Suffolk County Council: Managing a UASC population that is changing and growing

Suffolk is receiving increasing numbers of Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Children (UASC) with a diverse range of needs. To meet the resulting challenges, the council has developed a large dedicated UASC and care leaving team with specialist knowledge and experience. They have moved from spot purchasing accommodation placements to setting up commissioning arrangements with specific providers. These accommodation providers also deliver a package of support to the children and young people they house. The social care service has set up processes for working with a range of multiagency partners to provide efficient wraparound care as well as establishing working practices to support its own staff’s wellbeing.

As a coastal county, with a significant port at Felixstowe, Suffolk has always received a number of spontaneous arrivals of unaccompanied asylum-seeking children identified by Border Force. However, the scale of arrivals has significantly increased in recent years with the figure now around 120 a year. These arrivals can be spontaneous, coming directly into Suffolk from the shore, lorry parks and transport hubs as well as through the National Transfer Scheme (NTS).

The implications for the council of these increasing numbers have been a corresponding increase in:

• the range of needs that UASC have
• the number of UASC with potential links to the UK who see Suffolk as a point on their journey towards a different, desired, location
• the number of requests for age assessments, and challenges to the resulting judgements
• the potential for UASC to be drawn into criminality (through traffickers but also criminals/drugs/county lines/other exploitation)
• the use of expensive spot purchasing of beds to meet demand within the county.

The council has developed a specialist team to support UASC which is combined with the leaving care service. Having a specialist team means that all cases are discussed, and issues can be resolved, by these core professionals. This provides a seamless service until a young person turns 21 years of age and beyond (until 25) if needs are still identified. Prior to this, young people would have been transferred to the ‘leaving care team’ when they reached 18. The team identified that the vast majority of issues UASC faced when transitioning out of children’s services were related to housing, so they wanted to extend the time they had to help prepare the young people for this move into different accommodation and support.

Every member of the social worker team works solely with UASC and personal advisors work with unaccompanied asylum-seeking care leaver adults too. This promotes a thorough understanding of the processes and systems that these young people are going through and the importance of adhering to them, for example submitting evidence as part of an asylum claim.

The team constantly reviews and evolves their practice as their experience and knowledge grows. Collectively they are open to trialling new ideas and approaches and see themselves as advocates for UASC. They not only represent them, but also actively seek to inform others about them to build the profile of UASC with colleagues and councillors. The aim is to ensure that everyone supports their aims and their work.

All members of the team have a passion for working with UASC and are driven by the idea that they can contribute to moulding and changing the lives of children” (Service Lead)

The team is diverse, both in terms of culture and skills and strengths. It has grown to include 20+ staff and the team are constantly trying to strengthen connections with mental health and housing services etc to build up a more holistic and supportive approach locally.

To support the specialist staff working with UASC, the council has established peer supervision and ‘safe space’ sessions for staff. Safe spaces are 90-minute sessions where staff can discuss issues they have been dealing with, and their emotional reactions to these situations. The sessions also involve the council’s mental health team to offer support. Aspects of the work that staff find particularly difficult to deal with include supporting children when they first arrive in the country and those whose application for refugee status is rejected.

The council’s specialist team have also joined up relevant stakeholders in the area including:

• personal advisors
• accommodation providers
• social workers
• county lines and modern slavery teams
• Make a change team (working with those at risk of or victims of exploitation)
• Youth Offending Team and the police
• safeguarding teams
• youth engagement officers
• local charities who support refugees and asylum seekers
• colleges.

These links allow experiences of working with UASC to be discussed and shared. In turn this supports the development of both a common understanding of the issues facing UASC and shared values in how they are supported and dealt with. This ensures a consistent local approach. All these stakeholders can support UASC and signpost them onto opportunities and other sources of help. They are all also responsible for helping UASC acclimatise and integrate into UK society. This can involve encouraging the young people to discuss their experiences and requirements, and/or challenge any ideas and assumptions they hold which are at odds with values and beliefs considered acceptable in the UK (for example in relation to gender or race).

One example of this work in action comes from a local college. The college started providing a simple English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) course. As demand for the course, and college expertise in running the course, grew, this was developed into multiple ESOL courses at different levels. Learners are allocated to an appropriate course based on an entry assessment. The course has been developed to include sessions on life skills, exploitation, and social norms. The college was therefore able to use its existing expertise, but in new ways, to support UASC more effectively.

The council’s specialist team now want to look at how they can work in partnership with even more charities and local providers to provide activities for UASC which help build their local foundations and have recently developed support groups for both in-house and agency foster carers around the county.

A key aspect of supporting UASC arrivals is to secure them suitable accommodation. Suffolk looks to place arriving children who are under 16 years old with foster carers and those aged over 16 years (and without severe vulnerabilities) into semi-independent living.

