CARE AND LEARNING IN HIGHER EDUCATION • Initially, this money should come from the Office for Students’ Student Premium fund, though there is also a case for additional government funding. Funding: Reforms to the student finance system in England should be made to recognise the distinctive financial needs of care experienced and estranged students • Since most care experienced and all estranged students will not be receiving financial support from parents, the student finance system in England should make two key changes: • Student Finance England should provide an additional non-repayable grant to care experienced and estranged students, equivalent to an average parental contribution • Student maintenance payments should be increased to cover the full 52 weeks of a year, to lessen the risk of homelessness and financial distress outside of term time Data: Additional grant funding should come with requirements to follow evidence-led good practice, and support to identify that practice • Data on care experienced and estranged students should be more freely available to underpin the identification of evidenced best practice • Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) should implement a ‘flag’ for estranged students in England (as in Scotland and Wales) • HESA data tables relating to care experience and estrangement should be available alongside other student characteristic data that is freely published annually (i.e. not behind a paywall). • UCAS and Student Finance England should develop an opt-out system for the systematic sharing of care or estranged status with universities, so they can readily identify students eligible for support • To encourage more evidence based practice, the sector should be encouraged to work with TASO, the HE ‘what works’ centre, to decide how to spend their funds and evaluate their activities • Institutions should have to include care experienced students in their Access and Participation Plans in the first instance, and ultimately work towards the NNECL Quality Mark, in order to access grant funding • Research should be commissioned to track progress of care experienced and estranged students at an aggregate level, and assess the effectiveness of schemes like the NNECL Quality Mark. Access: Efforts should prioritise school attainment and reaching parity in the admission of care experienced and estranged students across the university sector • With school attainment the main limiting factor on progression to university, the system is not producing sufficient numbers of academically prepared students to hit the Independent Review of Children’s Social Care (MacAlister) target of doubling care experienced students 9