Parent Salutation - question

[Pink_Panda]

quick question:

 

we got a new student who lives with carers who do not have parental responsibility. When you press the icon next to parental salutation and parental addressee in the contacts panel in the student record, this stays blank, because, I believe, the carer has no parental responsibility.

 

Now any correspondence sent out via mailmerge looks a bit silly, as there's no salutation. And quite frankly, if I received a letter to my house without a name on it, would assume it be junk mail.

 

When mentioning this to the (newish) staff member in charge of updating student records, they said letters have to be sent out without a salutation, as the carer hasn't got p/r, being told so by (another newish) staff member in charge of admission.

 

Is this correct? Or could the contact name be added manually?

 

We've got other students on roll with the same arrangements, however, the salutation is that of the carer, without responsibility.

 

So, if the staff were correct about this, surely then all these salutations should be taken off?

 

thanks for your help

[Steve21]

Someone should still have parental responsibility shouldn't they?

 

If the carer doesn't, surely you shouldn't be sending the letters to them in the first place.

 

Steve

[elsiegee40]

Carers are in loco parentis. They are not biological or adoptive parents but they assume that responsibility. E.g. Foster carers. There has to be someone with parental responsibility for the child... Why else would you send them letters concerning the child?

[bobsmith]

Both points raised are completely valid.

 

Whoever is looking after the child should have Parental Responsibility ticked - however if you ever need to provide a salutation where there ISN'T someone with parental responsibility then you can manually type stuff into the box.

[vikpaw]

I thought you could manually type in it. If not, tick the PR. Set the field, then untick it, I'm sure it retains the old data.