what is an emergency only guardianship service?
We are often asked by parents if we offer an 'emergency only' guardianship service. They may have only just been told they need a guardian and this news and additional cost may come as a surprise. Parents often don't really understand what a guardian is or does.
Parents living in Europe, relatively close to the UK, may think they don't need a guardian. They then seek out a low-cost solution and think that if they ask for an 'Emergency Only' service this will tick the box and be a cheaper option. They think that this will be enough. Maybe this is because they haven't thought about all of the things that can happen during an academic year. They don't know all of the times a school guardian may be required.
why 'emergency only' is not enough and parents should choose our Essential Programme
The AEGIS Standards offer a clear framework that we must adhere to. We also have our own standards of care that are the same for all children. It is very important that children under our care meet us and know who we are. Offering a service that does not offer this would not meet our standards of care. In addition to this we need to have a service on standby in case emergencies occur.
Bright World's Essential Guardianship Service
Bright World has a lower cost Essential Guardianship Service for parents who do not need regular host family services from us. Our Essential programme satisfies our safeguarding standards of care and those of AEGIS, our accrediting body whilst keeping costs as low as possible for parents. Extra ad-hoc emergency
We consider all our students to be deserving of a high minimum level of services that is covered by our very competitive service fee, and we expect the parents who choose Bright World to feel the same and value what we do.
what emergencies happen during the school year?
Emergency services are a huge part of what we do for ALL students under our care at Bright World. We need to always be ready to react to incidents that occur on a daily, and sometimes hourly, basis. We need to have safe and well-organised solutions to offer 24/7.
Offering this emergency service reliably and professionally takes a solid and well managed infrastructure. It needs reliable staff who are on hand to assist around the clock. Here are just some of the instances where the Bright World team are here to help when you need us most:
cancelled flights - we cancel and rebook travel arrangements at the 'drop of a hat' 24/7 to save wasted time and money
changed flight times - we have avoided scores of missed flights, saved parents thousands of pounds and kept students anxiety free with fast, on the spot re-routing of drivers to get students to the boarding gate on time
no show of privately arranged drivers - sometimes not everyone is as reliable as they may promise. We have stepped in on countless occasions to offer a travel and escort service to students who would otherwise be stranded at the airport
student arrives at school too early/late and it is closed - if our students make their own arrangements sometimes they don't think about or check school opening times. We often have to step in at all hours to arrange a host family for the day or a night in these instances.
unexpected exeat weekend or school closure - schools will sometimes introduce a closure unexpectedly. If our students cannot go home then we always step in and find somewhere safe for them to stay at the drop of a hat.
suspensions - children can be asked to leave school if they have behaved badly. This can even be if they are caught vaping on school grounds as an example. Parents are guardians are told to remove the child within hours at short notice. We are always there with a solution usually within minutes rather than hours.
For those on the Essential package, we ask for a small deposit at the beginning of the year which is refundable if not spent. Additional unexpected costs can be paid for on a 'pay as you go' basis.
our pro-active approach to guardianship
The Bright World guardianship programme, rather than simply offering the services above when asked in an emergency, takes a more pro-active approach. We think this is vital to offer independent support when it comes to safeguarding overseas students studying in the uk.
Just some examples of our pro-active approach include:
- Settling in visits from our Local Coordinator with reports back to parents and liaison with school on any teething issues.
- After students have stayed with a Bright World host family we meet with them and conduct a Care Plan. These reports offer overseas parents a valuable insight into their child's well being. They also crucially allow students to air any concerns.
- Easy online student and host family feedback forms carefully monitored during and after each host family stay
- Attendance at Parents' evenings offering students a vital independent mentor to support them in their academic feedback sessions
Full Guardianship
For those needing more services such as regular host families and airport transfers and escorted check in and boarding, we then offer a variable refundable deposit according to parents' needs in terms of host family accommodation and travel services which are optional extras. This allows financial flexibility for parents whilst allowing us to remain robust when it comes to safeguarding our students
We are confident that parents who may not predict that they need the support of a guardian will be happy they chose Bright World if they do need to call on us.
from James Foster, our Commercial Director
"We just couldn't make a reduced service level stack up to the requirements that schools demand via their guardianship policies. A lower cost emergency-only package would not meet the high standards we set ourselves as an organisation in terms of safeguarding the students under our care. We do, however, acknowledge that some parents do not use our host family service and therefore our Essential Programme is ideal for them"
