers to anyone who has been in care or from a looked-after background, for at least 13 weeks since the age of 14, and was in care on their 16th birthday.

Individuals would also need to meet all of the following eligibility criteria in order to receive additional support from King's:

• Under 25 at the start of your undergraduate course
• Assessed as a home fee payer*
• Have lived in public care or as a looked-after child, including with foster carers under local authority care or in a residential children’s home

*If you have been in care in the UK, but are not a home fee payer, please contact us to discuss this in greater detail.

In order to access the support available, we strongly encourage students to disclose that they have been in care. The easiest way of doing this is through their UCAS application. UCAS have put together an 'Advisor toolkit' to support care experienced applicants.

This information can be used in providing context when making admissions decisions but also ensures we provide the right financial, academic, and personal support. We do not need to know why a student has been in care or any other detail and we do understand that some students see university as a new start and may be reluctant to let the university know. However, this information will never be used against a student. To disclose a care-experienced status students should:

• Tick the relevant ‘in care’ box on the UCAS application form
• Say they are care-experienced on their personal statement
• Ensure the teacher reference gives additional information and provides context
• If you have mitigating circumstances, please visit the admissions mitigating circumstances guidance webpage, and complete the relevant form.

Evidence needed

You will be required to submit evidence to King’s show that you meet this status. The below outlines what you will need to complete this process.

You will need to upload your evidence to your King's Apply portal or email it to priority-groups@kcl.ac.uk and include your UCAS ID number in the email

What to do if you're a care leaver

If you are a care leaver, you should ask your Personal Advisor or Social Worker to confirm that you are a statutory care leaver. Ask them for a letter on headed paper including details about the support they will provide for you while you are at university.

If you do not have a personal adviser or social worker, you can contact the Duty Social Worker within the local authority where you spent time in care.

You will also be asked to provide your notification of entitlement letter from student finance. This will help us ensure you are receiving the correct amount of maintenance loan.

What to do if you're care-experienced

If you have experience of living in care, you need to provide a letter on headed paper from the local authority where you spent time in care which confirms this.

If you do not have this letter already, you should contact the Duty Social Worker within the local authority where you spent time in care.

King’s College London recognises the challenges faced by care-experienced students. We offer extensive support before they start at university.

Pre-university projects & events

King’s College London Widening Participation department prioritises care-experienced learners on long-term pre-university programmes. To learn more about long-term programmes run by King's Widening Participation department, visit our projects for prospective students webpages.

King's also offers in-person guided campus tours as well as online campus tours, where you can find out more about King's, our world-class research, outstanding facilities and more about our student experience. In addition to this King's offers open days both online and in-person, giving students the opportunity to find out more about our courses and speak to current students and staff. Discover more about our upcoming campus tours and open days on our undergraduate events webpage.

Application support

King's College London has a designated member of staff for pre-entry students, who can assist care-experienced students 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.

Additional admissions consideration for care-experienced applicants

If you are care-experienced and applying to study at King’s, we strongly advise you to disclose this on your UCAS application form by ‘ticking the box’. This will allow admissions staff to take your circumstances into consideration and will not have a negative impact on your 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 care-experienced student, you will receive additional consideration. Examples of the ways in which additional consideration is given are described below:

• Students whose predicted grades are marginally lower than that required for the course may be given an offer.
• Students whose application is considered as being close to the standard required to gain an interview may be offered an interview.
• Students whose admissions test score is considered as being 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.

Depending on the course applied for and the qualifications you are studying, you may receive a reduced offer for your course. You can find out more on our contextual admissions page.

King's College London and the Widening Participation Department work closely with care experienced students and their advisors and teachers. If you are working with a looked after child who is considering applying to university or if you would like more information about the support available, please contact priority-groups@kcl.ac.uk.

Further general information and support for teachers can be found on our teachers webpage.

Applying to University

We can support care experienced students with their application to university and will provide unbiased advice and guidance to ensure they choose the right university and course for them. We can also provide personal statement guidance to students.

Virtual School Visits 

We can offer bespoke visits to King’s for looked after young people supported by a virtual school. These visits are aimed at prospective undergraduates to give them an introduction to university life, advice on choosing the right degree for them and to learn about the support available at King’s.

Hear from students who attended the virtual school visits:

“Really well put together session – a thoroughly enjoyable day” – City of London Virtual School

“I enjoyed the presentation about King’s and the information I was able to learn from staff and student ambassadors.” – Student

To find out more about what we offer and to arrange our visit, see our PDF guide: Virtual School Visits to King’s

Disclosing care-experienced status

To access the support available, we strongly encourage students to disclose that they have been in care and any extenuating circumstances. For more information on mitigating circumstances and the process visit our mitigating circumstances and the admissions process webpage. Learn more about disclosing care-experienced status at the top of this webpage.

Supporting students moving to university

Moving to university is a big change for anyone and we recognise that for some people it can be even more daunting. We provide a specialised and bespoke transition for care experienced students and run 'Welcome' events before term starts. We also arrange a buddy programme where second year students are paired with new students and act as another welcoming face and can answer any questions they may have. To make the move as smooth as possible we recommend that students be proactive and meet with specialist advisors if they have any specific worries before they start. For any more information or to discuss how we can best support your student please get in touch by emailing priority-groups@kcl.ac.uk.

If you would like to find out more about the support available once you’ve enrolled at King’s’, or you want information on how to get verified once you've joined, please visit our support offered to current undergraduate care-experienced and care leavers at King's webpage.