CYP Now Awards: Outstanding work with child refugees

The Children & Young People Now Awards showcase innovation and outstanding practice in services supporting children, young people and families across the UK.

They provide an all-too-rare opportunity to champion the vital work of the children’s services sector to policymakers, funders, colleagues and commissioners, and society in general.

The standard of entries in 2023 was exceptionally high and the passion to improve outcomes for children and families shone through every one of the 117 shortlisted entrants.

Last year saw the launch of a new category – supporting child refugees – to counter the widely negative portrayal of asylum and immigration in the media and among politicians. This feature looks at the outstanding work of some of the shortlisted entrants in that category.

The search for this year’s CYP Now Awards winners has now got under way. You can find details of how to enter, including the categories available and judging process, on page 25.

If you haven’t previously entered I would urge you to take the plunge – it is your opportunity to tell the world about the outstanding work your project, team or organisation is delivering.

Sandwell: Bespoke centre provides education and support

Head teachers in the West Midlands borough of Sandwell were struggling to understand and meet the needs of migrant children and appealed to the local authority for help.

In 2017 Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council set up the Sandwell Transition Education Partnership Service (Steps) New Arrivals Centre.

The centre is designed to be a “one stop shop” to support children and families, according Balwant Bains, executive head of Steps and Sandwell’s virtual school.

The facility is in a council building close to where most immigrant families settle. It delivers introductory schooling to children at primary and secondary level, as well as whole-family support.

When an immigrant family submits an application for a school place to the authority, Steps invites them for an interview.

Centre staff trained in understanding trauma assess children’s education, health and additional needs. They determine if parents need support, such as with language skills or settling into life in the UK.

“Based on that, we start to make connections with other partners in the local authority or outside,” says Bains. For example, families may be directed to Sandwell’s Family Information Service, Brushstrokes.

From January 2021 to February 2024, the centre admitted 230 children to its classes. These take place in the morning and provide a bridge towards starting mainstream education.

On average, children spend 12 days learning at the centre but some stay longer. There is one class of up to 25 each for both primary and secondary. Children come from countries including Afghanistan, Iran and Ukraine.

“We educate them in English, maths and British values,” says Bains. “But also all the simple things we take for granted, like lining up for playtime.” Some children come from countries where boys and girls are educated separately and need support in a co-ed environment. The overarching aim is to help children feel safe, says Bains.

When children are ready to move to a permanent school place, a panel of head teachers discusses their case. Steps staff support the child’s transition. It has successfully placed almost all children in a school or college.

Running the centre costs about £380,000 a year. Funding comes from a variety of sources, including central government and local authorities. In 2018, the project received a grant of nearly £870,000 from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government.

A cost-benefit analysis from January 2020 showed the scheme resulted in savings to the public purse of more than £44,000 from preventing truancy and more than £5.3m through improving the wellbeing of children and families over a 32-month period.

Leeds: Sport and art help children start new lives

The number of unaccompanied asylum-seeking children in Leeds City Council’s care is growing. Between June 2023 and January 2024 numbers increased from 78 to 102.

In May 2019, the council developed four specific roles in its looked-after children service to support this group’s specific needs.

The team deliver a range of specialised services, including an eight-week welcome programme, new clothing and equipment, health checks and legal support.

Support includes group training on life in the UK and is delivered alongside refugee children who are now care leavers.

Children’s services delivery manager Jonathan Nevill says this is a great way for newly arrived children to meet others from the same cultures. Children come from countries including Eritrea, Ethiopia and Afghanistan.

The team created a football club, which meets two to three times a week. Training sessions are very popular even in “grim” weather, says Nevill. The team has played in several tournaments.

Up to five time a year, staff organise residential stays at a farm, where the children do outdoor activities, learn basic first aid and cook together. In 2022 young migrants created a cookbook, Cooked With Love, featuring recipes from their home countries. In February a group of young people opened an exhibition of art reflecting their journeys to the UK. Both the exhibition and cookbook were partnership projects with the British Library.

