Access to Education for Refugee & Asylum Seeking Children 04

8/14/2019 Access to Education for Refugee & Asylum Seeking Children 04

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Contents Page

Introduction to Report on Pilot Project 3

Summary of findings during the pilot project 3-4

Recommendations based on the project work 5

Data produced by Andy Humphreys, Research and 6Information Officer

Fig. 1 and Fig. 2 Graphs showing average contact time, 7number of pupils for January 2005 April 2006

Fig. 3 and Fig. 4 Graphs showing average contact time, 8

number of pupils for January 2006 January 2007

Data produced by Michael Richmond-Coggan (Pilot 9projectworker)

Referrals to the pilot project - families contacted / supported 9

Fig. 5 Table showing a summary of the support provided. 10

Number of families contacted or supported 10

Evaluation of the pilot project in terms of the year of 11birth and location of the family.

Referrals from the Home Office 12

Referrals from other organisations and CART 13-4

Asylum seeking families with specific needs 14who require little support

Asylum seeking families with multiple needs who 15require significant support

Supporting contact between the school and the 15family.

Supporting the family to get access to their 16financial entitlements.

Supporting the family to get access to legal 16representation

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Supporting the family in accessing free bus passes 17

Supporting a CYP to use the MyBus Service 17

Supporting families in accessing free English classes 17-18

(for the parents)

Making links with the community 18

Registering CYPs and families with a GP or 18referral to the Health Access Team

Un-accompanied Asylum-Seeking Children 19(UASC) in the care of social services

Supporting Education Leeds to locate UASC 19

who have been moved by CART

The impact of age disputes on the admissions process 19

Supporting a UASC to access a place in school or 20college

Assist UASC accessing health care provision 20

Fast Track admissions to City of Leeds High School 21

Other issues surrounding the accommodation of UASC 21into mainstream schools

Suggestions for the development of further support 23

Additional information 24

The Community Cohesion Project and the Wedge 24Programme

Ethnicity distribution and implications for New Arrivals 25-26

The role of the housing provider 26

Appendix

1) Examples of good practice in Manchester 26-27

2) Referrals made to the LEAP project by schools in South 28

3) List of schools contacted by the LEAP project 29

4) List of individuals consulted during the pilot project 30

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Introduction

The need for this project was identified by the Childrens Societys LEAPProject , in conjunction with Education Leeds Admissions team, in response tothe high numbers of refugee and asylum seeking families that require support

accessing a school place.

The Admissions team and the project workers at the LEAP Project observedthat some of the children and their families require practical and emotionalsupport in order to access education. Education Leeds has one worker who isresponsible for co-ordinating Admissions and Transport for refugee andasylum seeking children. Given the high numbers of children without schoolplaces, it is apparent that this post alone does not have the scope or capacityto address the scale and complexity of the problem. It has also beensuggested by Education Leeds that this need for extra support has affected

the efficiency of the Admissions team and its ability to place children quickly.

This pilot project has set out to explore the impact of having a worker workingalongside Education Leeds Admissions team to provide this additionalsupport. In addition, the project has explored any additional barriers tochildren gaining access to education in Leeds through consultation witheducation providers.

The LEAP project already works with Education Leeds to provide some of thesupport needed:

Early Years funded work to support refugee and asylum seeking

children, aged 4 to 13 years old A Connexions programme to support young refugees and asylum

seeking people (aged 13 to 19) into education, employment andtraining.

The pilot project gave LEAP the opportunity to work closely alongsideEducation Leeds to support children aged 4-18 years old with the exclusivefocus on accessing school places or appropriate education.

Summary of findings

The pilot project worker considered 69 individuals for additional supportand provided additional support to 58% of those referred. 20% haveneeded support beyond school admission.

Most families requiring support had limited English and required theinvolvement of interpreters in order to understand UK systems.

Support was provided to children and their families in the followingareas:

Assistance with negotiating transport, bus routes and bus passes.

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Access to financial entitlements

Access to legal representation

Enrolment for adults in ESOL courses.

Making social links within the community.

Enabling access to health care.

Assisting with disputes relating to education applications.

