Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Children

held in Birmingham on Tuesday 15 June 2004

report written by Lisa Keay, Research Officer, research in practice

aim of report

The aim of this report is to give a brief overview of the day; it is not a verbatim account of what was said and discussed. If you are part of the research in practice network and would like to contact any of the speakers or agencies that participated in the day, then their email addresses have been included for your convenience.

If you attended this symposium event and would like to add any further comments to this report, then please email lisa@rip.org.uk with your suggestions. We are particularly keen to hear of any further messages or lessons learnt from the day that you think would be valuable to practitioners and/or policy makers working in the field.

structure of the report

This symposium report is divided into the following sub-sections. If you wish to make a shortcut to any particular sub-section then please 'click' the relevant heading.

introduction

speakers

the chair's opening address

presentation 1: Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Children: A research overview by Jim Wade

presentation 2: The Children's Perspective by Selam Kidane

post presentation discussion (panel of speakers from morning session)

agency-led sessions

presentation 3: Case Transfer - Evaluation of a pilot scheme by Mary Blanche and Barbara Donovan

post presentation discussion

conclusion

key references

introduction

Steve Liddicott, the Divisional Director of Children's Services within Croydon Social Services, opened this symposium by sharing his knowledge and experiences of unaccompanied asylum seeking children. This was followed by an overview of existing research by Jim Wade, a Senior Research Fellow at the University of York. He highlighted the many gaps in the current evidence base, some of which are only just beginning to be addressed. The next presentation came from Selam Kidane, the Refugee Project Consultant for BAAF (British Agencies for Adoption and Fostering). She focused on the children's perspective by sharing the 'voices' and first-hand experiences of asylum seeking children.

After a networking lunch participants attended agency-led workshops where topics as diverse as mental health and social adjustment, exploitation and trafficking of young children, age determination and building resilience, were discussed. The final presentation of the day focused on an on-going pilot scheme designed to evaluate case transfer from Kent to Manchester. The symposium concluded with some general reflections on the main messages of the day.

speakers (in order of presentation)

Steve Liddicott was the morning Chair and is Divisional Director of Children's Services within Croydon Social Services: steve_liddicott@croydon.gov.uk

Jim Wade is Senior Research Fellow at the Social Work Research and Development Unit, University of York: JW35@york.ac.uk

Selam Kidane is the Refugee Project Consultant for the British Agencies for Adoption and Fostering (BAAF): selam.kidane@baaf.org.uk

Agency-led workshops - see the relevant subsection (below) for a summary of the content and facilitator(s) of each session, including email addresses.

Mary Blanche is the Head of the County Asylum Seekers & Refugee Service Unit at Kent County Council: Mary.Blanche@kent.gov.uk

Barbara Donovan is the Project Manager for the Safe Case Transfer National Pilot Project working on behalf of the Association of Greater Manchester Authorities in partnership with Kent County Council: bdonovan@notes.manchester.gov.uk

Colleen Eccles was the afternoon Chair and is the Development Manager at research in practice: c.eccles@sheffield.ac.uk

the chair's opening address

The Chair began by reminding us that the problem of unaccompanied asylum seeking children is not new. Furthermore, the question: 'how and what kind of services are we going to provide?' remains to be answered.

Before we can begin to answer this question, we need to know the scale of the problem, yet this is not straightforward. Indeed, the numbers of unaccompanied asylum seeking children in Britain today remains unclear and this is not helped by the fact that the statistics are buried in the Home Office website.

