Our Corporate Parenting Champions Group
As part of our commitment to corporate parenting, we are delighted to share with you that we now have an internal Corporate Parenting Champions Group up and running.
Our Corporate Parenting Plan sets out our commitment to young people with care experience. A key action from this plan was to set up a Corporate Parenting Champions Group.
This group is raising awareness of corporate parenting throughout the organisation and sharing with colleagues ways that they can get involved in corporate parenting activities such as volunteering. The group is also engaging with stakeholder organisations including MCR Pathways and Who Cares? Scotland to gain a more comprehensive understanding of the needs of care experienced young people.
We caught up with some members of the new group to find out why they decided to join the group and what they hope to achieve.
Fiona Boubert who is our Local Delivery Relationship Lead for Orkney and Shetland commented:
“I think it’s important that everyone in Scotland can have access to support and opportunities. I have previous experience of working with care experienced young people and organisations that support them, developing more accessible services and employability support, so I understand the challenges they can face.
“The group is really important as we have responsibility for influencing and driving forward activities internally with colleagues and externally with stakeholders that will make a real and tangible difference for care experienced young people in Scotland. This work will demonstrate Social Security Scotland’s commitment to Corporate Parenting so it’s important that we really understand the needs of care experienced young people if we are to successfully deliver what we have set out to do in our Corporate Parenting plan.”
Nicola Clunie, our People Advice and Support Partner hopes to make a difference:
“I applied to be part of the group as I am passionate about supporting others. I have carried out a number of volunteering roles and I have heard first-hand the challenges our young people are facing today, which includes care experienced people. During these unprecedented times it’s even more pivotal that we continue to support care experienced people.
“Social Security Scotland corporate parenting plan was launched last year, our action plan is centred around the six statutory duties listed in the Children and Young Peoples (Scotland) Act 2014, therefore this group is fundamental in delivering to this plan and gives us an opportunity to support the people of Scotland, which is at the heart of our organisation. In addition this will allow us to strengthen our relationships with stakeholders and individuals with lived experience of care, supporting them in any way we can.”
Claire McCartney, Client Support Advisor commented:
“I was really keen to be part of the group as I had previously worked alongside a charity who provided care experienced young people with mentors. These mentors supported them achieving their full potential throughout their school years. The stories I heard from the young people about their achievements really inspired me.
“By being a Corporate Parenting Champion I hope I can play a part in ensuring Social Security Scotland are providing all care experienced young people with the same opportunities and access to support as their peers, regardless of their previous circumstances. The group are essential as we are an organisation with dignity, fairness and respect at our core and it’s our duty to provide this to the most vulnerable in our society.”
We are also working with third sector organisations including MCR Pathways and Who Cares? Scotland to develop a training programme for our colleagues to learn more about corporate parenting.