Agenda item

The Board considered an update in respect of Worcestershire’s Response to the invasion of Ukraine.

At its last meeting on 23 March, the Board considered the 24 March Cabinet Report about the Worcestershire Response to the Invasion of Ukraine. Following which the Chairman of OSPB attended Cabinet on 24 March to present the Board’s comments.

The Assistant Director for Communities introduced the Report, highlighting that the County Council, District Councils and partners had unanimously pledged to do all they could to support families and individuals arriving in Worcestershire from Ukraine as part of the Homes for Ukraine Scheme and the Ukraine Family Scheme. People arriving from Ukraine would be able to live and work in the UK for up to three years, access healthcare, benefits, employment support, education, and English language tuition. Most guests would be women, children and older people, as able-bodied men aged 18 to 60 were not generally being allowed to leave Ukraine at present.

The situation was changing on a daily basis. At the date of this meeting, there were 267 host properties, 652 guests of which approximately 50% were children in respect of the Homes for Ukraine Scheme.

During the discussion, the following main points were made:

·         In response to a question about whether there were any current concerns about the situation, the Assistant Director advised that at the current time there was uncertainty about the level of need, health, skills, education and longer term housing requirements of the guests.

·         A small number of guests had moved in with hosts and Disclosure Barring Service (DBS) and housing checks were outstanding.

·         There were government guidelines in respect of housing checks, which were essentially common sense.

·         The number of guests that Worcestershire would receive was accessed from the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities database.

·         There was a Welcome Group approach for guests arriving in Worcestershire, which included the Here2Help Service.

·         If a sponsor didn’t wish to accept the £300 ‘thank you’ payment, the Council would be advised.

·         The Assistant Director was unsure how many guests were in the Ukraine Family Scheme but thought that the numbers were unlikely to exceed those of the Local Sponsorship Scheme.

·         In response to the Chairman’s question about how many guests were likely to be children, the Assistant Director advised that it was unknown at this stage.  The Chairman asked for a rough calculation and was advised with caution that hypothetically, it could be up to 3000.

·         To ensure that guests were not exploited, it was confirmed that the same support would be provided to guests as afforded to UK citizens including DBS checks, access to benefits, doctors and schools.

·         It was envisaged that the school places needed would be made available in the district areas where guests were living, however this couldn’t be confirmed until the level of demand was known. 

·         Applying for a school place would be the same process for guests as Worcestershire residents. In response to a Member’s suggestion that this approach was inappropriate, the Assistant Director advised that sponsors were expected to provide support to their guests to enable them to do this. The weblink to the process would be shared with Councillors.

·         Schools which were accepting guests would be supported by Worcestershire Children First.

·         A concern was expressed about whether there would be sufficient mental health support available to guests should they need it, particularly for children needing the Children and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) which was a service that was already under extreme pressure.

·         Members requested that the regular Education Bulletins provided to them included an update on the Ukraine situation.

·         The NHS had launched a guide on how guests could register with GP’s.

·         It was confirmed that the funding to support the Local Sponsorship Scheme had not yet been received from central government.