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.

Councils mandated to accept asylum seeking minors: the government acts

Late on Monday, the Home Office confirmed that the government is moving to mandate councils across the country to accept Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Children (UASC) into their care under the National Transfer Scheme (NTS). This was confirmed in a letter sent yesterday morning from Home Office Minister Kevin Foster and Children’s Minister Will Quince.

This is a very welcome development, and one which we at KCC have long argued for. The voluntary NTS set up in the summer has delivered large transfers (I believe around 600) of UASC young people to other local authorities. Nonetheless, not all authorities have taken part and recent rounds of the rota established through the new NTS have proved increasingly difficult to operate. With very large numbers of arrivals, and the consequent need for government to rely on unsustainable hotel accommodation for UASC, the case for mandation has become irresistible.

No authority with more UASC in its care than the 0.07% of the children and young people population benchmark established under the 2016 Immigration Act will be mandated to take additional UASC. This is of course the case for Kent, though we continue not only to take UASC young people into our care when we have capacity but also operate a Safe Care and Reception Service for UASC who will go on to other local authorities for their permanent placement. The mandation arrangements are said by ministers to be temporary and until the current pressures are addressed; it remains to be seen how this will work in practice, and in any case this remains a very positive decision. 

I have given a number of interviews since the announcement, including on BBC Radio 4’s The World Tonight on Monday evening (the report starts some 10 minutes into the broadcast).

Tonight, however, all thoughts related to channel crossings are dominated by the horrific news of the drowning of some 31 people near Calais. For this horror, there are no words.

Asylum seeking children: Kent under pressure (again)

Once more, Kent faces big challenges reflecting the large scale arrival of unaccompanied under 18s claiming asylum - unaccompanied asylum seeking children (UASC), who are among the arrivals in small boats crossing the Channel. 

As of the end of May, 242 UASC young people had been taken into the County Council’s care so far this year. This is up sharply on the same period last year (when 189 arrived), which nonetheless saw the council having by mid-August to suspend delivering its statutory obligations and taking these young people into care.

Overall, KCC has (or had at the start of yesterday) 403 UASC in its care, as well as around 1100 care leavers of UASC background. Under the National Transfer Scheme for UASC, introduced under some of the provisions of the Immigration Act 2016, no local authority is expected to have UASC of more than 0.07% of its child population in its care. For Kent that figure is 231. 

Pressures on Kent services are now growing, with reception centre capacity almost entirely occupied, social work caseloads rising and a need for foster care placements (including some outside the county) as a result of a higher proportion of under 16s than in the past. 

Two developments follow from this. The first is that we are now close to a position where, as was the case last summer, I may get advice from our Director of Children’s Services that we cannot safely discharge our responsibilities and we should no longer collect UASC young people from the port. The second is that Kent County Council has issued a Letter Before Action to the Home Office, which is the first formal step towards a possible Judicial Review, relating to the Home Secretary’s unwillingness to use the powers she has under the Immigration Act to direct (‘mandate’) local authorities to accept UASC young people under the National Transfer Scheme. We have long argued is essential to ensure a robust and equitable scheme that takes the pressure off port of entry authorities such as Kent.

Inevitably this generated a lot of media interest yesterday; among the interviews I gave was to Radio 4’s Today Programme (interview starts after 1 hour and 16 minutes) and BBC national news (6PM bulletin, report starts after 21 minutes).

Asylum: end of the consultation

I have posted many times on the issue of this year’s large scale arrivals of Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Children (UASC) and Kent County Council’s response. On 17 August, with more than 600 UASC in our care, social work caseloads at unacceptably high levels and our reception centres full, Kent County Council confirmed that we were no longer able to fulfil our duties and collect further new arrivals from the Port. This was my decision as Leader of the Council, on the advice of our Director of Children’s Services.

Since that time, numbers of UASC in our care have reduced (though still far above what government legislation and guidance would regard as acceptable) as the Home Office, working with other groups such as local government organisations  and the Regional Migration Partnerships, has placed many young people with other local authorities.