Although the method of counting these children was changed in the course of 2002 - making the numbers, since then, more accurate - they are still not as reliable as one would like for careful and considered service planning.

numbers of unaccompanied asylum seeking children:

some general statements can be drawn from these statistics:

• 5-7% of all asylum applications are unaccompanied children

• there is a trend towards in-country (airport) arrival (as opposed to traditional port entry which means the issue is becoming important for more local authorities than in the past)

• In 2003:

• 57% were male and 43% were female
• 58% were 16 and 17 year olds
• 25% were 14 and 15 year olds
• 15% were under 14 years old

countries of origin of unaccompanied asylum seeking children:

presentation 1

Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Children: A research overview by Jim Wade

This presentation outlined the patchy nature of the research in the area of unaccompanied asylum seeking children. It began by reiterating the claims of the Chair's Opening Address. Thus, one of the major difficulties facing researchers, policy makers and practitioners working in this area is the lack of reliable statistics surrounding numbers migrating to the UK, and more specifically, the number of unaccompanied children needing services. The National Audit Office has recently made a crude estimation that approximately 7,000 unaccompanied children are currently receiving services.

These services are predominantly being provided in London and the South East, to young people of whom most are male and over 16. However, more detailed information is needed to aid service planning. Assessments are often rudimentary and resource-led and more research is needed to look at why assessments vary and how they could be improved.

The general background to this area is that practitioners often have few resources to inform their decision-making and they often have to rely on what the child tells them. There are also difficulties associated with language barriers and appropriate interpreters. If we are to address these issues properly then we need to know much more about how these different factors interplay to inform assessments and the services that flow from them.

The range of placements for unaccompanied asylum seeking children includes: foster care, adoption, sheltered housing, B & Bs etc. There is an overall shortage of placements and cultural matching has often not been possible, but then, not all young people appear to want this for themselves. There has been extensive use of out-of-authority placements, yet there are a number of studies that suggest such placements lead to a reduction in social care support. For asylum seeking children, this reduction in support increases their sense of isolation.

Although there are examples of positive practice around the country, there remains a great deal of variability in the quality of placements. Children often feel inadequately supported and unable to make a complaint. We therefore need to know muchmore about the different types of context in which placements take place if we are to improve the quality of care.

Education - unaccompanied children tend to be highly committed compared to other Looked After Children but their experiences are not unproblematic and there are often delays in accessing education and language services.

Health needs for looked after children generally, have received a higher profile in recent years. However, the research evidencewith respect to unaccompanied children is limited: official medical history is often patchy and those placed out-of-authority often face greater difficulties in terms of registration with a Primary Care Trust.

Many unaccompanied asylum seeking children have been found to have difficulty concentrating and making plans; many feel guilty at their own sanctuary and worry about their own families back home. They often have anxieties about who to turn to and social workers often feel out of their depth. Despite this, they do often refer these children to appropriate support and counselling services. Sometimes these are difficult to access, and these children cannot always utilise these services to best effect because of the trauma they have experienced.

Existing research suggests that unaccompanied asylum seeking children have both courage and resilience and therefore a greater ability to survive and adapt in adverse circumstances. This means that they can often respond positively to support and counselling. Indeed, most may not need psychiatric treatment if ongoing therapeutic support is woven into their day-to-day lives.

the research project being undertaken by the University of York:

As this brief overview indicates, the existing (research) knowledge base is very shaky. Current research at the University of York is designed to put a bit more flesh on the bones of what we already know. This study is taking place in three local authorities and its main objective is to explore ways in which different authorities respond to unaccompanied children from referral onwards.

The research has a number of aims: to describe the approach taken to unaccompanied asylum seeking children; to describe the needs assessed, and services subsequently provided; to assess why services are provided in the way that they are; and the appropriateness of this for these children.

The main phase of the study involves an analysis of the social work case files of a sample of young people referred to these authorities over a period of 18 months, from March 2001 to August 2002. The sample of 214 young people was selected according to age, by gender and by length of time since referral. This aspect of the study is limited by what is recorded by the various agencies that deal with unaccompanied asylum seeking children. To supplement this raw data, 31 in-depth interviews with young people and their support workers have taken place.

This study also takes account of the policy and practice context within each authority but, due to its timing, is not sensitive to recent changes in government policy. Nevertheless, it will still provide a useful benchmark of services before these changes and therefore the impact of policy on them.

