Posted 23 June 2025

Go Higher West Yorkshire (GHWY) convenes four networks to work with under-represented groups: Care-Experienced and Estranged Students; Disabled Students; Race Equity Network; and West Yorkshire Boys’ Impact Hub (formerly Males on Free School Meals (FSM) Network).   

In addition to sharing and transferring good practice, each network works towards one or more output. This blog provides a round-up of the outputs in 2024-25 and invites you to our collaborative Teachers’ and Advisers’ Conference on 8 July. 

Care-experienced and Estranged Students Network 

In collaboration with Inspiring Choices, we launched a Transition Pack for Care-Experienced Learners. This is aimed at care-experienced learners and anyone supporting their transition.  

We also welcomed Rob Scott as our new Training Delivery Officer. He runs our Care to Go Higher certified-CPD and, alongside other work, he delivered a 30 minute taster session at the Destinations Festival to give people a taster of our Care to Go Higher CPD.  

With input from our 13 partners, we updated our collaborative Care Leaver Covenant and our collaborative Estranged Students Pledge. These cover the support our partners offer at all stages (access, success and progression) for care-experienced and estranged students respectively in HE. 

Disabled Students Network  

In March 2025, we updated our Disabled Learners Transition Pack to support disabled students with the transition to HE. As well as updating the pack, we made it more user-friendly.

With my colleague Susan Darlington (GHWY Partnership Assistant), we launched our e-learning for HE staff to help them understand and support disabled students. This has been presented at the SHIFT Learning and Teaching Conference and the NEON Summer Symposium. Over 100 people have enrolled onto this e-learning to date. 

The Co-Chairs of the Disabled Students Network raised awareness of the impact to changes to Disabled Students Allowance. These have seen the move to a single supplier, which means that disabled students rely on one supplier. It has impacted on HE providers due to delays. 

Race Equity Network 

At Leeds Trinity University’s Race Equity and Social Justice Conference, myself and Helen Sykes (Head of GHWY) led a session that resulted in a co-created anti-racist manifesto. 

During Ramadan (Muslim month of fasting), members of GHWY staff were invited to Iftar (closing of fast). These were hosted at Bradford College and Leeds Conservatoire, which are two of our partners. 

GHWY was also acknowledged in a Ramadan guide by Shames Maskeen (Leeds Trinity University and Co-Chair of the Race Equity Network) to help those in HE to know how best to support any Muslim students and staff during the month of fasting. 

West Yorkshire Boys’ Impact Hub

In February, we launched the West Yorkshire Boys’ Impact Hub, extending the Network to include members outside HE to support and inform our work with Males on Free School Meals. 

I wrote an article for the UniTasterDays Parents’ Guide on supporting Males on Free School Meals to access HE. The guide also includes an article on the national Uni Connect programme by Susan Darlington. 

The Chair of the West Yorkshire Boys’ Impact Hub, James Rew (Leeds Conservatoire), will deliver a session at our upcoming Teachers’ and Advisers’ Conference (details below) called ’From a Network to West Yorkshire Boys’ Impact Hub: Supporting Males on Free School Meals’. 

Invitation to Teachers’ and Advisers’ Conference 

We would like to extend an invitation to anyone supporting informed choices in young people to our free collaborative conference on Tuesday. 8 July between 9.30am to 3.30pm at the University of Bradford.  

Highlights of the day include a keynote speaker from Bradford City of Culture 2025; afternoon sessions on supporting under-represented groups; student panel and marketplace where you can meet students and staff respectively from across the partnership. 

It would be great to see many of you there. Please spread the word about our conference. 

Thanks, as always, to the GHWY team, partners, and stakeholders for another productive year. 

 

Tahera Mayat, GHWY Collaborative Outreach Officer