This blog was kindly authored by Fiona Ellison and Kate Brown, Co-Directors, Unite Foundation.
It is the third blog in HEPI’s series with The Unite Foundation on how to best support care experienced and estranged students. You can find the first blog here and the second blog here.
Every December, universities flood inboxes with references to “going home” and “family time.” But thousands of students will not go home, because there is no home away from university to go to. For care experienced and estranged students, winter magnifies isolation, financial pressures and risk. This isn’t a welfare sidebar; it’s a retention issue, central to building a sense of belonging for this group of students.
The Unite Foundation supports All of Us – the UK-wide community for all care experienced and estranged students – where students can find friends who get it and allies to organise with. We know first-hand from students how challenging this time of year can be. That’s why we’re re-issuing our winter guide with practical examples of how you can support care experienced and estranged students this winter.
Why does it matter?
The – perhaps forgotten – Office for Students’ Equality of Opportunity Risk Register (EORR) identified risks that disproportionately affect under‑represented groups – including care experienced and estranged students – across access, continuation, and progression. These include insufficient academic and personal support, mental health challenges, cost pressures, and lack of suitable accommodation. All of which were shown to be particularly key for care experienced and estranged students – and which ,as we approach the winter period, are even more at the forefront. There are even more reasons:
Three quick wins
Your institution’s winter break is a stress test for belonging. When libraries close, halls empty and festive messaging assumes family gatherings care experienced and estranged students can feel invisible. There are three foundational moves that every provider should implement immediately:
- Mind your language – Drop “going home for Christmas” and family‑centric messaging; use inclusive language (“winter break,” “happy holidays”) across all channels.
- Keep the place alive – Maintain open, warm spaces (library, SU, study hubs) with skeleton staff and programmed activities for residents; publish clear opening hours and what’s on.
- Proactively signpost specifics – Put support routes (welfare, counselling, emergency contacts, hardship funds) in email signatures, posters and social media – not buried webpages.
Everyone’s role
Supporting care experienced and estranged students during the winter break isn’t just a widening participation problem – activity should run through everyone within the university. Here are a few suggestions of what you could be doing:
- Academics: Make proactive check-ins part of your routine, ask students where they’ll be during the break and whether they need support. Clearly publish extenuating circumstances routes and deadlines, and consider scheduling optional study drop-ins for those staying on campus.
- Estates and Library teams: Keep central, warm spaces open on a rota so students have somewhere to study and socialise. Publish opening hours well in advance and ensure signage at entrances makes this information visible.
- Residence Life: Maintain a skeleton support service throughout the holiday period and actively include care experienced and estranged students in any events planned for international students, making it clear they are welcome.
- Security: Brief your team on the heightened risks these students may face, such as harassment or stalking, and incorporate welfare checks into your holiday protocols.
- Students’ Union: Organise inclusive social events to reduce loneliness, advertise them relentlessly across channels, and partner with local food banks or community projects to provide essential support.
- Welfare, Counselling, and Mental Health services: Keep services running, even at reduced capacity, and promote crisis lines and emergency contacts prominently so students know help is available.
- Widening Participation and APP leads: Ensure term-time employment opportunities continue into the break, name – a real person – as a designated contact for care experienced and estranged students.
We need everyone to be proactive with their intentions – could you forward this to three people to encourage them to take action?
Act now
- If you’re a senior leader in your institution, how can you fund at least one visible, winter‑specific intervention? It could be a staffed warm hub, hardship vouchers, or a winter get-together.
- Choose one immediate change and implement it this week. Whether it’s using inclusive language in your emails, ensuring a key space stays open, or adding support details to your signature, small actions make a big difference. Belonging is built through everyday signals of care.
- Make sure students know about existing sources of communities. Connect peers to All of Us, the community for care experienced and estranged students. Peer networks reduce isolation and create a sense of solidarity – especially during the winter break when loneliness can peak.
If you’re working in higher education and want to explore this work more, so you’re not making last minute plans next year – why not join our HE Peer Professionals network – a member curated, termly meeting of fellow professionals.
When you’re thinking about going ‘home for Christmas’ have you thought about what you can do to support a home for care experienced and estranged students? Find out more about the wider work of the Unite Foundation and how we can support you through our Blueprint framework – to support your institution in building a safe and stable home for care experienced and estranged students, improving retention and attainment outcomes.