3.6 Formal relationships

In this section, we'll look at corporate parents, education and the workforce.

Corporate parents

Not everyone has an understanding of the term ‘corporate parent’.

‘A corporate parent is a name given to an organisation or person who has special responsibilities to care-experienced children and young people.’

CYCPS (2024)

Corporate parents are especially important because of the vital role that they hold in their lives.

Corporate parent services include housing, education, healthcare, and social support that work together to create opportunities and a caring environment for children in care to thrive.

Education

We know that in educational settings, positive teacher–pupil relationships promote a safe and supportive learning environment. This approach can help to create consistency and stability for children and young people with care experience.

The following video discusses the importance of relationship-based and trauma-sensitive practice.

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‘Being trauma-sensitive is about having wonderful relationships with everyone in our school community.’

Maureen Reid, Head Teacher, St Hilary’s Primary School (Barnardo’s, 2020)

‘I’ve been in the profession for 34 years. I haven’t always thought like that. It’s taken me a long time to come to this realisation. They are all our young people, and it is up to us to change and to work differently and to understand better so that we can support every young person.’

Keith Webster, Head Teacher, Falkirk High School (Barnardo’s, 2020)

Workforce

The workforce must ensure that they provide a high level of care and support for children and young people and that relationships are supported to continue through and beyond care.

The ‘workforce’ includes:

  • Social workers.
  • Health workers.
  • Teachers.
  • Youth workers.
  • Family support workers.
  • Kinship and foster carers (who may regard their role to be professional or vocational).

A trauma-informed organisation understands that nurturing positive relationships among colleagues, and between managers and employees, fosters a safe and trusting work environment and a shared vision of good practice.

‘The personal and the professional must not be seen as two different things; the workforce must be supported to be human with the people they work with.’

Salter (2013, pp. 35-47)

In this podcast (21 minutes), The Forum [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)] (2019), Pamela Graham of the Scottish Throughcare and Aftercare Forum (STAF), talks to Pauline Connelly of Tremanna, a children’s home near Falkirk in Scotland, about how nurturing positive relationships has supported the delivery of a unique model of care at the home for children and young people.

3.5 Informal relationships

3.7 Positive relationship skills