is staying with a family friend a good thing?
When students ask to stay with friends and family during the holidays, it is very important that as guardians, Bright World checks that the proposed arrangements are safe and appropriate.
We do not discourage students from going to stay with their relatives in the UK and spending holidays with them. These arrangements can work really well, make for a more enjoyable break, and can save money for overseas parents.
However, experience has taught us that not all family friends and arrangements made by students are what they seem. Sometimes the adult taking responsibility for the student doesn’t really understand the responsibilities they are taking on. In other cases, they may not be who they say they are. Furthermore, both the National Minimum Standards for Boarding and the recent UKVI changes state that schools have their own responsibilities when it comes to educational guardianship arrangements.
what are our rules?
If students choose not to stay with a Bright World host family then they need to know what the rules are.
- We do not allow students to stay in University or college residences under any circumstances.
- We do not allow students to stay in hotels unless supervised and accompanied by an adult of 25 or over.
- We do not allow students to stay with anyone who does not agree to supervise the child and who is not 25 years old or over.
- We need to receive an Accommodation and Permission form from parents authorising the stay.
how do we check arrangements out?
Each time someone says they are staying with a friend or family member, we have a rigorous process in place to make sure all is at it seems and all arrangements are in place. The UKVI stipulates that it is the responsibility of the school, as the visa sponsors, to verify that the living arrangements during the holidays are appropriate. As such, guardians like ourselves have a duty to perform these checks on all family friends before allowing them to host a student during the holidays.
The Permission Form requested from parents will include details of the supervising adult and the arrangements. We then need to check that the person on our permission form is going to be supervising the child, understands their responsibilities, does not have a serious criminal record, and has good facilities to keep the child safe and happy during the holidays.
- We make a phone call to the supervising adult listed to cross-check their ID.
- We ask them what the sleeping arrangements will be for the holidays and find out if anyone else will be staying at the property.
- We use google map street view to see the house and check the address.
- We conduct a house inspection and interview
- We perform DBS checks on all people over 16 in the household.
- We check with them that they are going to collect and drop the student off and know timings.
- We check they are happy with all the arrangements and know they need to supervise students of different age groups .
- Finally, we make sure they have our emergency contact number in case there are any problems they can get in touch.
If we are not happy with any aspects of the verification process we will ask for an online video call with the Family Friend and the overseas parents to double check. If we are still not happy, we will not authorise the stay and will insist on a host family or for the child to go home to parents.
how did it all go?
We then have an online, mobile-friendly feedback form that we send to students after they have stayed with a family friend or school friend. Just because we are not making the arrangement ourselves we still have duty of care to make sure the students have been happy.
Bright World Buddies will also ask questions about holiday times during each student's general welfare visits in order to check that their holiday times have been positive and enjoyable. Any negative feedback is followed up on with schools and parents.
Making such rigorous checks on family and friends hosting our students may seem intrusive and unnecessary to some. However, we are duty bound to ask these questions and make all the checks and if if means our students will be safe and well looked after then we are very happy to do so.
find out more
find out more about UK Guardianship with Bright World and how to join our programme