The main criterion is a lack of parental care, where no other suitable care is available. This situation can arise through:

• Death or permanent absence of one or both parents
• Chronic and enduring mental or physical ill health of a parent
• A parent who can no longer meet the daily needs of a child
• Disability of a sibling of sufficient severity to affect the care and normal development of other children within the family
• Abandonment or abuse of a child

• The case of boarding is justified by the fact that the home circumstances are seriously prejudicial to the normal development of the child
• Boarding is in the best interests of the child
• A place is available at a suitable boarding school
• The parent/guardian has insufficient income to pay school fees

HOW THE PROCESS WORKS

You will be asked to complete an Application Form. While you may need some assistance in filling out this form, we are asking you only for information necessary to assess whether we can support the child or children in your care. Normally, applications cannot be considered from home-owning families where substantial equity exists in the property, or where there are other substantial financial resources.

Once your application has been accepted by the Foundation, our representative - or that of another charitable trust to whom you may have applied - will arrange to visit you at home to prepare a report. This report will be considered with your application and other supporting documents.

If your application meets our criteria, you and the child for whom you are applying will be invited to interview at a central location in London, our offices in Cobham or some other convenient meeting place. For parents/guardians unable to undertake a long journey, one of our Trustees would visit the family home.

If your application is successful and a grant is made, you will receive confirmation of our offer and be asked to sign and return our Conditions of Award. A copy of the offer letter will also be sent to the Headmaster/Bursar of your chosen school. Therefore if an award is made it will have a fixed upper limit as Trustees take the view that it is better to help many children rather than a few.