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Become a host family with WEP
Why should you host?
Making the decision to become a host family is one that will open up the lives of your family members to new cultures, experiences and relationships.
Variety of countries
Our students come from a variety of countries including Germany, Denmark, Norway, Italy, USA, Brazil and Australia.
Flexible durations
Our students arrive for an exchange of 4, 5 or 10 months. Arrivals are in August/September (a small number of students arrive for 4 months in January).
A new child in your family
Our students are aged 16-18 and will be enrolled in a local school (some students might be 15 on arrival).
Our students are ready
Our students are interviewed and screened before departure to ensure they are ready for an overseas exchange.
A fluent communication
Our students are able to speak a moderate/good level of English on arrival and will work to improve their skills.
A lot of motivation
Our students are looking forward to living with a family who will welcome them and care for them while they embark on one of the biggest challenges of their young lives.
Discover our students
Our students have been interviewed and provide character references to ensure that their expectations and understanding of the exchange experience are correct. They arrive in the UK with an eagerness to learn and to become part of your family life and the British culture.
As well as assessing their readiness for the exchange, students are also assessed on their motivation to succeed at school. While your family will provide the support at home, the students will also attend school as a member of Year 12 or S5/S6 and will be expected to commit to their studies and be a positive member of the school community. All students have a C grade average at school and have proven themselves not only to enjoy school but also to make the most of the time they have there both academically and socially.
What does a host family provide?
If you choose to become a host family you will make it possible for a student to study and experience life in the UK. We ask that you are able to provide:
- A comfortable environment including a bed, study area and space to store their personal belongings.
- Three meals a day (packed lunch on school days).
- Warmth and support to assist your student through their exchange.
- A home environment where they are welcomed as a member of the family.
- WEP offers a monthly reimbursement to host families to cover the costs of having a student in your home. Please note that students come with all of their own spending money and expect to pay for all of their other expenses outside of the home. You are not asked to pay for their activities or support them financially in any way.
If you choose to become a host family with WEP we will be there to support you and your student 24 hours a day. You will have access to the following support structure to guide you and your student through the experience of the exchange:
- Area Representative: this is a local volunteer who will be in contact with you and your student at intervals during the exchange. They are there to support you all and to help make the placement a success. You are able to contact the Area Representative as you need to and can ask questions and seek guidance on how best to manage any issues.
- WEP office: staff in the office are available during usual work hours to answer any questions and to give guidance and support. We will happily talk through any concerns and give specific advice. When needed we will alert the Area Representative to any issues that need additional support and we will speak with the student when required.
- Emergency phone: you can access the WEP team 24 hours a day, 7 days a week if you have an issue that requires urgent management. If the safety and well being of the student or your family is in question you can call the emergency number and speak with a staff member.
Hosting is a wonderful way to bring the world into your home and into your family. However, we know that hosting a teenager can present challenges. We are here to address any issues, however big or small, and we encourage families and students to speak with us and to speak with one another as issues arise. Addressing a concern early on can really help to resolve a possible problem further down the line. Often students don’t realise there is a problem, so as a host parent we encourage you to be open and honest with your student and we ask the same of them.
How do you become a host family?
If you would like to become a host family there are a few simple steps that we ask you to complete to be approved for hosting:
- Contact WEP to register your interest in becoming a host family by completing our host family profile form.
- All members of the household meet with a staff member at your home to complete an in-person interview and to complete relevant documents for your application.
- All members of the home over the age of 16 must complete a police check: England and Wales residents: Enhanced DBS checks are required. Scotland residents: A Enhanced PVG is required. All checks are completed online and WEP will send you the necessary links before your at-home meeting. We ask that these applications are completed prior to the meeting and the necessary ID documents are ready for the staff member to view. All costs of the application are covered by WEP.
- Provide us with two referees we can contact to enquire about family life. One must be a professional reference and the second a personal reference.
- Choose a student that best matches your family and get in contact with them to build a relationship with them before their arrival.
