UASC Costs template (PLEASE DO NOT CHANGE SUBJECT LINE)

Dear Sir or Madam,

My reference: UASC Costs template (PLEASE DO NOT CHANGE SUBJECT
LINE)

In connection with the letter quoted below, can you please email me
confirmation that you did submit costings information to the UKBA,
either directly or through a consortium or partnership of
organisations or local authorities. Please send me an email copy of
all the costing information you sent, contributed to or hold. If
you used the Excel spreadsheet costing template provided to you by
the UKBA please provide a copy of any completed submissions you
hold or sent to the UKBA, they requested to be submitted by 17th
July 09.

Please also email me a copy of any notes or minutes of meetings you
hold on this subject.

LETTER:

Dear Director of Childrens Services,

Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Children

This letter is to let you know that over the coming weeks we will
be seeking some costing information from yourselves and a number of
authorities which will help the UKBA decide whether to proceed with
the Specialist Authority model, as outlined in our Reform papers,
or whether to work on a different model of funding Local
Authorities to care for UASC.

The template that I attach is one that was originally drawn up by
the Local Government Association and Association of Directors of
Childrens Services in 2008 when we were anticipating formal
proposals to become specialist authorities. We now feel that rather
than seek formal proposals, at this stage we need to better
understand all the costs that you currently incur in caring for
UASC. The results of the exercise will be used to assess exactly
how we move forward towards the implementation of the specialist
authority model or some other costing mechanism that will achieve
the same objectives - containing long-term funding arrangements
that give certainty to both sides and assurances that we have first
rate services for all of this group of children across the UK. .

We have commissioned our colleagues in the Regional Strategic
Migration Partnerships to carry out this piece of work with Local
Authorities. This has been fully discussed at an ADCS meeting, with
colleagues in the Local Government Association and with the
Regional Migration Partnerships. Rather than ask all LAs in the UK
to complete the document we have restricted our request to a
selection of those authorities who we would hope to interest in
becoming specialists if we were to move forward down that route.

Attached to this message are two documents - the template that we
would hope you would complete and some guidance notes on its
completion.

Let me finish by confirming that this exercise does not constitute
any commitment on your part to move forward on the Specialist
Authority model - it is about our understanding all the costs.
More
http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/12...

TIMETABLE

We have asked the LGA Taskgroup to help us take this data
collection exercise forward and your regional representative on
that group will have supplied this documentation to you. If you
have any queries in the first instance you should liaise with them.

We, the UASC Reform Team, want to work with you in the preparation
of this information if we can be of help and we will be happy to
meet with your team at any time during the preparation of the data.

To maintain progress we would like the final versions of your cost
analysis to be returned to us via your regional representative by
Friday 17 July 2009.
More
http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/12...

Guidance notes and UASC costs summary
Excel spreadsheet
http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/12...(2).xls

Yours faithfully,

Ms Potter