Update on 18 year olds on junior courses for closed groups

Following requests for clarification from English UK members, Accreditation UK have issued some revised guidance on 18 year olds studying in closed junior groups and on 12 year olds studying in groups aged 7-11.

The guidance is as follows, relating to the 'safeguarding' section in the Accreditation UK Criteria, Requirements and Guidance (CRG):

Criteria S5/S6:

Junior group provision: 18-year-olds in groups aged 12-18, and 12-year-olds in groups aged 7-11. Where groups contain students aged 12 or 18, these students can study and take part in activities with the other students in the group, provided they adhere to the same rules and regulations as those students and are fully supervised by centre staff and/or group leaders.

Centres can publicise their group provision as being open to a) 7–12-year-olds and b) 11–17-year-olds or 18-year-olds by exception (see below)

Criterion S7:

18-year-olds in groups aged 12-18 can stay in the same accommodation block as the other students in the group; they are fully supervised by centre staff and/or group leaders. Groups including 18-year-olds must be segregated from other groups or the presence of 18-year-olds within any accommodation must be risk assessed and any groups outside of this group must be notified of the age range and provided with a copy of the risk assessment.

Exceptions:

• A student within a group turning 18 during the course of study would be accepted

• A student attending a course with a group from their standard school setting

Please contact membership@englishuk.com if you have any further questions.