Spotlight on … Corporate Parenting
To mark Care Day 2026, we shine the spotlight on Corporate Parenting in SCRA. We talk to Karen Garside, our Corporate Parenting Manager to find out more …
Q) How would you describe Corporate Parenting?
For me, Corporate Parenting is really about making sure care‑experienced children and young people get the same care, support and opportunities that any of us would want for a child that is important to them. At SCRA, that means thinking carefully about their whole experience of the Hearings System from referral, their understanding of the Hearings System, how we can empower them to participate and take control of their Hearing, the Hearing centre environment, how they’re welcomed, to how they’re supported, to how we make them feel safe, heard and respected and how we listen to the voice of experience to continually improve.
Corporate Parenting duties do not just apply to SCRA as an organisation or to one individual, they apply to everyone, every role, every day single day.
Q) Why is it so important?
In order to thrive, we know children and young people require a strong scaffold of support; family, friends, pets, teachers, sports coaches etc providing love, security, support, guidance and fun. It is heart breaking that, when a child comes into the Children’s Hearings System, overnight vital pieces of their scaffold can be removed without warning, leaving the child feeling alone, isolated and scared. As the child becomes care-experienced, new relationships begin usually with paid professionals; social workers, foster carers, advocates, new teachers, new communities and Corporate Parents creating a new scaffolding of support. Understandably, this can feel overwhelming, complicated and scary.
Corporate Parenting gives us both the permission and the responsibility to take action to make the new scaffolding of support as strong as it can be by being the best Corporate Parent we possibly can. It encourages us to constantly ask ourselves, is this the best we can do, is this what I would want for a child who is close to me? If the answer is no, then we keep on pushing to deliver the improvements that young people tell us they need.
Abbie from OHOV explains “Care experienced children and young people should have the same opportunities as any child” and that professionals must “Take a personalised approach. Ask if the child or young person needs additional support. If not, then treat the child like you would any other child. If the child does want additional support, ask the child what they need.”
Q) Tell us a little bit about your role?
As Corporate Parenting Manager, I help bring our commitments outlined in our Corporate Parenting Plan 2024-27 to life in real, practical ways.
My job has been easy, as so much great work has already been done to meet the objectives of the plan and I can now look at future planning and improvements to deliver what young people tell us matters to them. A key part of future planning is the development of SCRA’s trauma programme to ensure that by 2030 we are trauma skilled and responsive across all areas of the organisation. We will know that we have succeeded when responding in a trauma informed way becomes second nature to us all.
I have been working closely with Who Cares? Scotland to carry out a Corporate Parenting Assessment of where SCRA is in terms of meeting our legal obligations and I am pleased to report that there were a few gaps identified, one of these being awareness of Corporate Parenting Duties. In response to this, we now have available on our internal e-learning platform, a great module of Care Experience and Corporate Parenting which all staff are being encouraged to complete. Who Cares? Scotland will also be delivering a session to SCRA’s Board and our Executive Management Team in April.
It was really inspiring, that even in the areas where we were meeting our legal obligations which was the majority, there is strong ambition and drive to continually improve which is something that I have witnessed when speaking and working with teams across SCRA. Everyone really cares and everyone really wants to continue to make things better.
I have the pleasure of working closely with Our Hearings, Our Voice with the current focus on the promotions and embedding of the themes outlined in their Seeing Beyond the Surface Guide.
I have been meeting with local teams across SCRA to find out what I can do to support them to deliver their locality plans in relation to areas that impact on Corporate Parenting and I have been delivering face to face Corporate Parenting awareness sessions to localities.
Q) Partnership working seems important when it comes to Corporate Parenting, who do you collaborate with?
Collaboration is absolutely essential and forms part of our legal duties as Corporate Parents. We can’t deliver good Corporate Parenting in isolation. I work with Children’s Hearings Scotland, Who Cares? Scotland, NHS Education for Scotland, Our Hearings, Our Voice, Champions Boards, the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service, as well as the Resilience Learning Partnership. I am also a member of the Collaborative Coroporate Parenting Network run by Who Cares? Scotland and I am continually looking to identify further opportunities for collaboration in terms of sharing and learning from each other’s best practice and progress.
When we work together, children and young people get a more joined‑up, consistent and supportive experience and that makes a huge difference.
Q) And what about working directly with children and young people?
This is the part of my job that inspires me the most. Children and young people are brilliantly honest about what works for them and what doesn’t. They bring clarity, creativity and challenge, and that makes everything stronger.
In October last year I was privileged to be invited to the Rise Up conference, a celebration of the work and achievements of Hearings-experienced children and young people, marking 10 years since the inception of the Our Hearings, Our Voice (OHOV) Board. As well as celebrating many past achievements, professionals attending the conference were introduced to the amazing OHOV interactive guide ‘Seeing Beyond the surface: What children and young people wish all adults knew’.
Q) Finally, what does Care Day mean to you?
Today is a reminder that care‑experienced children and young people deserve to be understood, listened to, and treated with dignity every single day, not just when the system asks them to show up.
Care Day matters because experiences in care shapes lives, it does not define who people are. It shapes confidence, sense of belonging, and how young people see their future potential. When we get it right, when their voices are truly heard and our responses are trauma informed, we don’t just improve processes, we change outcomes.
I am proud to work alongside incredible young people, passionate and dedicated colleagues, and partners who are committed to Keeping the Promise, going above and beyond to meet their Corporate Parenting duties and creating a system where children feel safe, valued, and heard.