Over the summer, the Home Office has also consulted on a relaunch of a reformed National Transfer Scheme (NTS), the system introduced as part of the 2016 Immigration Act following the crisis of 2015, to achieve a more balanced and equitable distribution of UASC in local authorities across the country. The NTS worked relatively well initially, but ran out of steam by 2018 as local authorities, conscious of the costs and feeling under pressure in their children’s services, became increasingly unwilling to take UASC young people. The consultation proposes a regional rota system for taking UASC and - importantly - consults on the possibility of making the system mandatory. For KCC, this is of great importance; our biggest concern is that there should be no repeat of what happened (and did not happen) after 2015. This was the central argument of my letter to the Home Secretary, Priti Patel, in May, and the County Council has been arguing for a revived and strengthened NTS for a number of years. The consultation closes on Wednesday, and there is every indication that the outcome is genuinely open. I have been encouraged by something of a shift in opinion in the local government sector towards mandation.

I had the chance to discuss many of these issues when I gave evidence earlier in September to the parliamentary Home Affairs Select Committee (picture). In the course of this, MPs from different parties gave warm tributes to the work of our social work teams in responding to the UASC issue. You can find a recording of the evidence session here.  

Asylum seeking children: some real progress

This post is a bit behind events, but it has been a frenetic week.

I have posted before about the challenges Kent faces regarding the arrival of large numbers of Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Children (UASC). Adult asylum seekers (and children accompanying their families) who arrive in Kent are dispersed across the country (with relatively few remaining in the South East) but UASC remain the responsibility of KCC. So far this year some 215 UASC have come into the care of the County Council, more than in the whole of either 2017 or 2018, and more than twice the level of the same time last year. In the month of May alone, 65 UASC arrived, the highest level for any month since the crisis summer of 2015.

With our reception centres and other services under severe and growing pressure, I wrote to the Home Secretary urging action. At the start of this week, I warned that the new quarantine regulations would add to the pressures because the requirements for lengthy isolation would stretch our reception facilities further.

On Monday, I spoke to the Immigration Minister Chris Philp, and shortly after this government announced a package of improved financial support for councils for UASC. The following day saw a remote meeting, in which Sue Chandler (Cabinet Member for Integrated Children's Services), KCC officers and I spoke with Minister Philp, Children's Minister Vicky Ford, their officials and representatives from local government and children's services bodies.

The government measures have raised the rates paid in support of 16 and 17 year old UASC for authorities with more than 0.07% UASC in their young people's population (the measure set for the purposes of the National Transfer Scheme, set up after the 2015 crisis but in abeyance in the last couple of years). There is also a 20% increase in the rates paid for the support of UASC care leavers (former children in care aged 25), with the Home Office support now extended to the age of 25. Alongside this government committed to give strong support to efforts which KCC has begun to place UASC young people with local authorities across the country.

This is very good news in many ways. The enhanced financial support is worth some £5 million to KCC, and hence to Kent taxpayers. The personal commitment of the ministers has been impressive, and it is to be hoped (and some of the early signs are encouraging) that we can make progress in placing UASC in other local authorities. There will be continuing dialogue with ministers on longer-term issues.

There are perhaps two caveats. The first is that, while we may well see placements with other local authorities in the immediate future, it is not clear whether the measures announced can get the National Transfer Scheme back up and running on a sustained basis. Secondly, if arrivals continue at a rapid rate over the summer (in spite of ministers' commitment to work with the French authorities to reduce the boat journeys across the Channel), then our services could soon be under pressure again. Still, we are in a much better position than seemed possible a week ago, or when I pre-recorded an interview for BBC Radio 4's File on 4 (you can find the programme here; my comments are in the closing minutes of this very informative episode). KCC's media release can be found here.    

Letter to the Home Secretary

"None of this can wait" I concluded Monday's post on the arrival in Kent of increasing numbers of Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Children (UASC). The rest of the week has seen further arrivals (some 16 since Monday) and continuing media interest, including this Daily Mail report.

The pressures have now reached a critical point. My previous post set out the impact of Covid-19 and its requirements for social distancing on our reception centres. We have now reached a point at which we are having to reverse our previous stance and put young people back into double rooms, contrary to public health best practice. Further arrivals will only compromise further and unacceptably our ability to provide the safe and effective service that we are required to.

