Reconnect bus pass for a second summer

Children and young people across Kent, along with their families, will have access to free bus travel across the county this summer - thanks to the county’s bus companies as part of the Reconnect programme developed by Kent County Council.

The passes will be available - for most students, via their school or college - to all students in Years 6 to 13. Family passes, for up to four family members, will be available for at least one child and one adult travelling together. For both, the period of free travel will be from 23 July to 31 August, and will cover Arriva and Stagecoach services, along with other services that KCC subsidises.

The Reconnect programme, launched last year and continuing through the 2022 summer holidays, was developed by KCC, guided by the ideas and views of the county’s young people, to enable them to take up social and educational opportunities after the disruptions of the pandemic.

You can find more details of the scheme in this KCC media release.

Asylum seeking children: a better situation

In May, Kent County Council took 158 Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Children (UASC) into our care, the highest monthly figure since 2015. Since last autumn, monthly figures have been regularly high - little surprise given the overall high levels of asylum arrivals via small boats across the Channel. Yet this does not represent the crisis that it did in previous years.

As I was able to explain in interviews on both Radio Kent and BBC South East News today, the position has been transformed by the effective operation of the National Transfer System (NTS) for unaccompanied young asylum seekers. Last September, Kent County Council agreed a protocol with government for us to operate a Safe Care and Reception Service, providing initial support and care for some 120 UASC before their transfer to other local authorities, on top of our having 242 UASC (the 0.07% of our young people population that represents the recommended cap set out in the provisions of the 2016 Immigration Act). Beyond this limit, any young people are transferred to other local authorities under the NTS. And late last year, government agreed to our long-urged argument that the operation of the NTS should be made mandatory. 

Since September 2021, some 679 UASC have been transferred to other local authorities. The result is that, unlike the circumstances of 2020 and 2021, Kent’s services are not being overwhelmed. This represents real progress, and reflects our effective work with government and the willingness of many of our local government colleagues to step up to the plate and address what is a national hand international) issue.

We will be bringing a paper to our public Cabinet meeting on Thursday which makes clear that there are many serious challenges concerning migration and asylum, including the operation of the Afghan schemes and the government’s proposals for adult asylum dispersal. But in the area of UASC at least, some genuine progress has been made, to the benefit of Kent’s residents and services, as well as the young people claiming asylum.