Childcare and school places shortage threatens refugee scheme

The National Audit Office (NAO) said insufficient local authority capacity in housing, schools and early years was the most significant barrier to meeting the government's target to resettle 20,000 children and families living in Syrian refugee camps by May 2020.

Local authorities are responsible for securing accommodation for those they have agreed to resettle, and ensuring children are registered with schools. The programme has so far used 655 houses or flats.

"The programme will need an estimated 4,930 houses or flats and an estimated 10,664 childcare and school places over its lifetime," the NAO's Syrian Vulnerable Persons Resettlement Programme report states.

Local authorities reported to the NAO that finding school places for Syrian refugees was one of the biggest challenges - the watchdog found that 20 per cent of primary schools were full or over capacity.

The report said there had been good partnership working between local authorities and government departments to ensure the first 1,000 refugees were placed by Christmas 2015. But since then, the rate of resettlements has fallen.

As of June this year, only 13 per cent (2,600) of the overall target number of refugees had been resettled in the UK through the programme since the commitment was made in September 2015.

Part of the problem is uncertainty over some elements of the funding arrangements for councils - they receive £20,500 per refugee over five years - and what support they are expected to provide over the life of the scheme, the NAO found. 

Despite these concerns, 118 councils have made commitments to resettle Syrian families, sufficient to meet the 20,000 target, and the NAO said it is now important that these pledges turn into firm offers.

David Simmonds, chairman of the Local Government Association (LGA) asylum, refugee and migration task group, said the focus of the resettlement programme must be on ensuring families are well supported when they are placed.

"Councils are and will be helping some of the most vulnerable families fleeing Syria who will need access to ongoing support from local services to cope with injuries, disabilities and to recover from the severe trauma they have experienced," Simmonds said.

"Councils have an excellent track record in welcoming asylum seeking and refugee children and their families for many years, and continue to work hard to support the Syrian resettlement scheme alongside all the other schemes in current operation."