London Asylum Seekers Consortium

NRUC Steering Group Meeting - Monday 8^th December 2003

Venue: Manchester Town Hall, Albert Square, Manchester M60 2LA

Minutes of Meeting

Present:

Jasmine Ali - NRUC

Michael Gould - NRUC

Gwen Smithen (Minutes) - NRUC

Anne Burke - NASS

Glenda Gallacher - London Borough of Camden

Nadia Mobarak - Kent County Council

Barbara Donovan - Manchester City Council

Iain Low - Manchester City Council

Jim Laird - Scottish Asylum Seekers Consortium

Vicki Bennetts - Sheffield City Council

Stephen Murphy - Westminster City Council

Apologies:

Ilan Katz - DFES

Joe Heatley - NASS

Anthony Simm - IND

Helen Johnson - Refugee Council

Stephen Liddicott - Croydon Council

Carolyn Greenaway - London Borough of Barnet

Kamini Rambellas - Hillingdon Council

Victoria Williams - Leeds

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Agenda

1. Introductions

2. Matters and minutes arising (minutes 08/09/03)

3. Trends

4. Work Streams

5. Service Specification

6. NRUC Launch

7. PID and Milestones Review

8. Calendar

9. A.O.B

1. Introductions

JA opened meeting, welcomed and thanked everyone for traveling to Manchester. A high number of apologies noted from London.

JA informed and introduced Michael Gould as the newly appointed NRUC Team Manager.

2. MAMA (minutes of 08/09/03)

2.2 Review of Data Matching LASC/HO work

JA reported that there had been a review of data matching and that the 3 members of LASC staff recently seconded to the HO had completed this piece of work. MG reported that all LA's had recently been sent a request for `Raw Data', however had received up until 5^th December 1/3 of responses, several LA's concerned about Data Protection and securing data, SM advised SG that the Enabling Legislation would take some time before it came into statutory force. JL recommended that this issue should be raised at the Project Board, (Ref no. IL.0013 of Issue Log). SM to draft a paper/guidelines by end of January - mid Feb '04.

AB to supply LA quarterly returns to MG and information around Data Protection.

AB informed SG that £10m has been allocated for post 18 year olds and that the monies would be distributed by the DfES.

3. TRENDS

MG reported of a fall in the number of UASC's in London as with the other categories, the leveling out of numbers in London is also reflected nationally.

JA requested information on various routes of trafficking, AB to supply this information. JA suggested that trafficking should be added to the Work Streams, VB to nominate a delegate to assist in this piece of work. GG informed SG that her team are currently collating statistics on the number of UASC's entering the country on European passports with `agent's.

4. Work Streams

JA gave an update of the following 4 Work Streams:-

To date have had 4 constructive meetings (see item 5 Service Spec). IL offered future contributions to the group.

KR to lead this group, VB agreed to assist on this group.

MG requested volunteers or nominees for this group, email to [email address], AB offered assistance on this group.

JA and JL currently working on obtaining quotes for Project Assurance Role from external organisations, a recent quote has been received from ACIT Services and a further quote to follow by CAP Gemini.

5. Service Specification

SM gave a presentation on the Service Specification as follows, (final version to go to Project Board for approval on 10/12/03):-

NRUC System Requirement Specification

Options for Operational Environment

Relationship to A-CID

Use by Local Authorities

The role of LASC

Perceived Benefits

Outstanding Issues

JA thanked SM for excellent presentation.

6. NRUC Launch

JA reported on a recent meeting held with a WCC Communications Officer regarding the NRUC Launch and full media coverage, the CO requested a `shopping list' of requirements, JA also requested an inventory of costs for advertisement with trade magazines such as Community Care, Housing Today and Local Government Chronical and asked the SG to agree in principal (see Communications Strategy, pages 6-10).

JA informed the SG that the Launch was currently in the planning stage and that the proposed venue would be at the LGA in May 2004. Depending on diary commitments JA informed SG that the Guest Speakers would be Julie Jones (WCC) as President, Peter Gilroy (KCC) and possibly Beverley Hughes.

7. PID and Milestones Review

JA advised SG that the PID and Milestones Review would be updated and circulated shortly after the Project Board meeting (10/12/03).

The SG discussed the collection of data for NRUC and agreed that the Register should officially be linked to the Grant Claim. AB raised concern about LA's with very small numbers, although agreed in principal and expressed it should be pushed as an advantage.

GG raised concerns with age dispute cases and problems on working with the HO on this issue. JA proposed that AB and AS attends a meeting in January to bottom-out the issues raised. AB requested the number of age disputes currently on system.

JL advised SG that the Risk Log should be actively utilized and that issues should be resolved positively and promptly. JL expressed that there must be ownership of each risk (internal/external) and that the Risk Log is monitored. JA added that the SG has been systematic in identifying risks.

The following items have been entered on the NRUC Risk Log:-

8. Calendar and Next Meetings

Project Board - 10 Dec 2003

Work Stream meetings (each group) - End Dec/Jan `04/Feb 2004

Steering Group meeting - 8 March 2004

NRUC Launch - Second week of May 2004 (to confirm)

Project Board - 15 March 2004

Progress Report to Treasury - 23 March 2004

9. A.O.B

LASC Communications Strategy

Introduction

LASC intend to launch the National Register of Unaccompanied Asylum seeking children (NRUC) project at a standalone event early in 2004. The purpose of the launch will be to raise the profile of the project with key audiences and unveil the website.

