Number of and support for asylum seeking, refugee and appeal rights exhausted young people

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Dear Islington Borough Council,

Request for information about numbers of and support for asylum seeking, refugee and appeal rights exhausted young people including leaving care policies and services.

Background

Tower Hamlets Law Centre, which was established over 30 years ago, provides legal advice and representation, mainly to people who work and live in the borough, but also through a number of London wide and regional services. We focus on work that helps people deal with the causes and symptoms of poverty. This includes Housing, Welfare Benefits, Immigration and Asylum, Education, Employment, Debt, and Community Care law.

We work alongside other law centres across the city to deliver London Council’s youth homelessness advice project, which has developed our expertise in advising young people at risk of homelessness. We specialise in advising young people who have both immigration/asylum and housing needs, including assisting young people to access support from social services when they are leaving care.

We are researching variations between the leaving care services that different London Local Authorities are providing for refugees, asylum seekers and appeal rights exhausted young people (aged 18-21 years, or up to 25 years if in full time education). We hope to identify examples of good and bad practice and to generate a better understanding of leaving care services for this group of young people, with a view to improving the provision.

We would be grateful if you could provide us with responses to the following questions:

1. Statistics on young people

• How many looked after children and care leavers are the responsibility of this local authority?
• How many unaccompanied asylum seeking children (UASC) is this local authority responsible for?
• How many UASC are placed in this borough by other local authorities?
• How many former UASC are receiving leaving care services in this local authority, and of these how many are appeal rights exhausted?
• What percentage of UASC and former UASC have additional needs (e.g. related to disability) and how many of these former UASC are getting support to meet these needs under adult social care legislation?

2. Support for UASC and refugee and asylum seeking care leavers

• Are UASC supported through universal or targeted services (i.e. is there a dedicated Unaccompanied Minors team or are UASC’s social workers working within universal teams)?

• Are refugee and asylum seeking care leavers supported by social workers and personal advisors in universal or specialised teams?

3. Support for Appeal Rights Exhausted young people

• In the last financial year 2011-2012, how many appeal rights exhausted asylum seeking care leavers under 21 years (or 25 years if in full time education) were discharged from Local Authority services?

• How many of the young people referred to in the question above had their support terminated as a result of a human rights assessment?

4. Request for Policies and Reports

Please provide copies of the following reports and policies for your Local Authority (as set out in The Children Act 1989 Guidance and Regulations Volume 3: Planning Transition to Adulthood for Care Leavers, including The Care Leavers Regulations 2010, Appendix F):

a) Provision for the allocation of leaving care support to young people who are relevant or former relevant children and the review of pathway plans for these young people
b) Leaving Care Financial Policy
c) Setting up home allowance policy
d) Human Rights assessment procedure and criteria
e) Complaints report

Yours faithfully,

Rosalind Evans

FOIA, Islington Borough Council

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FOIA, Islington Borough Council

Thank you for your Freedom of Information Act request, received on 19 July 2012. Your request has been processed, and your unique reference number is 484122. Please make note of this reference number should you need to contact us about your request.

Our team has sent your request to the appropriate service area within Islington Council, and an officer from that team will respond directly to your request.

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Kind regards,

Information Governance Team
Corporate Resources, Islington Council
Room G17, Town Hall, Upper Street, London N1 2UD

Email: [Islington Borough Council request email]
Web: www.islington.gov.uk
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Caton, Marnie, Islington Borough Council

FOI Ref: 484122

Dear Rosalind

Thank you for your request under FOIAct. Can you please clarify what period you want the data referred to in questions 1 and 2 to cover? Are you interested in current cases only or do you want to have data for the whole of last year - we would normally report on the FY - ie April 2011 to March 2012?

Please note that we will suspend progress on this request until we hear back from you. Please use the ref. no. in the Subject line of your response and reply to all those copied here.

With thanks

Marnie Caton
Head of Information & Performance
Information & Performance Team
Strategy & Commissioning
Children's Services
Islington Council
222 Upper Street
Islington
N1 1XR
0207 527 5683
e: [email address]
Alternative contact: Laura Scott on 020 7527 7703

show quoted sections

Dear Marie,

FOI Ref: 484122

Thank you for your response and request for clarification on questions 1 and 2.

If you are able to give us information on your current cases in addition to data on the last financial year from April 2011 to March 2012, that would be very helpful.

Yours sincerely,

Rosalind Evans

Dear Caton, Marnie,

Thank you for your response. If you could provide me with data for the last financial year that would be helpful.

Thank you for your time.

Yours sincerely,

Rosalind Evans

Caton, Marnie, Islington Borough Council

I am out of the office from 3rd Sept to 17th Sept. Please contact Laura
Scott on x7703 or Azim Mohamed x 4299, if any urgent queries.

 

Marnie Caton

Head of Information & Performance

Children's Services

Islington Council

 

0207 527 5683

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Services, Childrens, Islington Borough Council

6 Attachments

Dear Rosalind Evans,

Thank you for your recent request under the Freedom of Information Act.
Please see attached response.

Kind Regards
Lauren Russell

Business Planning Officer
Children's Services
222 Upper Street
London
N1 1XR

Tel:0207 527 5887

Alternative Contact: Kati Wood - 0207 527 5754

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