The data collection stage of this small study has recently been completed and the analysis stage of this research project has only just begun. The full findings should be available early next year: http://www.york.ac.uk/inst/swrdu/Projects/asylumseekers.html:(new window)

presentation 2

The Children's Perspective by Selam Kidane

The starting point of this presentation began from where the previous one left off. Thus, given that there is not enough research evidence - in the field of social care practice - to tell us what to do with unaccompanied children, we must look to other available resources.

Of these, the voices of unaccompanied children are arguably the most compelling. These voices can help us build up a picture of their experiences and thereby improve our understanding of their needs.

The voices heard in this presentation came from a wide range of sources including child refugees from the Spanish Civil War (1930s), Second World War child refugees, Albanians and Ethiopians.

Implicit in this more qualitative approach to gathering research evidence is the assumption that we can extrapolate common experiences from different situations experienced by unaccompanied children in different times and places.

These different experiences were categorised as follows:

'A home lost is always a paradise lost' - ie nobody wants to leave their home, no matter how desperate the situation is. Home is always home

'The chaos inside gets replicated outside' - ie everything is busy and chaotic, and there is often no time for the child to make an emotional transition from home to the place of asylum

Arrival experiences - the child has no idea of where s/he is going, what to do, who to turn to; nobody explains anything; children are coming into a situation of total confusion and they have no idea of what to expect

Adjustment - the child is faced by alien circumstances: lost parents, lost culture and way of life. This is a difficult transition to make and social care professionals can help with this

Longer-term adjustments - the child faces being on his or her own and feeling lost. Young people say that they wouldn't choose this for their own children: they would face difficulties with their children together.

The type of trauma outlined above is difficult to communicate in a short summary of this sort, but perhaps the most powerful 'voice' that we heard was the following:

'To be a refugee is the most horrible feeling because you lose your family, you loose your home, you're also without any identity. Suddenly you are nothing. You are just reliant on other people's good nature and help and understanding .' Inge Sadan: talking about his experiences of becoming one of the thousands of children who became unaccompanied refugees during the second world war in Harris and Oppenheimer's, Into the Arms of Strangers (2000)

The main research message to be drawn from this presentation was that being a refugee is not easy for anyone but the problems are exacerbated even more for unaccompanied children. Likewise, being in the care system is difficult for any child, but being in care in a foreign culture doubles the trauma that a child experiences.

For further reading, including the sources of the voices heard in this presentation see key references below.

post presentation discussion (panel of speakers from morning session)

There are a number of arguments in favour of forming Specialist Asylum Teams. These include: (i) specialist knowledge can be acquired and used (eg of the asylum process); this is knowledge that not all social workers working in Children and Families Teams can be expected to have, (ii) improved interagency support in areas most needed, eg with CAMHS.

It was stressed by all members of the panel that a specialist asylum children's team should also be a child specialist team. A member of the audience added that Specialist Asylum Children Teams offered the opportunity for group work that is not conventionally available for dealing with non-asylum Looked After Children.

Despite the broad support for specialist teams it was pointed out that there was not sufficient research evidence at the moment to support policy change in this direction. This is because the focus of much recent research is concerned with 16 and 17 year olds that have not had specialist child support at all.

research in practice note: of course, research evidence is not the only factor that should sway a decision - practice experience and local circumstances can also provide enough reason to justify service change.

The issue of definitional problems was also raised by the audience, ie when is a child accompanied or unaccompanied? This is important in terms of service provision, funding streams, etc. but remains unresolved. Indeed, children move between authorities and between teams and the research suggests that they are being dealt with in different ways by different authorities. This may partly be due to a lack of clarity around whether a child is accompanied/ unaccompanied.

agency-led sessions

The aim of these sessions was to share the evidence base that is currently being developed by different local authorities.