There is evidence that the involvement of the pilot project worker inproviding support to children and families and the wider involvement ofthe LEAP team has had a positive impact on Education Leeds

Admissions teams ability to deal efficiently with applications.

It seems that there is a particular difficulty for Unaccompanied AsylumSeeking Children in gaining access to education. This may be due toage disputes and also difficulties schools have in catering for youngpeople aged 15 and 16, with limited English and differing culturalexperiences and expectations.

In some cases, it seems that families had not received sufficientorientation support into their local area something that is the clear

responsibility of housing providers.

Secondary schools contacted highlighted needs for ongoing one to onesupport for some refugee and asylum seeking young people in school.Need was also identified in relation to tensions between new arrivalsand existing students at some schools. There was some interest ingroup work to promote understanding of cultural diversity betweenpupils. (LEAP already offers this work in primary schools and feedbackabout this was positive).

Schools who take smaller numbers of new arrivals were finding it

particularly difficult to accommodate these children and young people.This was felt to be due to a lack of experience and structures within theschool to meet the needs of this group.

There was a high level of need for ESOL amongst adults within families particularly in East Leeds. It is hoped this will be addressed throughthe development of ESOL centres for parents through the CommunityCohesion project if sufficient resources are available.

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Recommendations

The ISCB consider continued funding for this post to enable ongoingsupport for children aged 4-18 years old in order to improve access toappropriate education. This would include offering one to one support

work for children and families. This could also include funding for pilotwork to promote understanding of cultural differences and diversitywithin secondary schools.

Education Leeds to work with the Children Asylum Refugee Team,schools and FE colleges to consider further strategies for meeting theeducational needs of Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Children particularly those aged 15 and over and those involved in age disputes.

Further research into the role of housing providers in orientation andinduction. Liaison with the Home Office, through the Childrens SocietyPolicy team, in relation to concerns about levels of service provided.

Support by Education Leeds of the Community Cohesion Project tocontinue and consider a particular focus on East Leeds.

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Detailed Report

Impact of the Pilot Project and support of LEAP project on admissions

The statistics team at Education Leeds have provided detailed information on

the contact time (i.e. the time between referral to the admissions team andremoval from the admissions list) for the last 2 years (January 2005 toJanuary 2007). Some clear trends that can be observed.

The length of contact has clearly decreased over 2 years. In January 2005 theaverage contact time was more than 400 days. (fig. 1) The current contacttime is around 20 days. (fig. 3) This is mainly due to a change in the way thatcontact time is measured and the amount of support that is provided by theadmissions team. In more recent months contact has been reduced to aminimum with any extra support being provided by referrals to other agencies.

Two project workers from The Childrens Society LEAP project providedsupport to the Admissions team from September 2006. This involvedcontacting families, after referrals from the Admissions team, and supportingthem with their particular needs. In November of 2006 the extra supportprovided by the pilot project was introduced to directly work alongside theAdmissions team and provide brief intervention work.

The increase in the number of pupils in September (fig 1 + 3) can be seenclearly in 2005 and 2006. However the contact time shown for 2006 continuesto decline. This indicates that the support provided by the LEAP projectenabled the Admissions team to maintain a high turnover of contact.

The number of pupils peaks at 28 pupils in September 2006 and remainsrelatively high compared to January 2005. (fig 4) However the contact timehas stabilised, from September to January, at between 20 and 40 days. (fig 3)This suggests that the support work has enabled the Admissions team tomaintain a low contact time whilst placing a high number of pupils into school.

Between September and January 2006/7 the contact time was between 20and 40 days.

