« Previous | Contents | Next »
Listen
APPENDIX F
The frank Buttle Trust Quality Mark
The Frank Buttle Trust awards a Quality Mark to higher education providers who can demonstrate that their commitment to care leavers is embedded in their strategic policy framework, and can show how they will implement and monitor their commitment. Institutions need to apply to the Trust to be considered for the Quality Mark.
The Quality Mark was developed following a five-year action research study which examined the challenges faced by young people who had been in the care of local authorities in attending higher education. The final research report, "Going to university from care", was published in May 2005 and demonstrated that those who did succeed did so against considerable odds, both in terms of pre-entry support, and support by the higher education provider.
The Trust then worked with a range of higher education providers and local authorities to develop the statement of commitment to care leavers in higher education.
The commitment recognises the challenges faced by care leavers entering higher education and seeks to:
- facilitate an increase in the numbers entering higher education
- raise awareness of the needs of care leavers
- enable care leavers to make the most of their time in higher education and to complete their courses successfully
- help higher education providers to identify how best to support care leavers, and
- contribute to a national framework to assist local authorities to fulfil their obligations to care leavers.
The Quality Mark scheme was launched in Scotland in September 2007 at the University of Glasgow. At the launch event, the universities of Glasgow, Strathclyde and Abertay Dundee were the first in Scotland to be awarded the Quality Mark.
www.buttletrust.org/
« Previous | Contents | Next »