Vulnerability and Building Resilience: This workshop discussed the particular areas of vulnerability in unaccompanied young asylum seekers and how workers can best manage their input to build resilience. This included looking at what approaches research has found works best. The workshop included a quiz and pair/small group work with a range of specific challenges for workers.

Facilitators: Andy Smith, Child Care Operations and Kathy Summerton, Service Manager, Duty and Assessment Service, Leicester City Council: msummk001@leicester.gov.uk

Current Issues and Good Practice: London Borough of Barking and Dagenham's Asylum Team won 'Social Work Team of the Year' at last year's London Chronicle Awards. The leader of this Team discussed current issues, including the impact of the Hillingdon judgement and how to achieve good practice by sharing knowledge across the relatively new teams that have emerged to deal with the needs of unaccompanied asylum seeking children. Mark Farlow is also on a DfES working party for Education and Training of Unaccompanied Minors.

Facilitator: Mark Farlow, Manager, Asylum Team, London Borough of Barking and Dagenham: markfarlow@lbbd.gov.uk

Mental Health and Social Adjustment - Results and Service Implications: This session looked at a piece of research undertaken in partnership between Westminster City Council and The Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine, London. This is the first piece of research to have been completed in the UK that looks at the mental health and social adjustment of unaccompanied asylum seeking children. This session presented the results of this study and the implications for intervention, policy and practice.

Facilitators: Matthew Hodes, Senior Lecturer in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Anna Cuniff , Research worker, Westminster City Council: m.hodes@imperial.ac.uk and a.cunniff@imperial.ac.uk

Exploitation and Trafficking of Young Children from abroad: The asylum seekers team in Sheffield is characterised by a strong partnership approach. The main aim of their work is to integrate unaccompanied asylum seeking children into the community. Their success was acknowledged in the Health and Social Care Awards (Department of Health) 2003. This workshop focused on their work and the increasing concern of exploitation and trafficking of young children from abroad. The workshop included video footage and a discussion of the draft protocols the team have developed to address this problem.

Facilitator: Helen Kendall, Social Work Team Manager, Sheffield City Council: Helen.Kendall@sheffield.gov.uk

Age Determination: Moving beyond a culture of suspicion: This session illustrated how - by applying an evidence-informed approach - improvements to services for unaccompanied asylum seeking children's teams could be achieved. This team have been holding sessions facilitated by Hammersmith and Fulham's Link Officer, to address issues and questions about service delivery to this group of children. In particular the team used research evidence to explore the issue of age determination.

Facilitators: Farrukh Akhtar, Principal Social Work Trainer and research in practice Link Officer; Maureen Molloy, Assistant Social Worker; Sandra De Silva, Social Worker, London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham: Farrukh.Akhtar@lbhf.gov.uk

presentation 3

case transfer: Evaluation of a pilot scheme by Mary Blanche and Barbara Donovan

This presentation outlined the aims and achievements of the 'Safe Case Transfer National Pilot Project': A partnership between the Association of Greater Manchester Authorities and Kent County Council.

project aims: Why did Kent need and want safe case transfer?

There were four main reasons why Kent needed and wanted a safe case transfer scheme (i) increased numbers, (ii) inadequate local resources, (iii) increase in out of county placements (for those aged 17) and (iv) to ensure good child care practice.

A Project Board was set up which included representatives from Manchester, Kent, Save the Children, the Home Office, the Project Team, the North West Consortium, the DfES and the SSI. An Operations Group was also set up to execute the decisions of the Board.

Under the pilot scheme the decision was made that all unaccompanied 16 and 17 year olds were to be transferred under section 20 of the Children Act 1989. However, the Hillingdon Judicial Review, that took place during the course of the pilot, led to a new way of working and planning.

project achievements: New policy, procedure and training

The new policy developed for the pilot scheme was informed by research, including attachment, separation and bereavement theories. The policy for the project focused on the assessment of needs and on recognising that assessment is an ongoing process of reviews and assessment.

