Bridgend College signs Corporate Parenting Charter
06/12/2023Bridgend College has signed the Welsh Government’s Corporate Parenting Charter. The Charter reaffirms the College’s commitment to supporting care-experienced children and young people to be able to enjoy the same opportunities in life as their peers across Wales.
The Charter is an agreement for public sector institutions that regularly engage with care-experienced children and young people. It constitutes a set of eleven guiding principles that underpin key behaviours and commitments that aid the promotion of rights and safeguarding of care-experienced young people.
As a Further Education (FE) College that welcomes over 7000 students through our doors each year, we recognise that there is no one-size-fits-all when it comes to support. However, we believe that all people should be treated with kindness, respect and dignity, regardless of their life experiences.
Student wellbeing is one of the central tenets of our educational provision. To ensure that students continue to receive the level of support from us that they need, we will keep striving to improve our offering to make individuals feel supported, secure and, most importantly, heard.
As part of our undertaking, we will pursue information and resources needed for all students and aim to deliver it in a manner they understand. Furthermore, we will continue to ensure all staff are made aware of their corporate parenting responsibilities and provide regular training to increase awareness.
More than just keeping children safe, the Corporate Parenting Charter is our promise to act in the best interest of our students. Not only do we recognise our responsibility to look after the care-experienced, but also to promote recovery, resilience and help empower them to realise their full potential in life – to help them to be all that they can be.
As a partner on the Corporate Parenting Board for the Bridgend County Borough and as a College, we are committed to ensuring that all students in our care are supported to fulfil the College’s mission – to be all that you can be.
We are committed to providing a trauma-informed environment, where all students feel that they belong and where care and kindness pervades everything that we do. The Corporate Parenting Charter provides a set of guiding principles to support us in successfully achieving this.
Joe Baldwin, Deputy Principal at Bridgend College
