National Transfer Scheme could be made compulsory unless councils ‘get behind’ rota system

Speaking at the Association of Directors of Children’s Services (ADCS) annual conference, Vicky Ford urged local authority leaders to “consider if there is more that you can do to facilitate help for these young people”. 

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“I really would encourage you to try and get behind this system. Please keep going because otherwise we’ll have to go for the mandation and I think that will further increase pressure on local authorities,” she said, citing the results of a Home Office consultation on the scheme in which “a third of people were strongly against mandation, a third were really for it and the other third weren’t sure”.

Following the consultation ministers chose not to make the scheme compulsory and instead backed the use of the rota scheme that was introduced when the scheme was launched in 2015 to reduce pressure on local authorities receiving high levels of UASC such as Croydon, in south London, and Kent.

Kent was among a number of local authorities and campaigners calling for the NTS to be mandated after it declared in May that it could no longer look after new UASC “safely” for the second time in 10 months.

Alongside the relaunch of the rota system the Home Office pledged funding of £20m for local authorities to support former UASC care leavers alongside support backdated to April 2021.

A further £6m of Department for Education funding will be distributed to 56 councils facing the biggest pressures.

Addressing directors of children’s services directly, Ford said the funding “should mean you are not taking on an additional financial burden”.

She also said the widely-criticised new Nationality and Borders Bill, which was introduced to parliament this week, “will prioritise those in need of protection while stopping abuse of the system, including by increasing punishments for people smugglers who facilitate illegal entry, so often putting the vulnerable at risk in the process”.

“I know that meeting these young people’s needs can be challenging, but it can also be very rewarding. Many of these young people can go on and thrive wherever they go to live. 

“I also need to ask that you consider whether there is more you can do now to provide placements for the young people that are continuing to arrive and in need of help. If so, please do get in touch with the department,” she said.