Foster service in crisis as migrants dump kids
Centres set up for children as authorities in Home Counties are inundated
SOCIAL workers are struggling to find foster parents for scores of unaccompanied children who have been abandoned in the Home Counties by migrants as the Calais crisis deepens.
Many of the youngsters, said to be traumatised and unable to speak English, are being held in special centres while long-term care is arranged.
Their arrival has significant implications for the taxpayer, a local government chief warned last night, because councils are responsible for all costs associated with child asylum seekers until they are 25.
This includes schooling, foster care or children’s homes, through to university fees and housing costs.
The problem is most acute in Kent, where the number of unaccompanied minors in local authority care has risen from 230 in
‘Very traumatic
experiences’
April last year to 605. But other councils across the South East are facing the prospect of a severe drain on resources.
Surrey County Council confirmed it is struggling to deal with an influx of abandoned minors.
A spokesman said: ‘The number of unaccompanied child migrants we have in care has almost doubled from 68 in June 2014 to 121 in June 2015, an increase which is putting further pressure on our already strained budgets.’
There was no let-up in the crisis yesterday, as hundreds of migrants including young children made renewed attempts to get through the Channel Tunnel.
‘It doesn’t stop,’ said a police source in Calais. ‘We have had to deal with gangs of young men, but also families.’ Youngsters could be seen being passed over security fences by their parents, who would then try to get them aboard freight trains. With the prospect of more unaccompanied children arriving in the UK, the Government faced calls to reimburse councils to cover the cost.
David Simmonds, deputy chairman of the Local Government Association, said the ‘current situation was placing unprecedented pressure on an already overburdened system’.
He added: ‘ Councils are rallying together to help deal with the current emergency, but with around a third of migrants aged under 18, the LGA is calling on government to commit to reimburse the costs in full as the strain on alreadystretched children’s services budgets risks becoming unsustainable.
‘When an unaccompanied child arrives in the UK, it is the council area where they arrive that is responsible for all costs associated with that child up until the age of 25.
‘This includes schooling, foster care or children’s homes, through to university fees and housing costs, whether they stay within the area or are moved elsewhere.’
Peter Oakford, Kent County Council’s cabinet member for children’s services, told Radio 4’s Today programme: ‘The biggest problem we have is the number of 16 and 17year-olds coming over that we need to put through a reception centre, we need to conduct the assessments on these young people because they have had some very traumatic experiences.
‘We need to find placements for them in the community. Every young person who has come into the care of Kent County Council we have found a place for thus far, but we are now struggling.
‘Our numbers have doubled in the last few months.’
The youngsters are usually assessed for between six and eight weeks before being put in foster care or sent to live independently in shared accommodation.
Alison O’Sullivan, president of the Association of Directors of Children’s Services, said: ‘The situation in Kent is now critical.
‘There has been a gradual increase in numbers of unaccompanied asylum seeking children in the past few months and a spike in July has created an acute and immediate capacity issue for the council.
‘Our sole focus needs to be on the best interests of the children and ensuring that they are properly supported and cared for. We are asking authorities from across the country if they can help.
‘And in the longer term we are working with various government departments, including the Department for Education and the Home Office, on a sustainable national response.’
Fostering agencies say the number of traumatised children arriving in the UK, speaking little English, is presenting big challenges.
Bernie Gibson, of Compass Fostering, told Radio 4’s Today programme: ‘We are often approached by local authorities like Kent to see if we have a safe home, a safe place, so these young people can reflect about their experiences and just receive the basic care children should receive.
She said that this time last year the agency was receiving around 34 referrals in one month, but now it is 140.
‘Best interests of the children’