Fully fund councils to comply with asylum transfer scheme, government told
Joe Lepper
Thursday, November 25, 2021
Ministers are being urged to ensure councils are fully funded to meet their mandatory National Transfer Scheme (NTS) commitments to support asylum-seeking children.
These were made temporarily compulsory earlier this week. Under the change all councils will have a legal responsibility to accept transfers of children into their care. This will see children living in temporary accommodation in areas with a high number of asylum-seeking young people moved to permanent placement across the country.
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But the Children’s Society has warned that not all areas are set up to effectively support asylum-seeking children, as they do not have the right expertise, experience, and services in place
“That’s why it’s absolutely crucial that the government provides councils with the funding, resources and support necessary to ensure all children get the care they deserve,” said Children’s Society policy and practice advisor Marieke Widmann.
She added: “Children’s best interests should be the priority when deciding on whether or not they should be moved to another council area – including whether they will receive the support they need to recover from the trauma they have experienced and to rebuild their lives.”
Meanwhile, Association of Directors of Children’s Services (ADCS) president Charlotte Ramsden said that making the scheme mandatory “will help towards the goal of caring for all children who have arrived in such dire circumstances”.
However, she warns that it “is not a complete solution” to the challenges in supporting this group of vulnerable children.
“These include significant placement sufficiency challenges which continue to exist, current public sector workforce capacity issues, plus resource pressures for older young people who need support post 21,” she said.
The voluntary NTS has been made temporarily compulsory to ease the burden on local authorities near entry points into the UK, such as airports and ports, and already supporting a high number of asylum-seeking children. This includes Croydon and Kent, which were forced to stop accepting children due to the surge in demand earlier this year.
Hamida Ali, leader of Croydon council, which in August was looking after 156 asylum seeking children, said funding needed to be increased to cover “the full cost of support”.
“All councils should share our important national duty to care for children and young people who could not be more vulnerable. But that must be backed with government funding which covers the full cost of support,” she added.
In June, Kent County Council was looking after 430 asylum seeking children, double the safe amount recommended by the government based on its population.
The compulsory NTS was welcomed as “the right decision for an effective, stable and fair system” by Kent council leaders earlier this week.