- Complete a free Safeguarding course to assist you to support your student.
- Welcome your new ‘host son’ or ‘host daughter’ into your home.
Once you register your wish to host a student we will contact your local schools to enquire about an enrolment with them. Our students arrive in the UK for 4 or 5 or 10 months in August/September and for 5 months in January. Some schools are not able to accept a short term student. We will speak to them and work to match a student with you and the school.
Want to know more?
Fill out the form with your details and we’ll get back to you with all the information you need.
Privacy Notice Host Family
Privacy Notice
Why do we collect information about you?
Why do we collect information about you?
We need to collect and process personal information about you and members of your immediate family:
- to respond to initial enquiries from you about acting as a Host Family;
- to make an assessment of your eligibility and suitability to be a Host Family; and
- to provide you and the student living with you the support and services you all need while participating in the program. Provision of the personal information is a requirement under the agreement you have with us as a Host Family.
The principal lawful reason for collecting and processing your personal information is to fulfil our agreed obligations to you or because you have expressed an interest in entering into an agreement with us. In addition, we ask you to confirm that you have read and understood this Privacy Notice and that you consent to your personal information being collected and processed for the reasons we have given. In some instances, we also have a legitimate interest in processing your data as part of maintaining a relationship with you, for example, if you have requested to join our email list.
The information we gather about disabilities and criminal convictions allows us to assess any material limitations on your ability to act a Host Family.
We gather other information to identify the appropriate students to allocate to you as a Host Family.
We do not use your personal information for automated profiling or decision-making.
What information do we collect about you?
The personal information we collect and process for each Host Family is set out on the forms that we ask you to complete. We also gather information through supplementary email correspondence, interviews and telephone conversations with you, and from the references you are asked to provide.
Who receives your personal information?
All of the personal information you provide is received by My Education (UK) Limited, trading as WEP.
Who do we share your personal information with?
Information provided by you to fulfil preliminary enquiries or to make an assessment of your eligibility and suitability as a Host Family is shared with:
- our Area Representative, who interviews you and collects your identification documents to complete your Disclosure Barring Service or Disclosure Scotland application; and
- the local school that will be hosting the student.
Once you have successfully completed the process of becoming a Host Family and a school enrolment has been secured, we share relevant personal information with our Area Representatives, who provide support to you while you are hosting, and with our partner companies overseas. The partner company will share the relevant parts of your personal information with potential exchange students and their parents or guardians.
In order to share your details with our arriving students we must send your data out of the UK to our partner companies. It is important that you understand that data protection regulation in other countries might be different from that in the UK and less rigorous.
How long do we hold your personal information?
If you do not complete the process to become a Host Family then we delete your personal information two years after the information was received.
If you become a Host Family then we retain your personal information for six years after you cease hosting students with us.
What are your rights with regard to your personal information?
At any time that we are in possession of or are processing your personal information you have the following rights:
- the right to access your personal and supplementary information and to receive a copy of that information free of charge;
- the right to have incorrect or incomplete personal information rectified or completed, within one calendar month of correction or completion being requested;
- the right, in certain circumstances, to ask for your personal information to be erased (details of the circumstances will be supplied on request);
- the right, in certain circumstances, to restrict the processing of your personal information (details of the circumstances will be supplied on request);
- the right to have the information we hold about you in electronic form transferred, free of charge, to another organisation within one calendar month of a request being made;
- the right to object to your personal information being used for certain purposes, for example, direct marketing.
What are your rights of complaint?
If you are not satisfied with the way in which we collect or process your personal information you should complain to us by contacting our Country Manager using the contact details in the second section of this notice.
If you are not satisfied with our response to your complaint you have the right to lodge a complaint with the supervisory body for the United Kingdom, which is known as the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). Instructions for contacting the ICO can be found on its website at https://ico.org.uk/global/contact-us.
For further information on how your personal information is used, how we maintain the security of your information and your right to access information we have on you, please contact wepeducation@wep.org or 023 8097 0924.