A new Home Office and Department for Education strategy aims to improve the safeguarding of unaccompanied asylum-seeking children through measures designed to increase placements and the level of support available.
There are 4,560 unaccompanied children in local authority care, accounting for around six per cent of the total looked-after child population.
Children's services experts have welcomed the strategy as a sign the government wants to tackle systemic problems hindering support for unaccompanied children.
However, they identify three key barriers that need to be addressed if the strategy's main measures are to be effective.
1. Funding of places
The government has pledged to review the amount of money councils receive from central government to cover the cost of looking after unaccompanied children. This follows concerns raised by local government leaders that current annual funding rates - £41,610 for children under 16 and £33,215 for 16- and 17-year-olds - do not meet the full costs of a care placement.
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