Social Workers conducting age assessments of young people claiming asylum. (West Sussex 25/05/09)

Dear J Cassidy
Thank you for your request for information, which has been forwarded to
the appropriate officers for reply.
Yours sincerely
Richard Childs
County Archivist

"Cassidy, J" To FOI requests at West
<[FOI #12436 email]> Sussex County Council
<[West Sussex County Council request email]>
25/05/2009 05:16 cc
Subject Freedom of Information
request - Social
Workers conducting age
assessments of young
people claiming asylum.
(West Sussex 25/05/09)

Dear Sir or Madam,

The recent court ruling A v London Borough of Croydon, WK v Kent
Borough Council [2009] EWHC 939 (Admin), 8 May 2009, [1] makes a
number of references to the practice of two Social Workers
conducting age assessments of young people claiming asylum.

In view of the fact that the Care Standards Act 2000 (Chapter 14
(part 1V) section 61) contained provisions for the protection of
the professional title of "Social Worker" and that anyone using
this Title has to be registered on one of the UK Social Care
Registers, (since 01 April 2005) can you Confirm or Deny the
following:

1) Age assessments are always conducted by at least two Social
Workers?

1.1 If they are not always conducted by at least two Social
Workers, can you provide information that explains this apparent
anomaly and provide details of the job Titles of those who
currently conduct age assessments.

2) That since 01 April 2005 you have always used at least two
Social Workers?

2.1) If you have not always used two Social Workers, since 01 April
2005, please provide details of the job Titles of those who
currently conduct age assessments.

3) During said Court case a Helen Johnson, Refugee Council's
Children's Panel, questioned the assertion by a Ms Janet Patrick,
senior manager of the Croydon Council's Unaccompanied Minors' Team,
that Council's are routinely advising applicants that they can have
an adult present to give support during their age assessment.

Therefore can you provide copies of any information you hold, such
as policies, memos, notes and guidance, (showing dates
issued/written/drafted) as given to Social Workers, the applicants
or anyone else, that Confirms or Denies that applicants are
routinely advised that they can have an adult present to give
support.

4) Please provide copies of any age assessment guidance or training
material you hold.

Relevant quotes:

"The social workers involved in the decision making process who are
employed by the local authorities in these cases have had training
and do have substantial experience in assessing the age of UASCs.

My conclusion is that age determination, being part of broader
questions relating to the provision of accommodation, and being but
one of the many responsibilities for local authorities to provide
support for children and families under Part III, are decisions
which fall squarely within the social field of child care and are,
therefore, customarily and properly entrusted to the social workers
to decide.

This is based partly on the contention that their judgment can be
no better than that of the experienced social worker...

It is said that her opinions in a number of cases show a consistent
disagreement with the social workers' factual observations always
in favour of the individual in question.

While recognising and indeed supporting the use of social workers
and other professionals he records concerns that financial
pressures can influence the assessment of age since the particular
age of an individual will require a greater or lesser expenditure
on him.

But the real question in these cases is whether a report from a
paediatrician which reaches a conclusion contrary to that found by
experienced social workers means that the assessment must be varied
in the UASC's favour.

It is Dr Stern's view that a paediatrician is unlikely to be able
to reach a conclusion which is superior to that reached by an
experienced social worker, provided, of course, that the social
worker is properly trained and experienced and conducted the
necessary interview in an appropriate fashion.

Thus I do not think that the existence of a report from Dr Birch
can generally attract any greater weight than the observations of
an experienced social worker. In order to comply with the
Hillingdon and Croydon guidelines, the assessments of social
workers will be made by two working together and based upon
interviews and observations over a far greater time period than
that available to Dr Birch or indeed any paediatrician instructed
by a UASC representative.

All this presupposes that the authority's decision is made by
properly trained and experienced social workers in accordance with
the guidelines approved by Stanley Burnton J in B v Merton.

Each authority has put before the court evidence of the training
given to and the experience of the social workers who have to deal
with age assessment.

