Moves to deport child of dead asylum seeker condemned

THE case of a child of an asylum seeker who was faced with deportation after her biological mother died has been described as “very sad”.

But councillors on a Birmingham City Council audit committee heard assurances from Birmingham Children’s Trust (BCT) that the child is now “thriving”.

The council had been criticised in a report by the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman, who upheld a complaint from a family friend who was acting as a foster carer.

The report found the council had failed to recognise that the foster care was with family friends rather than a private fostering arrangement.

The foster mother said the arrangement would have provided greater safeguards.

In particular, she said it would provide a barrier between her family and the child’s father, who was described as “bad and very dangerous” by the child’s mother.

At one point, the child, who was born in the UK but was not at that time a British citizen, was considered for deportation, despite being looked after by family friends. The committee heard BCT, which carries out children’s services for the council, has now taken action to comply with all the recommendations from the ombudsman, including apologies to the child and foster mother as well as compensation payments.

BCT is also issuing guidance to staff on private fostering arrangements, and is undertaking reviews of open private fostering cases and unaccompanied children cases.

Cllr Paul Tilsley (Lib Dem) said: “This is a very sad case. I do really hope the council has learned from this. I would ask simply, is the child thriving now? Because we are corporate parents at the end of the day.”

BCT chief executive Andy Couldrick said: “She is, and continues to be supported. Absolutely right.”

Outlining steps taken following the case, Mr Couldrick said: “We continue to work to get the placements right and get the legal framework around those placements right.

“This was a salutary reminder to us of why it’s so important.”

In answer to a question from committee chair Cllr Fred Grindrod on how the trust has learned from the incident, Mr Couldrick said: “We have pushed hard the lessons from this report out into the organisation, but fundamentally we will get it right by remaining diligent and vigilant on a case by case basis.

“We think that wherever possible, a child should grow up with their parents and if they can’t safely live with their parents, then with a family member, a relative, because those lasting attachments are part of what sustain children into successful adulthood. So it is really important to us that we get our practice right around this.”