As a dispersal area, Kent needed to learn from its experiences, including basic information, such as, what time children should leave Kent in order to arrive in Manchester at a reasonable time.

The pilot has gathered together a body of research through focus groups with unaccompanied asylum seeking children and former unaccompanied asylum seeking children.

It has also organised training for practitioners: The University of Kent has developed a certificate for social work with unaccompanied asylum seeking children and Manchester Metropolitan University has also devised a specific course on work with unaccompanied asylum seeking children.

the future of the project

To fulfill its aim to 'assess and place the young people' and to apply the policy and procedure that has been developed.

post-presentation discussion

This may be a scheme that can be replicated in different authorities. Indeed, there arguably needs to be dedicated teams spread throughout the UK to deal with this transfer process.

Case transfer from Kent to Manchester usually takes about a month.

As part of the pilot, the organisers are hoping that 'transferred' children will begin to take pictures of themselves of where they end up, to pass on to future asylum seeking children and help them understand where they will be transferred to from a child's perspective.

The speakers believe that the Kent-Manchester pilot has helped prevent children being caught up in the chaos often associated with arrival and transfer.

conclusion of symposium

This symposium pulled together a number of important learning points. Firstly, it was a timely reminder that the issue of unaccompanied asylum seeking children is not something new, nor is it something that is going to go away. We therefore need to plan for this important and vulnerable service group. Secondly, good planning requires good information and at the moment this is patchy, both in terms of government statistics and research knowledge. The time is therefore ripe for creating and developing an evidence base that can help with future service planning.

In terms of developing an evidence base, this symposium provided some grounds for optimism. Thus, there is relevant work going on at the University of York, at BAAF, and within local authorities such as Kent, Leicester, Sheffield, Westminster, and the London Boroughs of Barking and Dagenham and Hammersmith and Fulham. All are contributing to the evidence base in an important way. In particular, each is building up our knowledge and understanding of the experiences of unaccompanied asylum seeking children, and at the same time, indicating how service providers can best respond to these varied and complex needs.

By providing a platform for presenting and sharing the wide variety of research (and information-gathering) being undertaken by these different bodies, this symposium underlined the importance of continued collaboration and learning from each other at both a policy and a practice level if the needs of unaccompanied asylum seeking children are to be adequately met. Whilst such collaborative work is undeniably important, arguably the most important lesson to be taken from this symposium is that it is the voice of the child that must be kept at the forefront of all assessments and service provision - only then will we begin to provide the best possible service for each child.

key references

For some useful definitions and clarification of asylum status, see: http://www.youth-justice-board.gov.uk/PractitionersPortal/Diversity/Refugees/Definitions: (new window)

Harris and Oppenheimer (2000) Into the Arms of Strangers: Stories of the Kindertransport (available at http://www.amazon.co.uk/:(new window))

Kidane S (2001) Food, Shelter and Half a Chance: Assessing the needs of unaccompanied asylum seeking children , BAAF. pubs.sales@baaf.org.uk

Kidane S (2001) I did not choose to come here: Listening to refugee children , BAAF. pubs.sales@baaf.org.uk

Kidane S (2004) Fostering Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking and Refugee Children: A training course for foster carers , BAAF. pubs.sales@baaf.org.uk

Stanley K (2001) Cold Comfort: Young separated refugees in England , Save the Children £7.50. To order a copy contact Plymbridge Distributors, tel: 01752 202 301 or email: orders@plymbridge.com. This book covers research with young separated refugees in England and professionals working with them. It includes a chapter on arrival and age determination.

See also:

The special issue of Child and Family Social Work 8 (3), August 2003, which focuses on the lives and circumstances of refugee and asylum seeking children and families.

Finally, the next title in the research in practice audio series will be on unaccompanied asylum seeking and refugee children. We plan for this to be distributed to our network in the summer of 2005. For other titles in this series please go to: http://www.rip.org.uk/publications/audioseries.htm:(new window)