"We have long urged government to put in place long-term funding arrangements to ensure that children starting a new life in the UK are properly supported."
LGA press release 7 March 2017
In response to the amendment to the Children and Social Work Bill, Cllr David Simmonds, Chairman of the Local Government Association's Asylum, Refugee and Migration Task Group, said:
"Councils have an excellent track record of supporting asylum-seeking and refugee children travelling alone and should be commended for how they have responded to looking after more than double the number of unaccompanied children than they did in 2015. In response to the humanitarian crisis councils have extended a helping hand, with around 90 per cent of local authorities providing care and support for more than 4,000 unaccompanied refugee children in England.
"Those children who have already been resettled each received an individual package of care to ensure that they settled into their new communities as quickly and easily as possible. Councils, working with local partners, have also ensured that any ongoing health and care support is provided to those children who experienced horrendous conditions in their country of origin or during their journey.
"We have long urged government to put in place long-term funding arrangements to ensure that children starting a new life in the UK are properly supported. It is vital that schemes for unaccompanied children are fully aligned, and funded, alongside other existing programmes for resettling refugees and asylum seekers, ensuring that councils are able to properly support these vulnerable children while continuing to provide vital services for their local community and other children in their care."