The UK Department for Education has published updated National Minimum Standards for Boarding Schools, due to come into effect from the next academic year, including greater emphasis on the role of educational guardians.
The updated National Minimum Standards for Boarding Schools will come into effect from September 5th 2022 and apply to boarding schools in England.
The document contains 23 Standards across the areas of governance, boarding provision, health and wellbeing, safeguarding, health and safety, boarders’ rights, promoting positive behaviour, boarders’ development, staffing and off-site accommodation.
One of the major changes of the update NMS is a new Standard dedicated to educational guardians, including provisions for recruitment and monitoring of guardians.
The Standard puts emphasis on the welfare of students under the care of educational guardians, and put more onus on the school to ensure guardianship arrangements are “promoting the welfare, physical wellbeing and emotional wellbeing of the boarder”.
UK guardianship accreditation body AEGIS welcomed changes with regards to guardianship in the revised National Minimum Standards.
Yasemin Wigglesworth , Executive Officer of AEGIS, told StudyTravel Magazine, “AEGIS has been working hard in recent years, in consultation with the DfE, to encourage clearer and more specific guidance within the Standards on the educational guardianship of international students.
“We are delighted to see a new standard on guardianship and to see AEGIS recognised as an external organisation. AEGIS-accredited guardians are fully vetted and must meet high safeguarding standards in order to be accredited, in turn helping boarding schools meet the new standards around the care of students under educational guardians.”