Nevill says these kinds of projects can be a form of therapy. “Many young refugees don’t want one-to-one therapy,” he says. “They like the softer approach of group-based support.”

Kent: Training helps foster carers response to trauma

Kent’s position on the south coast means the county receives more unaccompanied asylum-seeking children than any other part of the UK. In August 2023, Kent County Council had 605 unaccompanied children in its care.

The stress of being separated from their families and the perilous journey to the UK means children arrive with poor physical and emotional health. Foster carers were reporting issues including self-harm, mental health problems and unsettled behaviour and in 2022 asked the county council for more support and advice.

“Services were aware of the need for trauma-informed approaches,” says Sue Gower, a public health programme manager at Kent County Council. “However, the tools to intervene were limited, focusing on single issues rather than the complexities foster carers were experiencing.”

As a result, the county council’s public health team and its foster carer training department worked with not-for-profit organisation Child and Family Training to develop a training course to specifically address children’s needs.

With funding from the council’s public health budget, the partnership delivered two courses between July and October 2022 to 30 foster carers with 45 children in their care.

The foster carers attended four four-hour sessions over that period. These covered modules including how to identify needs and deal with distress, supporting low mood and anxiety, and helping children tell their stories.

Foster carers who completed the course were positive about the training with one describing the content as “invaluable”.

Trainers said the scheme showed foster carers could provide the support vulnerable young asylum seekers need. “Carers who have not had professional training, but who have extensive experience caring for children and young people, can deliver effective intervention for the most troubled children and young people,” said one.

The county council went on to adapt the training for use by its Ukrainian Family Support Team and in its work with Afghan refugees. It is also using the approach to support other children in care.

Kensington & Chelsea: Holistic support for Afghan families

In August 2021, more than 1.6 million Afghans fled their country after the US government withdrew its troops and the Taliban took control. By September 2023, 24,600 Afghan refugees had arrived in the UK under a government re-location scheme.

The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea responded quickly to support Afghan families placed in local “bridging hotels” – temporary Home Office accommodation. “The team had to work with urgency to create a wraparound response with no existing infrastructure in place,” says the authority’s director of family services Glen Peache.

By September 2021 the council had set up the Afghan Social Care Team – a multidisciplinary team of 11 adult and children’s social workers, early help practitioners, and a systemic therapy clinician.

It supported 465 children from 144 families until the summer of 2023, when the bridging hotels closed. Funding came from the government’s Afghan Resettlement Grant at £28 a day for each evacuee.

The response included delivering in-house services, including bringing in GPs to register people at hotels and setting up vaccination clinics on-site. “Health visiting clinics were also set up, to ensure all children under five had a full health visiting assessment,” says Peache.

The team worked with local schools to monitor children’s attendance and helped parents access early years provision. Outside of school hours and during holidays, the team worked with voluntary organisations to provide homework clubs, tutoring, trips to local parks and activities such as cricket.

“Both staff and Afghan guests fondly remember a trip to the beach, which provided the opportunity for many of the children to see the sea for the first time,” says Peache.

Before the hotels closed, the team supported more than 30 families to settle into permanent accommodation. The Home Office moved remaining families into alternative housing.

Peache says the programme highlighted the benefits of working with a multidisciplinary team providing wraparound, holistic support. The authority has replicated this model to support other refugees.

We need more funding to support child refugees

By Louise Gittins, chair of the Local Government Association’s Children and Young People Board

Councils have a proud history of welcoming new arrivals and supporting unaccompanied asylum-seeking (UAS) children to settle and thrive in their new homes. This remains the case even at a time when councils are under increasing strain.

Councils have a responsibility to support unaccompanied children identified in their area, including providing accommodation and support for under-18s and supporting young people as care leavers after they turn 18. As arrivals disproportionately affect port authorities, the National Transfer Scheme was established to move children to care placements around the country.

