Call for clarity over funding of asylum dispersal schemes

Immigration minister James Brokenshire confirmed yesterday (Wednesday) that a new scheme for resettling unaccompanied children across the country will be introduced from July to relieve pressure on the so-called “gateway authorities” such as Kent County Council.

In addition, he announced today (Thursday) plans to resettle a further 3,000 children from the Middle East and Africa, who are at risk of abuse and exploitation, over the next four years.

Full details of both schemes are still to be confirmed, and the Local Government Association has warned that councils are concerned over the lack of details. It is particularly worried that enhanced Home Office funding of £41,610 per year for under-16s and £33,215 for 16- and 17-year-olds – given to councils that take unaccompanied children that arrive in Kent – will end in July.  

Under the voluntary dispersal scheme established last September, around 300 children to arrive in Kent have been resettled in other parts of the country, but the government has said the new arrangements will include powers to compel councils to take children.

David Simmonds, chair of the LGA’s asylum taskforce, said: “These new measures must be planned in full partnership with councils and be effectively funded to ensure that services are able to cope with any additional demand and meet children's needs.

"Councils remain concerned that the government is still unable to clarify the long-term funding arrangements for councils looking after unaccompanied children, or provide any detail of how a national dispersal mechanism will operate.

“While the extended funding boost for children arriving into Kent recognises the current shortfall facing councils caring for unaccompanied children, it is crucial that this arrangement is now extended into a properly funded national scheme to support all areas struggling with increased numbers."

Dave Hill, president of the Association of Directors of Children’s Services, added: “A national scheme, implemented regionally, makes sense in the spirit of fairness but the detail and implementation of it will be critical.

“We need support from government to ensure the scheme is sustainable and properly funded and we will also need a sufficient supply of experienced foster carers so that the children and young people can receive the support and care they deserve.”

Home Office statistics published earlier this year show that in 2015, a total of 3,043 unaccompanied children applied for asylum in the UK, compared with 1,945 in 2014 – a rise of 56.5 per cent.

Under the plans to resettle children from the Middle East and Africa, several hundred children will be resettled in the UK within a year, with the rest by 2020. Among those expected to be resettled are victims of child labour and child marriage.

The move was first mooted in January and follows a consultation with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), which recommended resettling a wider group of children at risk, as well as their families, rather than just unaccompanied children.

The Home Office has labelled the plan, which will be reviewed in two years, as the largest ever resettlement scheme of children at risk in Africa and the Middle East.

Brokenshire said: “We have always been clear that the vast majority of vulnerable children are better off remaining in host countries in the region so they can be reunited with surviving family members. However, there are exceptional circumstances in which it is in a child’s best interests to be resettled in the UK.

“We have engaged with the UNHCR on the best way to provide protection to refugee children and ensure their welfare and safety remain at the heart of every decision made. This new scheme complements our ongoing work within Europe to assist vulnerable migrant children.”

The latest schemes do not include child refugees from Africa and the Middle East already in Europe and is in addition to the Vulnerable Persons Resettlement Scheme (VPRS), which plans to resettle 20,000 Syrian refugees in the UK by 2020. So far 1,000 Syrian refugees, including 500 children have been resettled under the VPRS.

Meanwhile, MPs are to next week consider a House of Lords amendment to the Immigration Bill to let 3,000 Syrian refugee children already in Europe come to Britain.