Agenda item

The Panel had requested an overview of the Council’s policy on support for Refugees. The Assistant Director for Communities (Assistant Director) and the Registration and Coroners Services Manager (RSCM) were in attendance to respond to any questions.

Members asked a range of questions, to which the following points were made:

·       A Member asked for detail about the end-to-end journey for a refugee when they arrived in the country. The Assistant Director explained that this could be set out for 3 of the resettlement programmes that the Council was involved with, but not yet for the Homes for Ukraine Scheme. The RCSM set out the steps in the refugee journey as follows:

o   The Home Office informs local authorities of the expected arrival of refugees.

o   Each Local Authority would indicate how many families it was able to accommodate.

o   The Home Office then matched families to areas and supplied initial information on the needs of those families.

o   The Council looked to identify a sustainable long-term property for the family.

o   The family was met at the airport and transported to their new home.

o   In the following weeks a variety of support was provided including guidance on the local area, help with any immediate needs they had, signing up with a doctor’s surgery, applying for universal credit, securing school places for family members, and arranging english language support.

o   Support continued to be made available for the first year as required, including help with employment needs. After this period the Council would step back in a controlled manner to allow the family to be able to lead more independent lives.

·       With regard to checks that were undertaken on host families for the Homes for Ukraine scheme, the Assistant Director advised that there was a ‘One Worcestershire’ approach and that a range of checks were undertaken on sponsors and guests. These included Disclosure and Barring Service, safety and welfare, accommodation, and any relating to the specific needs of a family. Contact was maintained with guests and the sponsor also received some level of support. The Assistant Director confirmed that there had been a few potential sponsors who had failed checks, including safeguarding checks. Most of the checks were able to be completed prior to the arrival of a family, in which case if the checks were failed a re-matching process was carried out to identify a new sponsor. If the family had already arrived, then they would come under the homeless category for re-matching purposes. She explained that they now had access to the full data set of households that had expressed an interest in hosting a family but had not been matched. They were therefore currently working through this with the District Councils.

·       The Panel was informed that Voluntary and Community Sector (VCS) organisations were encouraged to register on the Here2Help website and then their services could be promoted to the Ukrainian guests. District Councils had a particularly active role as they were working closely with communities on providing support. In response to a follow up question, the Panel was informed that whilst certain checks were made on the status of a charity or group offering support and for instance whether they had someone identified as being responsible for safeguarding, physical, in person checks were not part of that process.

·       The RSCM advised that free bus travel was being made available to the Ukrainian families from 30 May for 3 months. It was also intended to extend this offer to other refugees. In response to a question, the Panel was advised that bus passes were a helpful start for families, but if it was found that the travel pass could be usefully broadened, the Officers would look to pursue that.

·       In response to a Members request, the Assistant Director confirmed that  that promotional material aimed at Ukrainian families, would be issued in dual languages.

·       Asked about how previous experience of accommodating refugees was informing the current approach, the RSCM advised that the knowledge acquired when operating previous resettlement programmes was helpful, but she also the situation with the Homes for Ukraine scheme differed in that the Council’s had a less active role, with the host sponsor offering support and help directly with many aspects where needed.

·       In terms of data being available to demonstrate the effectiveness of the programmes, the RSCM advised that for the Ukraine scheme, this was a rolling programme of support, and that no data would be available as yet. In respect of the Afghan schemes, which had started Summer 2021, the Panel was advised that an update would be available next year.

·       The Panel was informed that there was a Central Government system whereby data on Ukrainian guests was updated daily. It was also reported that the local authorities in Worcestershire had worked together to build a system to ensure that key information on all Ukrainian guests in the County was able to be seen by those involved and that progress and updates would be shared. This system was at an early stage, but its usefulness was expected to increase over time.

·       The range of support on offer to Ukrainian guests was detailed including adult learning courses in libraries, support for those seeking employment and support with education and health needs. The Panel was informed that adult learning courses could be taken to other areas if there was need in a particular location.

·       A Member asked whether the Council could consider joining the Cities of Sanctuary scheme which provided best practice in this area. The Assistant Director agreed to look at the scheme and report back.

·       Members commented on how useful they had found the positive stories of individual families which had been included in the report, and the benefit that would be gained by getting that message out to the community at large.

·       In terms of the £10,500 that the Council would receive from the Government for each guest that was accommodated under the Homes for Ukraine Scheme, the Panel was informed that no monies had been received as yet and when it was received it would be split between all of the local authorities in the County. It was highlighted that for the other resettlement schemes, expenditure has been focused on the needs of particular families but included kitchen appliances, basic furniture and fittings, supporting the adult education programme, transport costs and nursery places. The funding did not need to spent in one year, so if there was any money left this would probably be carried forward, although it was highlighted that this would be a rare occurrence. The RSCM advised that all expenditure was processed through the Council’s financial system and was therefore subject to the usual audit processes. 

The Chairman thanked the Officers for their work in this area and also the individual families and communities in the County for the way they had come forward to offer support.

The Panel requested that a further update on the Council’s Policy on support for refugees be provided, to include details of the re-matching process. This would be added to the Panel’s Work Programme.