Membership Spotlight highlights the work of our member organisations and outlines how other individuals and NGOs can support them. During Membership May, we are shining a light on one of our newest members which is Harmeny Education Trust.

Harmeny Education Trust provides residential childcare and education to children and young people whose lives have been impacted by trauma. 

We have spaces for up to 29 children and young people to live and learn with us in 5 residential cottages, and a further 8 spaces for pupils to join us in our day service at our school.  We are based in Balerno, on the outskirts of Edinburgh at the foot of the Pentland hills and our 35-acre woodland site offers a unique setting for us to work therapeutically with our young people.

We are new members of Together and are very excited to work with them.  I first contacted Together when we were seeking support on an issue we were having with opening bank accounts for the children and young people in our care. 

Children in residential care face many barriers and I had been disappointed to find that opening a bank account was another seemingly simple task that was not easy to complete for our young people as a result of the circumstances they find themselves in. 

What we have found is that where an account opening cannot be led by a parent or foster carer, there are immediate barriers such as not being able to open accounts online.  In trying to work with the bank to understand the process, we were directed to a customer service line but found the staff were not clear on what steps or documentation were required, and there was a lack of willingness to support us to find a clear pathway.

We have also found that some of the products on the market cannot be made available to children in residential care as they need to be linked to a parent’s bank account. This means pocket money apps, that provide children with an early understanding of money and help them build confidence to budget, spend and save, cannot be accessed by our young people. 

I understand from colleagues, both internal and at similar organisations in our sector, that the process of opening accounts has never been easy.  It seems to me that this is a systemic issue that should not exist, and falls short of UNCRC guidance on what businesses should do to protect children’s rights.

Together agrees and have been providing support with our correspondence to the bank, as well as working more widely to raise this as an issue with The Promise to ensure local authorities play their part in making sure children in their care have access to bank accounts. 

Beyond bank accounts, children’s rights are really important to us at Harmeny.  We are a Rights Respecting School which means all children are made aware of their rights when they join us, and we build knowledge of those rights into our school curriculum and during key times with individuals.

We regularly seek our children’s views through one-to-one key times with their key worker, Pupil Council and residential cottage meetings, and we work with Who Cares? Scotland to provide independent advocacy.  This gives children the opportunity to meet with an independent worker to speak confidentially about their care or family life.

Delivering on The Promise is a key focus of our work, and our transitions and keeping in touch service for former residents at Harmeny – Here4U – was set up with this in mind.  Through this service, we also regularly seek the views of our young people and this has helped shape our Here4U service and our plans for supporting our young people beyond age 16.

We provide opportunities to volunteer and donate to Harmeny to help provide the right therapeutic spaces and opportunities to enable our young people to thrive.

More information can be found here: https://harmeny.org.uk/get-involved/

Ends

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Would you like to find out further information about joining Together’s membership?

Are you a Together organisational member and would like to collaborate for a Membership Spotlight? Email: caitlin@togetherscotland.org.uk

Consultancy and Training

Together provides training and consultancy to organisations looking to strengthen how they support children’s human rights. 

For 25 years, Together has been helping organisations and individuals from a range of backgrounds and roles to improve their awareness and understanding of children’s human rights in practice. This has included work on the Skills and Knowledge project, which explores what professionals need to know and apply to be able to implement children’s human rights. 

The UNCRC (Incorporation) (Scotland) Act 2024 will impact public bodies, private sector organisations and third sector organisations all over Scotland, as they look to further their work on children’s rights. Together can support organisations to identify situations in which they are already implementing children’s rights in practice, alongside how they can evolve their work using a Children’s Human Rights Approach. 

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