The Children's Commissioner for England has written to every local authority urging them to do more to support unaccompanied asylum-seeking children.
Anne Longfield was moved to act after seeing first hand the "squalid, dangerous, shanty-town like conditions" that 600 children are living in during a recent visit to the Calais "Jungle" refugee camp.
Humanitarian agencies estimate there are 80,000 migrant children travelling alone to Europe from war-torn areas of the Middle East. Most will seek asylum in mainland European countries, but a small proportion head to Calais in an attempt to enter the UK illegally.
Some are successful - latest data shows there were 3,472 asylum applications from unaccompanied children in the UK in the year ending June 2016 - a 54 per cent rise from June 2015.
Children who make it to the UK usually seek asylum in the local authority where they arrive. These "gateway" authorities have seen a surge in the number of children they have been caring for over the past 18 months.
For example, Kent County Council saw the number of under-18s it was caring for rise from 300 to 900 in the first nine months of 2015. Croydon Council has seen the number it cares for rise from 365 in 2014 to 445 by 2016.
Transfer scheme
In an arrangement brokered by the Association of Directors of Children's Services to help alleviate the pressure on Kent, 125 unaccompanied children were transferred to the care of other local authorities that volunteered to help between September 2015 and June 2016. But the initiative was unable to keep pace with demand, so in July the government launched a National Dispersal Scheme that, while still voluntary, places an expectation on councils to offer help to gateway authorities.
Under the system, councils whose proportion of unaccompanied children is greater than 0.07 per cent of their overall child population can refer new arrivals to the scheme to be transferred to neighbouring authorities where the proportion is lower than 0.07 per cent.
The ratio, which has been agreed for 2016/17 but will be reviewed annually, means that a council that has 100,000 children living within its boundaries will be expected to take on responsibility for up to 70 unaccompanied children. If the region exceeds the ceiling of 0.07 per cent, then the child will be transferred to another region.
According to the Department for Education and Home Office, the long-term objective of the scheme is to achieve a "fairer distribution of unaccompanied children".
In the first 12 weeks of the scheme operating, 69 children have been transferred from Kent council into the care of other local authorities. It has seen the number of under-18s it is caring for drop to 792.
But Peter Oakford, Kent council cabinet member for children's services, says: "The new national dispersal scheme is not working.
"We are grateful to those authorities who have stepped up and accepted these young people, but it is not enough. We always said the scheme had to be mandatory because few councils are going to volunteer to take more young people into their care and provide them with services."
Croydon Council is also awaiting the go-ahead to begin referring children aged 15 and under to the national dispersal scheme.
It estimates it will take three years of new referrals being dispersed for its unaccompanied child population rate to fall below the 0.07 per cent threshold.
While the scheme is voluntary, measures in the Immigration Act 2016 allow the Home Secretary to compel councils that fail to volunteer support to accept transfers of unaccompanied children referred through it.
Funding arrangements
The funding arrangements for the scheme see councils receive £42,610 annually for each under-16 they support, and £33,215 for each 16- and 17-year-old. What happens after they turn 18 is unclear.
The Local Government Association (LGA) warns that lack of clarity over future government funding for authorities to pay for support is putting some off coming forward.
But Longfield says more authorities need to offer support.
"Some councils are playing their part and have responded positively, but the majority are yet to do so.
"I have written to all English authorities to ask them to identify resources to accommodate unaccompanied children. There is a huge moral responsibility to respond to children in these extraordinarily dangerous situations."
A Home Office spokesman said: "We have been clear that the responsibility for unaccompanied children must be shared fairly between local authorities in a way that protects the best interests of children and ensures that no local authority is asked to take care of more unaccompanied children than they can cope with.
"If we are to make the voluntary transfer scheme a success, we need more authorities to participate in the scheme and offer places for unaccompanied children from councils such as Kent and Croydon which are caring for disproportionately high numbers."
54% rise in unaccompanied children seeking asylum in the UK between June 2015 and June 2016792 unaccompanied under-18s currently in Kent council care
69 children transferred from Kent to other councils’ care under national dispersal scheme
Source: Home Office; Kent County Council
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