The number of pupils contacting the admissions team has grown over theyear but the contact time has gradually reduced and seems stable. (fig 3 + 4)

The number of pupils contacting Education Leeds was higher in 2006 than in2005 in the month of December. The number of students peaks in Januaryand is due to a backlog of applications during the Christmas holiday. InJanuary 2006 the contact time doubles (fig 1) and remains high for threemonths. The continuing fall in January 2007 suggests that the supportprovided has prevented an increase in contact time created by high numbersof students requiring support. (fig 3) It will be important to examine the contacttime for February and March to establish if this is a continuing trend. (These

figures are not available at the time of writing, March 2007)

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Fig. 1 Graph showing the average length of contact time in relation totime.January 2005 April 2006. (Provided by Andy Humphreys, Research andInformation Officer, Performance Management and Information Team)

Fig. 2 Graph showing the number of pupils making contact per month.January 2005 April 2006. (Provided by Andy Humphreys, Research andInformation Officer, Performance Management and Information Team)

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Fig. 3 Graph showing the average length of contact time in relation totime.January 2006 January 2007 (Provided by Andy Humphreys, Research andInformation Officer, Performance Management and Information Team)

Pupils making contact

Fig.4 Graph showing the number of pupils making contact per month.January 2006 January 2007. (Provided by Andy Humphreys, Research andInformation Officer, Performance Management and Information Team)

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Referrals to the Pilot Project

It has been important to keep accurate records of the number of pupils that Ihave had contact with. As a result a basic spreadsheet detailing key dataabout children and young people was developed. The following data was

recorded: Name

Type of client (Unaccompanied Minor, Accompanied child or youngperson)

Was support required?

Date of birth

Postcode

Address

What is the outcome?

What month was referral?

A total of sixty-nine individuals have been discussed during referral meetingswith Abdul Jalloh in the period of November 2006 to March 2007.

48 individual referrals came through the Home Office directly to theAdmissions Team.

3 individuals were referred from another organisation to the LEAPproject

17 Unaccompanied Minor referrals were made to the Admissions teamfrom CART.

1 individual referral for support came from City of Leeds High Schoolbut was not related to admissions.

Of the 69 referrals, 56.5% (39) are in school. 5.8%(4) are at college,14.6%,(10 are on a waiting list (they are all Unaccompanied Asylum SeekingChildren)) 13%(9) are currently unknown and have been registered with theChildren Missing Education Committee. 10.1%(7) referrals are yet to becontacted at the time of writing.

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Number of CYP in school / college / other

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

CYP Status

No.ofCYPs

In school CME In college On waiting list Not visited

Fig. 5: Table showing a summary of the support provided by the pilot project.Data provided by Michael Richmond-Coggan (Pilot Project Worker, LEAP)

Number of families contacted or supported.

It is necessary to consider the number of contacts made in terms of thenumber of families that were supported as this gives a better indication of theamount of support provided.

For example, of the 69 referrals, 17 were unaccompanied minors. Theremaining 52 children belonged to 30 families.

The pilot project worker worked with 14 families 12 from the Home Officeand 2 from other sources. This is just under 50% of the total client group.

When the 6 Children Missing Education families are considered there are 24families remaining.

Therefore 58.3% of possible cases received some support from the pilotproject. This suggests that there is a large need for support.

20% of families that were contacted by the pilot project worker have requiredongoing support.

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Average ages of young people supported

An average was taken for the year of birth for all children and young peoplethat were referred to the Admissions team between November 2006 andMarch 2007. The average was found to 1995 (which translates to an age of

between 12 and 13 years old. When considering the average, and notincluding the Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Children, the average drops to1996 i.e. an 11 or 12 year old. This suggests that secondary schools mayneed more support than primary schools.

Location of families and young people supported

The postcode area with the highest number of pupils was LS9 (12 families)followed by LS11 (6 families), LS7 (4 families) and LS8 (3 families). Ashortage of schools with available places, in the LS9 area has resulted in a

number of pupils having to travel to City of Leeds High School. The extra costof bus passes for families has been a major problem and two families havebeen supported by the LEAP project with bus vouchers. There is someconcern that of the 6 families that live in LS11, four have become CME cases.More research is needed to see if there is any correlation between the area inwhich a family is housed and the likelihood of them going missing.

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Referrals from the Home Office

The Home Office referred 34 families to the Admissions team during theperiod between November 2006 and December 2007. Within these familiesthere were 48 children of school age that required a school place.

6 of these families (8 children) did not require any support (from the pilotproject worker) getting a school place. They may have received help fromEducation Leeds.