Following the launch event a programme of activity comprising internal and external communications has been designed to extend awareness of the project ensure it continues to command a high profile with its audiences and to publicise the successes of the project.

Westminster Communications has designed a communications strategy to maximise opportunities to build awareness of this innovative project.

Timetable of activity

Stage 1: Preplanning - Preparation for launch - January/February 2004

Stage 2: Raising Awareness - The launch event and engaging stakeholders - Spring 2004

Stage 3: Consolidating awareness - Summer 2004

Stage 3: Evaluation and testing of core messaging - Autumn 2004

Stage 4: Case study of success - Winter 2004

Why Westminster Communications

Westminster Council Communications, with a strong record of issue management and robust media handling, will be well positioned to provide advice and assistance to LASC to deal with individual case studies as well as deliver high profile cases.

Client Liaison

This account would be overseen by Julia Corkey who would act as account director. The account team will comprise a media officer to deliver the media relations aspects of the campaign along with marcomms and creative design officers and web editor to deliver the different aspects of the agreed strategy. The press office at Westminster would handle all media enquiries relating to this project and the project would therefore benefit from our 24/7 365 day a year media handling operation.

We propose full account meetings with the LASC Project Director on a monthly basis or at a frequency to be agreed. Between meetings there would be regular contact and a short email progress report will be submitted to LASC's Project Director on a weekly basis and the Westminster Account Director would be available to attend LASC Steering Group meetings and Project Boards as required.

Credentials

Knowledge:

The Communications team at Westminster by nature of its position has extensive experience of working within the public sector environment. As the corporate team we lead on all media relations and major campaigns for Westminster Council. The team also has responsibility for all marketing communications. The team is used to dealing with communications issues ranging from the extremes of crisis management through to positioning the Council in leading player in the fight to ensure fair funding for London.

Skills:

The team at Westminster has the full mix of communications skills. As an in-house service we have built up a team with extensive media relations skills, internal communications, full marketing mix and lobbying which we now also market to external clients. In addition to this the team is adept at project management with systems in place to `control' and evaluate all marketing projects. We're strong on budget management - we manage an overall budget of £1million. In addition to this individual projects have budgets ranging from £5,000 for a small project to £250,000 for a major event. All staff are responsible for managing project budgets and the management team takes overall control of the team's budget.

Experience:

The award winning team at Westminster has undertaken major campaigns within Westminster's Civic Renewal framework. This year we won the Institute of Public Relations Local Government group Media award.

An example of the work we have undertaken to promote the Council's City Guardian programme. The Communications Team has devised an ongoing programme of activity, designed to inform Westminster's publics about the work being undertaken to improve public safety in the West End achieving national and international coverage.

Activities we have undertaken include joint campaigns with the Metropolitan Police about the dangers of spiked drinks targeting West End club goers; a campaign targeting young women to raise awareness of the issue of unlicensed minicabs delivered in partnership with Transport for London and a media campaign to highlight the work and successes of the City Guardians in tackling antisocial behaviour.

All these activities underline our core message that the Council is determined to tackle crime and antisocial behaviour in Westminster.

The team has experience of producing the full range of marketing material both for end users e.g. City visitors and residents, an example being a card produced to publicise the locations of public conveniences in the City or internal audiences e.g. staff and service users.

Through a lobbying campaign in the national media Westminster Council's Communications Team helped secure an additional £818,000 funding for the Local Education Authority. This success was due to the Communications Team ability to constantly simplify and condense complex and dry topics into interesting stories and hooks for journalists.

This is the team's core responsibility and is a good example of thinking smart, not just punting out a statement and leaving it at that. Having previously established relationships with key journalists, the communications team got beyond `just another local authority moaning about money'. This is their skill and one we expect all members of the team to be able to deliver.

In addition Westminster has recently been awarded a contract to manage Richmond's communications and the team regularly works on external projects and pan-London initiatives.

The costings

Disbursements and VAT

There will be 5% fee to cover the management of external suppliers e.g. Web-site design and purchasing of goods or material i.e. backdrops. This will not apply when our in-house design team is used for example for the design of templates etc.

Travel expenses will be charged to the client for attendance of the team at relevant meetings e.g. Steering Group meetings and Project Boards.

All fees will be subject to VAT at the standard rate of 17.5%.

Evaluation

The project can be evaluated through the following ways:

Evaluation is vital to the success of Westminster's Communications Team. We evaluate media, marketing and internal communication campaigns through the use of quantitative and qualitative evaluation techniques ranging from questionnaires, telephone surveys, focus groups through to media reach, balance and equivalent advertising spend.

We would very much like to work with LASC on this innovative project and would be happy to discuss any aspect of this proposal in greater detail.

SUZANNA WHITE

WESTMINSTER CITY COUNCIL

December 2003

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Date of next Steering Group Mtg: Monday 8 March 2004, 11.00am - 1.00pm

Venue: ALG Offices, 59½ Southwark Street, London SE1 OAL