She is satisfied from her experience that the reports of Drs Michie
and Birch do not raise matters which cast doubt on the reliability
of the decision reached by the two social workers."

etc

Reference:

[1] A Claimant - and - London Borough of Croydon - and - Secretary
of State for the Home Department Defendant Interested Party And WK
Claimant - and - Secretary of State for the Home Department First
Defendant - and - Kent County Council Second Defendant [2009] EWHC
939 (Admin), 8 May 2009
http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWHC/Admi...

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Yours faithfully,

Cassidy, J

show quoted sections

Dear J Cassidy,

I am writing in response to your Freedom of Information request of 25 May
2009.

1) Currently all our age assessments are carried out by 2 qualified social
workers at all times.

2) Since June 2007 we have always carried out age assessments with 2
qualified social workers. In the past, there have been extremely rare
situations where we have been unable to use 2 qualified social workers, so
we have used 1 qualified social worker to lead and an experienced
assistant care manager to provide the secondary role in the assessment.
If in these cases the social worker and acm felt unable to make the
decision confidently then the case would be referred for a second
assessment with 2 qualified social workers. All age assessments always
have a team manager overseeing and require their agreement before any are
finally agreed and signed off. All our acms are trained in the process of
age assessments as standard as it is a specific issue within our service
that requires a good level of understanding to enable acms to work
effectively with uascs.

2.1) Currently only qualified social workers carry out age assessments.

3) We regularly have discussions at team meetings, on training days and as
a working group (developed specifically with regard to age assessments)
and all staff are aware that young people can have an adult/supportive
person with them during their age assessments and do inform young people
of this option.

4) In our policies and procedures file we have various documents for
reference for all team members to access. These include:

A case law summary of all age assessment cases produced by the legal
department in West Sussex County Council to guide social workers on their
legal responsibilities in carrying out good standard age assessments
according to the various court rulings;
the Merton judgement for workers to refer to ensure all assessments are
Merton compliant.
A copy of the standard age assessment pro forma that local authorities use
along with the practice guidelines that accompany it,
'ADSS guidance for intake teams assessing age';
'Joint working protocol between Immigration and nationality directorate
and the ADSS':
UKBA 'Liaison Arrangements for handling age dispute cases';
'The Health of Refugee Children, guidelines for paediatricians'.
Additionally we have formed a working group to look at age assessments and
we meet regularly to look at ensuring good practice, consistency,
clarifying the roles of the social workers in the age assessment, how to
cross check country of origin information, informing our social workers
about the cultures and norms of the countries uascs come from whom we age
assess, good practice in using interpreters (social workers have been
trained in this area as well), when to use observations within placement
amongst many other issues. This is an ongoing piece of work within the
team in an effort to achieve best practice and has not led to formal
policy documents being created as the situation with age assessments is
always fluid given the amount of changes in immigration and the various
court rulings that have changed our practice.

In terms of training our social workers have group supervision on age
assessments. We have had representatives from our legal department
provide training and reference documents; they have had training days on
age assessments from management and professionals involved in age
assessments. Additionally West Sussex County Council has provided training
on age assessments to UKBA staff at Gatwick Airport, to West Sussex County
Council out of hours staff and to interpreters to ensure that all
professionals involved in the process understand age assessments.
All our social workers are trained in assessment practice as part of their
social work training which is absolutely relevant for age assessments. All
social workers in our team have either completed post qualifying training
or will have completed it in the next few months, meaning they are /will
be very soon senior social workers.

In relation to Question 4, we have not provided copies of the documents
mentioned in this response as none of them are West Sussex County Council
documents and they are available for anyone to access from the relevant
agencies concerned.

The documentation from Legal Services on case law is not a formal policy
or guidance so we have not provided a copy of that.

Yours sincerely,

Sent on behalf of
Kirsty Hanna
Team Manager
Gatwick Children's Service
West Sussex County Council provides you the right to request a review of this
response under its complaints procedure. If you decide to request a review and
are not satisfied with the outcome you then have the right to direct your
comments to the Information Commissioner who will give it consideration.The
Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow,
Cheshire SK9 5AF.

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| Council |
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