5 Corporate Parenting and you

Introduction

Every Corporate Parent has a legal duty to take actions to uphold the rights and safeguard the wellbeing of every looked after child and young person, and care leavers up to age 26.

These actions should promote the Care-Experienced person’s physical, emotional, spiritual, social and educational development.

Although the legal duties below end at age 26, the A Blueprint for Fairness (CoWA, 2016 [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)] ) report recommended that institutions recognise the long-term impact on educational attainment and employment outcomes of those with care experience. Many colleges and universities have extended their support for Care-Experienced students beyond this age.

Under section 58 of the 2014 Act, every Corporate Parent has six substantive duties. These duties are fairly general to allow for different interpretations, as there are many different types of Corporate Parents named in the legislation. The duties are to:

  • be alert
  • assess needs
  • promote interests
  • provide opportunities
  • make sure services are easy to access
  • look for ways to improve.

Every university must have a Corporate Parenting Plan outlining the actions they will take to meet the six duties. The activities in this section encourage you to explore your institution’s plan.

Click on the diagram below to explore each of the six duties. Each segment will open into a new tab. To navigate back to this page, close the new tab and continue.

Active content not displayed. This content requires JavaScript to be enabled.
Corporate Parenting duties
Interactive feature not available in single page view (see it in standard view).