Agenda item

(Indicative timing: 10.40 – 11.20am)

The Panel received a report which gave an update on the support being provided to the children and families living in Worcestershire as part of the Ukraine Settlement schemes. The Assistant Director of Communities and the Assistant Director for Education Quality and Improvement (EQI) were in attendance to provide further background information and respond to Members questions.

The Panel were informed of the latest figures with 474 Worcestershire households having been matched with 1145 Ukrainian guests. Approximately 60% of the guests had arrived in the county and of those 35% were school age children. As of the 1 July, the Assistant Director (EQI) advised that 235 applications for school places had been received, with 223 offers made to date for schools across the county.  Only 2 children had been unable to be placed in a school of their choice, but these children had now been successfully placed. Where a child could not be placed in their parent’s first choice of school, transport was being arranged to take them to their nearest available school.

The Panel received details of the funding per pupil that the Department of Education would provide to Councils supporting Ukrainian guests. This funding had not yet been received, but it was anticipated that it would be issued by the end of the academic year along with detailed criteria as to how it could be spent. This was important as it would allow schools to plan their services accordingly and it was hoped that it might be able to support some additional staffing.

The Assistant Director of Communities highlighted that in addition to the specific funding for education services, the Council also received £10,500 per Ukrainian guest, which could be spent to meet a range of needs, including adult learning and transport.

Members were given the opportunity to ask questions and the following main points were made:

·         In order to make the application process for a school place more user friendly, it was suggested that the application form could be made available in the Ukrainian language.

·         Members reported that some guests were very keen to take up employment but were struggling to obtain the correct ‘right to work’ document. The Assistant Director for Communities advised that a meeting was taking place that day with the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to see how this situation could be addressed.

·         Schools had been offered the opportunity to take part in a specialist programme of trauma support, of which 106 schools had already taken the opportunity to do so. Whilst this was a positive step, there was concern that schools were having to offer this type of support and that additional specialised support would be necessary. It was acknowledged that this would be needed by children and adults alike and that liaison was taking place with health colleagues to determine who best to support this need. The £10,500 funding per guest, referred to above, could be used to provide support for individual needs which were identified. SSAFA, the Armed Forces charity was also suggested as a body to approach for this specialist trauma support. This would be followed up by the Assistant Director for Communities.

·         With reference to a query about the data in tables at paragraphs 8 and 24, the Assistant Director (EQI) informed the Panel that not all the children had arrived as yet and that there was a lag in the figures. Discussions were taking place with schools where they were close to their Published Admissions Number (PAN) and flexibility was being applied where necessary. Most schools were demonstrating a very positive approach and were working hard to meet the needs of the Ukrainian guests.

·         It was confirmed that the Council had no input as to which location in the County the Ukrainian guests were initially placed, therefore there was no opportunity to consider school places in advance as part of that process.

·         To enable comparison of the levels of funding per pupil between the amount obtained for UK children compared to that being provided for Ukrainian guests, the Director of Resources advised that for UK children,  the funding was £4,200 for primary children and £5,525 for secondary children per annum, whereas for Ukrainian guests, it was £6580 for primary children and £8755 for secondary children.

·         The Panel was informed that Ukrainian guests were provided with a health service guide in their own language to help them to access all types of medical and dental services. Support needs of families were also checked at various points in the process and ongoing support was offered through Here2Help.The Council maintained regular contact with the families who were sponsoring the Ukrainian guests and those sponsors were also supplied with extensive information packs to help them support their guests.

·         In response to a query as to whether the 3-month free bus pass provided to guests could be extended, the Panel was advised that it was anticipated that by the 3-month stage most guests would have access to universal credit and be making their own way. It was anticipated that there might be other pressing needs to resource by that stage hence the cautious approach to extending all bus passes.

The Panel requested that a report be presented to the Panel meeting in September to provide an update on:

·         School admission forms

·         The outcome of the meeting with the DWP regarding ‘right to work’ documents

·         How mental health concerns were being dealt with.