Immigration status and Brexit
Amanda Shah, policy officer, Greater Manchester Immigration Aid Unit
Tuesday, March 31, 2020
Expert says councils must take measures to ensure children in care have leave to remain from 2021.
For the past year, we have been working with children’s services and leaving care teams to meet the needs of children in care and care leavers affected by Brexit immigration changes.
As a result of Brexit, people from the EU, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland – and people from elsewhere but whose immigration status is dependent on a family member from one of those countries – need to make an immigration application to stay in the UK lawfully.
This needs action from every local authority because children in care and care leavers also need to apply to regularise their immigration status. Some councils will be corporate parents to greater numbers of affected children than others, but all need to go through a process of identifying which of their children and young people need Brexit immigration support.
If local authorities do not step up to support them, from 2021 the future for these young people could include homelessness, immigration detention and removal from the UK.
Here are five best practice tips for local authorities, gleaned from our work with social workers, personal advisers, service managers and legal staff, to make sure their children are protected through the Brexit immigration change-over.
1. Collect nationality data
The biggest barrier to local authorities being able to support young people with immigration needs is that they are unable to identify them. Data on nationality is not routinely collected and so, for most councils, Brexit has meant manually trawling through individual case files. As a result, too many are being missed. Having accessible information on children’s nationality as an integral part of their care planning is key if councils are to know which of their children need immigration support.
2. Set up referral protocols for immigration advice
All young people identified as affected by Brexit should be automatically referred for independent legal advice. Authorities should consider commissioning arrangements where necessary to enable this. The Home Office has pushed people towards the EU Settlement Scheme but that my not be the only or most secure immigration application. For many children, rights to British citizenship also need considering. Given that children in care and care leavers are disproportionately likely to end up in contact with the criminal justice system, citizenship, where appropriate, means matters stay in the criminal justice system and don’t leach over to immigration.
3. Use an immigration tracker
We developed a colour coded “Brexit immigration tracker” with one leaving care team so that they could see in one place corporate progress towards resolving the immigration needs of all affected young people. It is a simple Excel spreadsheet which highlights support required from local authorities before applications can be made – particularly getting valid nationality documents.
4. Use electronic flags before immigration status expires
A young person’s immigration needs can last longer than their involvement with a particular social worker, and can crossover with them from children’s services to leaving care. Using electronic flags on casework management systems, that trigger six months before a young person’s immigration status runs out, is one way of ensuring immigration needs do not get lost. For Brexit, this is important because those who get Pre-Settled Status will need to apply for Settled Status at a later date. There is a risk of this subsequent application being missed for children in care and care leavers unless it is owned by corporate parents.
5. Keep copies of immigration status documents
To facilitate this long-term support, electronic copies of a young person’s immigration status documents should be part of their local authority records. Not only does this mean the authority is clear about what status young people have, but it also safeguards against documents getting lost, particularly for young care leavers.
Our work has led us to believe a strategic response is required from local authorities, owned at a corporate level, rather than relying on good social work practice from individuals. Best practice measures put in place to adequately support around Brexit will identify and support a wider group of children in care and care leavers with insecure immigration status; young people born in the UK who think they are British but have no documents to evidence it or children from families who have no valid immigration status.
Several local government and social care ombudsman investigations have found against authorities deemed to have acted in an inappropriate or untimely manner to support looked-after children with immigration issues.
This approach puts authorities on the front foot, means they are better able to plan and ultimately means they are best placed to do the right thing by their children.
