06 Sep 2024
To mark the 10-year anniversary of the Children and Young People (Scotland) 2014 Act, and within it the incorporation of Corporate Parenting duties in legislation, on 22 August 2024 Who Cares? Scotland hosted our first ever Corporate Parenting Awards event.
This event aimed to celebrate positive and progressive Corporate Parenting practice from the last decade while recognising the key role that Corporate Parents play in the lives of Care Experienced people, particularly as Scotland strives to Keep the Promise.
Everyone needs a strong and supportive scaffold of lifelong support around them. Corporate Parents form an important piece of the scaffold that surrounds Care Experienced people throughout their lives. Although the Children and Young People (Scotland) Act incorporated Corporate Parenting into legislation in 2014, the idea of Corporate Parenting itself is not new. It was first discussed at Westminster Parliament in the mid-1990s and so much has been achieved since then.
Over the last year we have been planning this event in recognition of the hard work and progress made by Scotland's Corporate Parents. Nominations were submitted throughout April and May, and we received an impressive array of examples of best practice. We aimed to recognise and celebrate transformative and innovative practice from the past ten years and most importantly highlight how this has benefitted Care Experienced people.
Our judging panel was comprised of a diverse group of Care Experienced people and representatives from Who Cares? Scotland who dedicated their free time to helping shortlist the nominations. The awards were hosted by Eireann McAuley, Who Cares? Scotland Board Trustee. Eireann said, “Without my own teachers, my youth workers, the support of Who Cares? Scotland and many of the wonderful colleagues I have met past and present over the past ten years – I know I would not be alive never mind having gone on to become a teacher, an activist and involved in many policy initiatives and work with the largest Educational Institute in Scotland at 26 years old.”
One of the award winners was Samuel Curran from the Scottish Police Authority. After picking up his award, Samuel commented, “This means the absolute world to me. Thank you to Who Cares? Scotland and my colleagues at Police Scotland. The journey is just starting.”
The award categories and winners were as follows:
We would like to thank all those who nominated Corporate Parents for these awards, Corporate Parents across Scotland and the Care Experienced community for their dedicated time and effort in the creation of this event.
For more information about Corporate Parenting and the support that the Education and Engagement team can offer your organisation please contact the team at: corporateparenting@whocaresscotland.org
