Dear MS Potter

I am writing in response to letter of request made under the FOI Act. There is a written response to your request and as requested the excel template also has been used in order to give as clear response as possible.

Your Request

The Unaccompanied care leavers and asylum seekers report @

http://www.kent.gov.uk/publications/council-and-democracy/uasc-report-financial-summary.htm?_Page=2 mentions that 16 and 17 year old newly arrived Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Children (UASC) are most often than not accommodated under Section 20 of the Children Act (1989), hereafter referred to as “Section 20”. This duty can be discharged, after a needs assessment, then they can be supported under the Children (Leaving Care) Act (2000) and or Section 17 of the Children Act (1989), hereafter referred to as “Section 17”. The report indicates this practice is similar to the one used for 16 and 17 year old indigenous young people in like circumstances.

To help understand how this practice operates can you please advise me, in the final quarter of 2008 (October, November and December 2008) how many newly arrived 16 and 17 year old UASC you accommodated under Section 20 for the first time and for each individual UASC please advise of.

A) The exact age of each individual UASC was when first accommodated - Using the formula that indicates how many full years and months has elapsed since birth. Such as 16.4, meaning 16 years and 4 months.

B) The exact date each individual first became accommodated under Section 20.

C) An indication, of a Yes or No, on whether you have provided any individual UASC with Section 17 support, prior to them being accommodated under Section 20 on the date given in section B.

D) If, at present, any individual has been discharged from Section 20, please advise of the exact date this discharge took effect.

E) Whether any services are currently provided, to each individual, under the Children (Leaving Care) Act.

F) Whether any services are currently provided, to each individual, under Section 17 of the Children Act .

G) The exact date any individual UASC was assessed as being 18 or more years of age.

In your response please also state with a simple Yes or No, on whether or not you follow the practice of not accommodating a UASC under Section 20 until you have assessed them as being under the age of 18?

To help comply with this information request please use my pro-forma spreadsheet, which you can download @ members.lycos.co.uk/potterfamily/foiaspreadsheet.xls

http://members.lycos.co.uk/potterfamily/foiaspreadsheet.xls

The response

In response, there is only 1 young person who became accommodated for the first time between Oct 08-Dec 08 who was UASC.

Answers to the 7 questions as follows:

Additional question asking - “Do we follow the practice of not accommodating a UASC under Sec 20 until we have assessed them as being under the age of 18?”

Answer - yes we do follow this procedure as a general rule. The only exception would be if there is sufficient documentary evidence to prove the young person is under 18, then we may decide an assessment is unnecessary. Home Office advice is taken as to what constitutes acceptable documentary evidence.

I hope this is sufficient - please let me know if anything is unclear. 

Please contact me if you need further assistance on this request.

Kind regards,

Pranav Patel - Project Manager 

If you are not satisfied with this response, you may ask for an internal review by contacting the FOI Officer, Bradford MDC, 4th Floor, Jacobs Well, Bradford, BD1 5RW or by e mail on [email address]

If you are still not satisfied with the outcome of the internal review you have the right of appeal to the Information Commissioner who can be contacted at:

Information Commissioner's Office

Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow

Cheshire, SK9 5AF

Tel: 01625 545700 / URL: http://www.informationcommissioner.gov.uk