Agenda item

Councillor David Mellon, Portfolio Holder for Early Intervention and Early Years introduced a report on Support for Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Children and Dublin III Unified Families. He highlighted the following points:

(a)  When a child or young person under the age of 18 arrives in Nottingham seeking asylum they are taken into care. This sometimes required an age assessment to verify age. They receive all of the same support as other children in care receive, along with legal advice to progress their asylum claim;

(b)  It is mostly older, male teenagers who are arriving in Nottingham and over the last year there has been an increase in the number of those arriving. It is likely that this slight increase is due to the camp known as “the Jungle” in Calais being dispersed. The Council’s approach is to be compassionate yet firm;

(c)  Dublin III is a regulation set up by the EU whereby if children have a family connection to Nottingham they could come here. These children are not automatically taken into care but placed with the family already resident in Nottingham;

(d)  Unfortunately half of these placements break down due to a variety of reasons, mainly lack of money, lack of space/appropriate accommodation, children not knowing the adult they have been placed with. These children are then taken into care, mainly through fostering or for the older teenagers, semi-independent living with support from mental health services, health care, and a Social Care plan. They also have access to education and training and once they reach 18 they are eligible for leaving care services;

(e)  The cost of care is an issue, which is why the Council’s stance is compassionate yet firm, fostering placements are limited, and the cost of an agency placement has recently increased. The Home Office does provide funding for these young people’s care but this does not cover the whole cost of each child;

Following discussion, and questions from the Committee the following information was highlighted:

(f)  When a child comes to Nottingham to be unified with family under the Dublin III Unification the Home Office do not complete checks on the financial status or accommodation of the family member they will be joining. These checks are left to the Local Authorities that the children will be moving in to;

(g)  The Council works well with the Refugee Forum and is forging more links with the community and voluntary sector as work progresses;

(h)  The asylum system is a difficult and expensive system to navigate. Some people have been left for years without legal status, which often means that they are not eligible for financial support and not all children received leave to remain;

(i)  There are concerns that families are accepting children from relatives abroad without being able to care for them solely for the potential for financial gain. There is also a risk of children remaining with abusive families as they fear being deported if they report their abuse to the authorities;

(j)  There are a very small number of children  of these who are currently in Nottingham  and are looked after where the Council is in touch with and working with relatives overseas who did not realise that they may be sending their child into a dangerous or abusive environment;

RESOLVED to thanks David Mellen for his attendance and to note the content of the report.