Summary
• Read this manual and agree to its contents along to the other documents in the Host Family Zone which include a Host Family Charter and Job and Person Specification
• Apply online – 2 references per adult in the family will be sought at this point
• Receive a visit from our Local Coordinator for a House Inspection
• Enhanced DBS checks are applied for
• A representative of Bright World will then contact you and will conduct a 10-15 minute telephone interview with the main host.
Provided all the above reach our satisfaction we will be in touch with details of dates and students we would like you to host.
Apply Online
Read this manual and if you wish to apply please use our online application form. Go to our website www.brightworld.co.uk. Find the Host Family Application form below the tab. Submitting your Referees email addresses is necessary on application and we will automatically request references from them at this point.
Bright World will take up 2 references on each adult in the family—one personal and one professional. The personal reference can be for both host and hostess. The professional referee must be a previous employer or a professional person such as a teacher, police officer, doctor or solicitor.
House Inspection
We also make sure that you would be suitable as a host family by visiting you at your home. Your Bright World Local Coordinator will contact you to make a home inspection visit at which time they will take photographs of you and your house and complete the DBS ID check.
Safeguarding Training
As part of your commitment to safeguarding our students, the main applicant in the household needs to have received some safeguarding training. If you have already had this training within 3 years of applying you simply need to send us your certificate and the date of your training. If you have not then we will send you a link to a 45 minute course that is free of charge. Once complete, you should send us your certificate. Your training will need to be renewed every three years and we will remind you of this.
What happens next?
If both parties are happy after the House Inspection and once all references and DBS checks are approved by our Safeguarding and Accommodation Manager, and your safeguarding training is complete and we have received your certificate, you will become an Active Host Family for Bright World which means that we may now contact you to host students for us. Before you first host a student, a member of our Accommodation and Travel Department will contact you for a short telephone interview to make sure all is in order and in case you have any questions.
We ask all our host families to read, understand and sign a Host Family Charter on joining us. This is in our larger Host Family Manual that you will receive once you have completed your application.
From time to time we may wish to use the photographs we have taken of you or you have given to us in our publicity material. If you do not wish us to use photographs we have taken of you and your house then please inform us of this.
Once you are fully enrolled with us and all checks are in and positive then we will try and allocate students for you. Please do get in touch to remind us if you have not heard but also please rest assured we will do our best to allocate you with a student or students.
Bright World database maintains records of host family’s personal details which are collated during the recruitment process. These details are only disclosed to the student, parent, agent or school to facilitate their stay at your home. There may be occasions where Bright World are inspected by an external authority where such details may be disclosed, or contacted by the Department of Work and Pension where we are legally obliged to disclose the appropriate details.
If you become an active host family towards the end of the academic year, you will be less likely to receive a regular student straight away. The reason for this is that most of the ‘events’ (i.e. holiday periods during which a student needs hosting) have concluded. There are very few host family bookings for students during June-July-August. For the following academic year, most of our Host family allocations are carried out during the summer months. This means that we will send you a number of emails during this period to secure termly bookings and yearly plans for the Autumn Term and the rest of the academic year.