Being alert
Corporate Parents must be alert to matters which might affect the wellbeing of Care-Experienced people. This means engaging in regular dialogue about issues which might have a negative impact for both individuals and Care-Experienced people as a whole, such as moving placement or residence, changes to benefit rules or a service being withdrawn.
In the video below, Jayde talks about the impact on her grades of not having accommodation outside term.
Transcript
As a Masters student, the course really is a full year, it’s September to September. But if you’re an undergrad, your degree usually finishes in the May/June time, and it was at that point, I received a notice to quit halls. There was no option to extend that or to stay on. There was no follow-up to make sure you did have a place to go. It was just like “you need to be out by the 1st of June and hand your keys back.” So, I found it really, really difficult between the 1st of June and the 4th of September to complete that Masters because I was kind of in a limbo stage of not really having anywhere, and I felt like nobody really understood, and it reflected on my grades. I’ve never, ever failed anything in my life until this point, and I don’t think it’s a coincidence that that’s the point of my life where my grades slip. Because if you look at the start of the year when I was stable, I was getting distinction grades, and I think that it’s not really fair, if that makes sense. Like I am capable of those distinction grades, but circumstances meant that that uni wasn’t my first priority.
Activity 11
Your institution will have a Corporate Parenting action plan.
Find an example from your plan on how your institution plans to be alert and make notes on how your role could contribute to this.
Introduction