Earlier this month, in a case brought by the charity ECPAT UK against the council and the Home Office, a High Court judge ruled local authorities cannot legally refuse to support unaccompanied children arriving in their area on the grounds that they cannot safely accommodate them.
Mr Justice Chamberlain’s ruling also highlighted that a ten-day timescale to transfer a child to another council under the government's national transfer scheme (NTS) should begin as soon as they are referred by a local authority, rather than when a placement has been identified as currently recorded by the Home Office.
Kent County Council leader Roger Gough said the ruling highlights “that the way in which the Home Office measures the performance and success of the NTS is skewed, does not represent reality, and must be changed to do so”.
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