I was able to talk about these issues on BBC Radio 4's Today programme this morning (about 53 minutes in on this playback, which is available for 29 days) and again in a more extended interview on Radio Kent (1 hour and 47 minutes in, available here also for 29 days).

At the same time, I wrote to the Home Secretary, Priti Patel, setting out Kent's situation and urging as the most immediate priority a reactivation of the National Transfer Scheme (NTS), created in the aftermath of the 2015 migration crisis to ensure a fair and workable distribution of young asylum seekers across local authorities. The scheme fell into desuetude from 2018 onwards, chiefly because of the negative cost implications to local authorities of taking UASC, and in particular Care Leavers from a UASC background. Prior to recent events, the Home Office had worked up both a revised NTS and proposals for funding reform for supporting Care Leavers. These must now be implemented as a matter of urgency.

You can find my letter to the Home Secretary in a KCC media release here.    

Asylum seeking children: Kent's challenges

Today has seen significant media interest in the issue of the arrival of Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Children (UASC) in Kent and its implications for the County Council. I gave an interview to Radio Kent on the subject this morning (shortly after 0745 on catchup), and BBC South East is also following the story and has interviewed me (for later broadcast).

The arrival of UASC in Kent, often at the port of Dover, has long been a challenge for KCC. While adult asylum seekers go to other parts of the country under a long-standing dispersal scheme, UASC become children in the care of the County Council.

KCC has a long and proud record of support for these young people (chiefly boys aged between 15 and 17), and responded strongly and effectively to the large-scale arrivals in 2015. However, there has always been a concern that, if the number of arrivals grows too quickly, this will put pressure on the support systems (social work capacity, accommodation) in a county which also has some 1450 local children in care and a similar number of children in the care of other authorities placed in Kent. In addition, government financial support has seldom been adequate and KCC has faced an annual funding gap averaging around £2million but sometimes as high as £4.5m. The problem has continued, often in slightly varying form, despite huge efforts by  KCC Members (including me in my previous Cabinet role in Children's Services) and officers.

What has added urgency to the issue is a combination of increasing numbers and the effects of Covid-19. Arrivals have been increasing sharply since the middle of last year, and so far in 2020 160 young people have come into the care of KCC. That is not far short of the full year totals in 2017 (214) and 2018 (172) and is now running at a rate not seen since 2015-16.

Thes newly arriving young people are staying in Kent. The National Transfer Scheme (NTS), set up by government (but on a voluntary basis) in the wake of the 2015 crisis in an attempt to place UASC young people across a wider range of local authorities, had initial success but then dried up. Kent has not placed a child with another authority under NTS since the spring of 2018. At the turn of the year, along with counterparts in Portsmouth, Cabinet Member Sue Chandler and I wrote to other authorities urging them to take more UASC young people.

When the NTS was set up, government set a UASC level of 0.07% of the total young people's population before transfers to other authorities were required. For Kent, this amounted to 231 UASC. Two years ago our UASC population was almost exactly at that level, and even in the spring of 2019 only a little higher; now, however, it stands at 469. In addition, there are 932 care leavers (young people aged 18-25) with a UASC background for whom KCC has continuing responsibilities (as is the case for all care leavers of whatever background).  

All this has financial consequences. Last year, the Home Office raised the rates for support for under 18 UASC, and in that financial year our funding gap was a relatively small £600K. Now, however, the effects of Covid-19 and its social distancing requirements have meant that KCC has had to expand significantly its reception centre capacity (going from one centre to three, and facing pressures to increase capacity further) and to run it on a more expensive, less cost effective basis. There is a lack of availability of suitable properties to provide lower-cost options for housing the young people. This has meant around £200K in additional costs already incurred, and future commitments of almost £700K. In addition, the increase in the number of young people in care means growing pressure on the council's social work and support capacity.

Longer-term, care leavers present a greater financial challenge to the County Council; government funding to match the council's responsibilities is inadequate and care leavers accounted for more than the net overspend of £600K in 2019-20. A Care Leaver Review has been under way for several years but has still not reached a conclusion.  

KCC is now urging action in three areas: recognition of the increased costs associated with the combination of increased arrivals with the effects of Covid-19; resolution of the issues addressed by the Care Leaver Review; and ensuring that other authorities take more young people, whether under a revived NTS or a more directive approach. None of this can wait.