Refugee support sparks dispute

The government has pledged to introduce a national “dispersal” scheme for settling unaccompanied asylum-seeking children more evenly across the country from July.

Ministers say a national scheme is needed to relieve pressure on the so-called “gateway authorities” of Kent, Hillingdon and Croydon so that all 152 councils take responsibility for caring for some of the unaccompanied children who arrive in the UK through government resettlement schemes and unofficial routes.

The proposal – one of a number of government measures to support refugee children (see box) – includes a commitment to consider making a national dispersal scheme compulsory, through powers being introduced under the Immigration Bill.
 
Although details of the scheme are yet to be finalised, the Local Government Association (LGA) is concerned that councils will not be funded adequately to cope with an influx of unaccompanied children, and are calling for the existing voluntary scheme and enhanced funding to continue to encourage councils to offer support (see David Simmonds’ comment, below).  

‘Stretched to the limit’

Latest figures from Kent County Council show 92 unaccompanied children have been placed with 32 councils since the voluntary scheme started last September.

Kent council leader Paul Carter recently described this as “no mean feat” given the uncertainty over long-term funding, but added that the scheme had been “stretched to the limit”.

Peter Oakford, cabinet member for children’s services at the council, says for this reason it is “essential” that the government makes the national scheme mandatory.

“A very small number of unaccompanied asylum-seeking children have been placed in other local authorities on a voluntary basis and we are grateful for this assistance. But in reality, this help has not come close to addressing the scale of the issue,” he says.

“There are nearly 900 unaccompani