However, rising numbers of unaccompanied children arriving and the ongoing pressures of supporting UAS care leavers is putting significant strain on councils’ ability to provide the best support. The number of unaccompanied children in the care of councils rose by 29 per cent last year – up to 7,290 – while UAS care leavers now account for more than a quarter of all care leavers aged 19 to 21. Councils are finding it extremely difficult to recruit children’s social workers to meet the demand.

While councils receive some funding from the Home Office, this fails to cover the true cost of supporting children. Councils are particularly concerned about funding to support care leavers, which equates to just 27 per cent of the funds allocated to under-18s. Children arrive with varied and sometimes complex needs. There needs to be a shared understanding of the true cost of appropriate support and sufficient funding.

These pressures come on top of increased demand for social care and housing support generally. Net local authority expenditure on children’s social care was £11.1bn in 2021/22 with record numbers of children currently in care. While some extra funding for social care was announced in the recent Budget, councils are still facing a huge funding gap over the next two years.

There is a shortage of placements for all children in care and the cost of placements is going up. Recent research by the Local Government Association found 91 per cent of councils had to pay for at least one placement costing more than £10,000 a week last year – up from just 23 per cent in 2018/19. The number of these placements increased from 120 to over 1,500 in the same period.

Age assessment also remains a challenge for local authorities, both from a child protection and a legal perspective. The new National Age Assessment Board will eventually carry out a significant proportion of age assessments, providing the necessary expertise while protecting councils from costs of potential challenges. However, the board is currently only working on a very small number of cases.

While councils work extremely hard to support unaccompanied children, funding and resource constraints are making their job increasingly difficult. We also need to see a joined-up approach across partners and government departments to the whole asylum and migration system to make sure all those seeking refuge in the UK can receive the right support.

How to enter

The Children & Young People Now Awards 2024 opens for entries on Tuesday 26 March

Just like last year, there are 24 awards categories to enter. They cover most aspects of the sector including early help, childcare, children’s mental health, child protection, social care, youth work and youth justice services. Partnership working, a commitment to evaluation and embracing co-production are core values for the awards.

Entries are made through an online portal that enables supporting evidence to be uploaded. The process is straightforward and entries can be saved and returned to later.

The deadline for entries is Friday 14 June, with shortlisted entries announced in late summer after judging by a panel of sector experts and young people.

The winners will be unveiled at a glittering gala dinner and ceremony on Thursday 28 November at Novotel London West, in Hammersmith.

To enter the CYP Now Awards 2024, read the category criteria and find out about sponsorship opportunities go to the CYP Now Awards website at www.cypnowawards.com

Three ways to make your entry stand out

1. Evidence your impact. “The most important thing I look for in an entry is that the work is making a difference – evidence of impact on the people it is intended to help is essential,” says Alison O’Sullivan, chair of the National Children’s Bureau and awards judge. O’Sullivan explains that impact can be demonstrated through improving practice or systems, developing new approaches or influencing the response to complex problems. “In all cases it is important to show evidence of the difference being made, both quantitative and qualitative. Stories and accounts from individuals, be they users of services or professionals, help bring ideas to life,” she adds.

2. Think about language. A panel of experts and professionals from across the children and young people’s sector will first judge the entries. A second round of judging will be undertaken by a group of young judges hand-picked by Children & Young People Now. Each entry must indicate clearly to both the adult and young judges the nature and degree of difficulty faced, and how this was overcome, all backed up with hard evidence. For the best chance of winning an award, be concise, be clear and remember your entry will be judged by young people as well as sector experts.

3. Show your passion. “We cherish the entries that have love woven into the very stitches of their fabric, those that have taken incredible courage and sacrifice to establish,” says Inaam Barkatoolah, who has been a young judge in the past two years. She adds that the entries that are able to demonstrate how they have overcome problems to improve children and young people’s lives particularly resonate. So, too, do projects that have involved children and young people in the design and delivery – if co-production is an element of the project, tell us about it.