In the past Suffolk was having to spot purchase these places which came at a financial cost to the LA with limited staff specialism being developed. This also meant that providers knew the council were in need for immediate places when they approached them, and so the price for these placements was high. In addition when spot purchasing, the providers didn’t or couldn’t invest and develop a dedicated team of support for the young people being housed.

As they established working with UASC the council’s specialist team and landlords could see that there was going to be a consistent flow of UASCs and therefore an ongoing requirement for a certain level of placements. It therefore made sense for the council to go out to providers and commission them for a set number of places on an ongoing basis. This has allowed the council to develop relationships with initially two but now four providers who ringfence a certain number of suitable places for the council to house UASC. This means that they can secure accommodation for the longer term at a competitive price.  The council pays providers per filled place.

The providers know there will be a steady income from this and so have been able to develop their services and what they can offer to the LA. Some of the contracts that providers now have with the council mean that they can purchase whole properties specifically to house UASC. This has proved financially advantageous and cuts out the need to use third party landlords who could not be relied on to offer suitable and well-maintained housing at an affordable price. The core providers therefore not only house the UASC but also provide a package of support for them too. They have developed their own teams of trained personal advisors/support workers. These staff have the skills and understanding necessary to successfully work with UASC. The council is working with the providers as it has become clear that different UASC have a need for different levels and types of support. On arrival all UASC have heightened needs – urgent need for accommodation and the additional trauma of their journey and arrival into a new country. However, with experience, the local teams have realised that whereas around half of their cohort only require the regular level of support, a growing number of UASC are requiring more intensive support which requires increased support hour packages, including a number needing 24-hour care.

Another area that the team have become more experienced in is dealing with reunification issues. Increasing numbers of UASC have potential links to the UK. When they arrive in Suffolk many UASC consider themselves to still be on the journey to a place where they want to be. This means that the council’s team need to manage the expectations of the young people as well as maintain their legal responsibilities and fulfil all of their welfare duties.

UASC receive an initial welfare visit. If, during this visit, a UASC expresses a desire to find family or friends then the council team will investigate. They will attempt to contact UK links and check their immigration status. Where appropriate they will then determine whether the contact is willing to accommodate the child and are able to provide the necessary stable environment. The council’s team would then explore with this person whether they would consider kinship care, de-accommodating the child from the LA completely or would like to make contact arrangements. The council will also contact parents abroad if needs dictate it, such as requiring consent for reunification.

Another area where the council’s team have adapted their approach is in relation to age assessments. As the number of adults being housed in hotels in the area has increased, so have the requests for age assessments. In addition, the team believes that traffickers are increasingly advising asylum seekers to claim they are a child. As the number of assessments increased, this placed unsustainable demands on the team. They have therefore had to explore outsourcing these assessments to independent companies which comes at a financial cost to the LA.  

In Suffolk, the current procedure is to carry out a brief enquiry about the UASC’s age during the initial assessment visit. If any doubts or concerns are raised by other stakeholders about an individual’s claim to be a child then consideration is had to complete a Merton Compliant Age Assessment.

• Continue to grow the team to achieve numbers in excess of 147 UASC whist having the management oversight in place to successfully support and supervise staff effectively. 
• Keep staff caseloads to a manageable level, taking into consideration the increasing complexities and out of county commitments involved with this cohort. 
• Embed a regular multi-professional forum drawing on professional/cultural/religious expertise and resources from around the county (and beyond) to ensure UASC receive the best opportunities to improve their independence and mental and physical health.
• Increase communication and education with this cohort about the risks of exploitation and gangs and county lines whilst in the UK.
• Improve UASC’s understanding and expectations around social housing and tenancy management to enable a seamless transition into adult accommodation with a reduction in homeless applications and evictions.
• Increase volunteering/training opportunities to improve job readiness.
• Broaden the education offer available to UASC beyond ESOL and entry level courses, especially for UASC who arrive during the second half of the summer term when education providers find enrolment a challenge.

Despite vigorous efforts to forecast and plan effectively, it is almost impossible to accurately predict UASC numbers throughout the year. Having the housing infrastructure in place and maintaining positive partnership working relationships significantly helps manage pressured times.

Staff need to be passionate about working with UASC and show interest and empathy with regards to immigration matters as this field is constantly evolving, under political scrutiny and emotionally intense.

Better provision of tailored wraparound services reduces negative outcomes.

Having a specialist team means that there is a collective understanding of the issues facing UASC in the area. The make-up of the team is constantly under review, as the needs of UASC are monitored.

In addition, the council is working through other stakeholders and partners to add value and ensure a common approach which goes beyond its own staff and services.

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