Report of Corporate Director of Resident Services

Due to apologies being received from the author of the report, Steve Oakley, Head of Contracting and Procurement, presented the report, detailing refugee resettlement work being carried out in partnership with registered charities Nottingham and Nottinghamshire Refugee Forum and Enable, on the basis of grant awards and Service Level Agreements.

Mr Oakley stated that, as of 2020, previous resettlement schemes (the ‘Vulnerable Persons Resettlement Scheme’ and the ‘Vulnerable Children’s Resettlement Scheme’) had wound down, and new schemes, including the ‘United Kingdom Resettlement Scheme’, ‘Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme’, and ‘Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy’ had been established.

Furthermore, following the emergency evacuation of Afghanistan during summer 2021, the Home Office had established several hotels nationally as temporary ‘bridging’ accommodation for Afghan evacuees, with associated funding of £28 per person per day available to claim in arrears. This funding already amounted to over £100,000, and the value may reach £1,000,000 should the contingency remain in place for a year (as suggested by Home Office estimates). It should be further noted that this arrangement was imposed on a no-choice basis. Therefore, the report sought approval for the continued participation in grant-funded refugee resettlement schemes operated by the Home Office, to the end of the financial year 2026-27, and acceptance and spend of the money associated with the schemes, as detailed in the report.

The Committee stated that, in light of the author not being present, therefore members being unable to receive answers to the questions they had, they were of the opinion that deferral of the item to a future meeting should be considered. However, in light of the timescale involved, and to enable the refugee resettlement work to continue, the following resolutions would be made.

Resolved

(1)  to approve extension of participation in refugee resettlement schemes to the end of the financial year 2026-27, and authorise acceptance and drawdown of relevant grant monies;

(2)  to approve continuation of Accountable Body duties in support of neighbouring first-tier authorities to deliver resettlement;

(3)  to delegate authority to the Head of Service, Community Partnerships, to award a contract worth up to:

(a)  £284,000 to Nottingham and Nottinghamshire Refugee Forum to deliver casework, orientation and integration services to qualifying residents until September 2022, and to approve the associated spend;

(b)  £112,000 from existing grant reserves to Enable to deliver English language tuition services to qualifying residents until September 2022;

(4)   to approve commencement of a tender process for services contracts beyond September 2022, for a period to be determined, and grant delegated authority to the Corporate Director for Resident Services to award the contracts to the successful bidder;

(5)  that the Committee did not approve recommendations 6 and 8 of the report and:

(a)  the Corporate Director for Resident Services be requested to submit a further report to a future meeting, detailing the reasons for those recommendations;

(b)  that should there be operational difficulties prior to submission of the report, the Corporate Director should consult with the Chair, who has been delegated authority in the interim to make decisions in respect of those recommendations.

Reasons for recommendations

1.  NNRF is a key partner of Nottingham City Council in provision of services to vulnerable migrants, including refugees and asylum seekers, and are the lead organisation in a successful consortium bid for NCC Communities of Identity funding. As a large charitable body operating County-wide in the migration sphere, ad hoc integration support for vulnerable migrants (including the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (ARAP), Afghan Citizens’ Resettlement Scheme (ACRS), and ARAP Bridging Accommodation) is likely to default to NNRF irrespective.

2.  Enable is also a key partner of Nottingham City Council in development and provision of bespoke English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) training for resettled refugees.

3.  Provision of these services is a Home Office requirement stipulated in the Funding Instruction for local authorities (see Appendix B).

4.  It is anticipated that current pledges (58 individuals) would attract £1.19m over the five year funded period.

5.  Income for Nottingham City Council in FY21-22 would total approximately £240,000 (against a pledge of 28), while income drawn down and held on behalf of partner first-tier authorities (Gedling, Broxtowe, and Newark & Sherwood) would total approximately £250,000.

6.  Nottingham City Council retains 8% of partner authority grant monies as management fees, which ensures resettlement is self-funded – staff time and redundancy costs are factored into this.

7.  Nottingham City Council is also engaged in coordinating activity to support use of a local hotel for approximately 50 residents currently in ARAP bridging accommodation, funded at a per capita rate of £28 per day. This arrangement has been imposed on a no-choice basis by the Home Office (see Appendix C) – so far, essential services have been provided at cost by Nottingham City Council and partners, or on a voluntary basis.

8.  Approaches taken to date have enabled rapid re-tailoring of services, and update and articulation of requirements in SLAs. These will provide the baseline specification for future procurement.

9.  It is now necessary to invite tenders to establish the best provider to meet these specifications, and to shift provision to services contracts, requiring additional time to implement this.

10.  It is therefore the intention of Community Partnerships to work with Procurement, Commissioning, and Legal colleagues to carry out a full procurement process for continuation of these services, including UKRS, ARAP, and any future commitments to cost-neutral grant-funded resettlement.

11.  This report requests permission to extend the current contract award with NNRF to end of September 2022 while this process is completed, including interim exemption from procurement procedures, and permission to commence a procurement process to tender service contract(s) beyond September 2022, with delegations of authority as per recommendations above.

12.  It should also be noted that central Government funding instructions are frequently changing in parameters and timescales, and are often issued after implementation has begun. UKRS funding instructions were issued in April 2021, while ARAP and ACRS funding instructions were substantially altered and reissued in August 2021. Bridging Accommodation funding instructions were not issued until 12^th November 2021.

Other options considered

1.  Development of a direct delivery service to meet these objectives – however, it is evident that within the current budgetary constraints, plus unpredictability around suspension of arrivals owing to COVID-19, means this is unfeasible within the current context.

2.  Decline to participate in schemes – this may result in capacity reduction or closure of key voluntary services, which would displace support needs back to Nottingham City Council, without additional resources.