Expanding the role of the new Estranged Students' Campaign Officer to include care-experienced students too. This would include expanding the title of the role to Estranged Students' and Care-Experienced Students' Campaign Officer.

When I created the position of Estranged Student Campaign Officer through the student senate in Feb 2022, I had only included representation of estranged students. I had chosen to leave care-experienced students simply because I am not care-experienced and at that time did not understand the unique experiences of this community enough to comfortably represent it.  

Since then, I have had the chance to research and speak to some of the students with such experiences and believe we should now expand the current role of estranged student campaign officer to include care-experienced students too.  

There is currently no student member representing this community, care-experienced students often have similar experiences or even fall under the criteria of both estranged and care-experienced, which is why I believe bringing these two communities together would be of benefit to both communities. I hope that this also brings awareness to the experiences and difficulties of these students and encourages more of the eligible students to access the support from the University and the Students’ Union. 

As previously mentioned, I am not care-experienced, and I welcome any support and/or suggestions from the student body to make my role as effective as possible. Please email me at estrangedstudentsofficer@cardiff.ac.uk or contact me on Instagram @ESofficerCSU!