Specific circumstances for Care Leavers
Asylum Seekers
Initial support
When you arrive and are supported as a child in care, we will work with you on many things, as set out in a Pathway Plan.
In particular, this will include:
You will have an Initial Health Assessment once you become a Child in Care with us and your pathway plan will cover how we continue to support both your physical and emotional needs. We recognise the significant impact for you being in the UK far from your family and home, of the journey you have faced in coming here, and of the stress of seeking asylum. We will talk to you about how best to support you.
Enrolling you for ESOL courses, (ESOL means English as a Second Language). As you progress, you can also be enrolled on other courses such as maths, and then on career-based courses. If there is any delay in you being able to enrol, we will provide for you to access online learning while you wait.
You will stay in a home, usually with other young people, with support workers available at various times throughout the week and on call for emergencies.
How you want to stay in touch with family members, if you can, both those who live abroad for example in your country of origin or those who might also be in the UK. If you would like us to, we will work with you to try and trace family members who you have lost contact with, for example, through the Red Cross family finding project, or social media.
We will try to make sure that you have a solicitor as soon as possible that there available to support you in your application with the Home Office.
We will provide you initially with items to support your religious faith if you have one, e.g. a prayer mat, Qur'an or Bible in your language, and connections to faith community.
We will support you to access social and fun activities, to help you make friends and integrate into life in the UK.
Whilst you are waiting on a decision from the Home Office, you are not able to claim benefits and we will financially support you with payments equivalent to what you would receive in benefits up until a decision is made. You also receive other financial support from as detailed in the Care Leaver Offer.
We help to make sure that you have your ARC (Application Registration Card) as a form of ID (Identity Document). You can use this to open a bank account. Halifax Bank are helpful in supporting banking for asylum seeking young people, with this form of ID.
Age assessment
If your age has been disputed by the Home Office, we have a duty to consider an appropriate level of assessment of your age and a decision regarding accepting the age you claim or not. In some circumstances this can be done quickly as we take a view from initial visits with you or by using what is known as a brief enquiry. If we have doubt regarding your age being that which you claim, we may undertake a full Merton-compliant age assessment.
Once we have made a decision regarding the age we consider you to be, we need to send our findings to the Home Office as we need them and us to the be agreeing your date of birth. If the Home Office continues to dispute the age that we had decided, we continue to work with the Home Office until we can all come to an agreement. It is very rare that Children’s Social Care and the Home Office would operate with two different dates of birth as this causes lots of complications.
Ongoing dispute of your age and not having an agreed date of birth causes delay in your asylum claim. Therefore, we aim to work as quickly as we can to resolve a dispute.
If the outcome of your age assessment is that you were not a child on arrival, but rather an adult, then you do not have care leaver status. Arrangements would be made for you to transfer to support for adults seeking asylum in the UK. Further details on this are held in our policy for support of Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Children.
Waiting for a decision from the Home Office
We recognise that this is a stressful time. Therefore, in your Pathway Planning we will work with you on any support you would like for your emotional wellbeing and mental health, including social and community activities and support.
We will help you plan for different options for your future, including:
- what will happen if you get leave to remain in the UK
- what will happen if you don’t get leave to remain but want to stay in the UK, i.e. how to appeal the decision
- what will happen if you don’t get leave to remain and want to return to your country of origin
We also plan support for you during the difficult time of uncertainty, before a decision about your asylum claim has been made.
When you are offered your substantive (or big) Interview by the Home Office, as part of the asylum application process, we will talk to you about who you would like to attend with you, which can be your Personal Adviser.
As long as you are happy for us to do this, we will liaise closely with your solicitor, to support you through the application process and make sure you’re kept up to date about what is happening.
If you receive a positive decision from the Home Office and once you are 18
We will support you to progress your applications for Universal Credit, social housing, career opportunities etc.
You will also need to apply for your e-visa.
We will include in your pathway plan the end date for your leave to remain. You will need to bear in mind when the end date is coming close so that you apply in good time for indefinite leave to remain if that is what you wish to do.
If you receive a negative decision from the Home Office
There is an appeals process for decisions made that you do not agree with. Your solicitor is the person best placed to advise you of your options and any steps to take to follow a given option.
If you receive a negative decision from the Home Office and are appeal rights exhausted (which means you have no further routes to challenge their decision), we will complete a Human Rights Assessment before making a decision about whether to withdraw our support.
While you are appealing a decision, as this can be an extended period, we will need to work with you to review the best plan in terms of accommodation and support. This may mean moving.
