Asylum: Children

(asked on 16th March 2021) - View Source

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many local authorities have been unable to fulfil their duties to unaccompanied asylum seeking children under the Children Act 1989 in each year since 2010.


Answered by
Vicky Ford Portrait
Vicky Ford
This question was answered on 22nd March 2021

Legislation is clear about the statutory duties placed on local authorities in caring for unaccompanied children. Section 17 of the Children Act 1989 imposes a duty on local authorities to safeguard and promote the welfare of children in need in their area and to accommodate them if they meet the relevant criteria for requiring accommodation under section 20 of the Children Act 1989.

As far as the department is aware, two local authorities have been unable to fulfil these duties to unaccompanied asylum seeking children under the Children Act 1989 since 2010, both in 2020, with one ongoing in 2021. We have been working with both councils to support them to meet their duties to unaccompanied asylum seeking children. The government has also worked with local authorities across the country to secure alternative placements for children and young people arriving in these local authorities.

An unaccompanied asylum seeking child will become looked after by the local authority after having been accommodated by that local authority under section 20 of the Children Act 1989 for 24 hours. This will mean that the local authority has the same statutory duties towards them as to any other looked after child.

Local authorities supporting high numbers of unaccompanied asylum seeking children in proportion to their child population have, since 2016, been able to refer children to the National Transfer Scheme if they are concerned about their capacity to meet their statutory duties towards them as looked after children. A place will then be sought for those children with another local authority that will take on statutory duties for them. Statistics on transfers made through the National Transfer Scheme are available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/asylum-transparency-data-february-2020.

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