Of these 6 families at least one adult family member could speak goodEnglish.

7 children from 4 families have yet to be located and / or visited.

6 families (with 9 children) have been reported to the CME board. (ChildrenMissing Education) They may have moved to a different city, been deportedor gone into hiding.

12 families needed some kind of support. This included supporting AbdulJalloh in trying to contact families and clarify their educational status:

Going to a house to visit to a family (with a colleague) to establish theirchildrens current educational status with a family member. 5 familieswith 6 children.

Contacting a family or school via telephone and confirming the childs

educational status.2 families with 9 children Making a referral to a colleague who was situated in the school. This

allowed us to monitor a child who was of particular concern. 1 familywith 1 child

Helping a family to access a school place and then continuing tosupport the family see case studies below. 4 families with 8 children

See table 1 below for a breakdown of support in terms of families andchildren.

Referrals toAdmissionsfrom HomeOffice

Requiringnosupport

Visited athome byPilot Project

Contacted(telephone)by PilotProject

Ongoingsupport fromPilot Project

NumberofFamilies

20 6 5 2 4

Numberofchildren

36 8 6 9 8

Table 1: Table showing a summary of the support provided by the Pilot

Project.Data provided by Michael Richmond-Coggan (Pilot Project Worker, LEAP)

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Referrals from another organisation

1 referral (3 children in the same family) was made to CHIVA (Children inVulnerable Accommodation) from TEASE (Temporary EmergencyAccommodation) who then referred it on to LEAP. The close partnership

relationship between CHIVA and LEAP facilitated this transfer. The familyinvolved had been brought into the country as part of the reunificationprogramme, as relatives of a refugee who had recently gained status. This iswhy they had not been picked up through the Home Office referral system.There may also be more children and young people who are in European andeconomic migrant families that may require support.

One family was referred from City of Leeds High School. They already had aplace in school but needed support accessing benefits.

Referrals by CARTThere were 17 referrals made by Children Asylum Refugee Team to theAdmissions team. These were sent by email and copied to the pilot projectworker at LEAP. This method of communication created a fast track route thatresponded to the needs of the unaccompanied minor client group. A strongcommunication channel was established through the LEAP worker and theEnglish as an Additional Language team at City of Leeds. Knowledge ofadmissions protocols and testing days enabled the swift placement of someyoung people.

There are concerns about placing young people that appear to be older thantheir official age assessment. Further research is required to establish how toaccommodate these young people into college or alternative provision.

The number of places available to these young people is limited and therehave been a number of concerns regarding the existing placements that havebeen made. These are highlighted in the case studies presented in this report.

Table 2, below, shows the percentage of Unaccompanied Asylum SeekingChildren accessing some form of education. The figure of 47.1% that arecurrently waiting for a place signifies the difficulties in placing this particular

group of pupils and is not comparable to accompanied minors, where thereare currently no pupils waiting for school places.

In school In college Waiting(visited)

Waiting (notvisited) Total

4 3 8 2 1723.50% 17.60% 47.10% 11.80%Table 2: Table showing the percentage of UASC in school, college or yetto receive a place.

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In order to provide focussed support to the Admissions and Transport team, itwas important to gain a clear understanding of the current situation. The resultof this was that a large number of meetings were arranged with schools,academics and other professionals, who were working with refugee andasylum seeking children. The research and statistics have identified three

distinct groups of people with different needs. Asylum seeking families with specific needs who require little support

Asylum seeking families with multiple needs who require significantsupport

Un-accompanied Asylum-Seeking Children in the care of socialservices.

Asylum seeking families with specific needs who require littlesupport

These families are often able to make applications to Education Leeds for aschool place due to a competency in English or support from their communityor friends. They are able to access information about the schools that are intheir neighbourhood and they are able to ask for information if they are notsure what to do. They can understand the correspondence that is sent tothem, i.e. offering a school place. At the interview the family can support thechild and facilitate the enrolment process. Once the child has gained a placethey are more likely to be able to establish the bus routes and gain access toany support regarding school uniforms, bus passes and free school meals.The children are more likely to settle into the school environment and are lesslikely to be considered different by the other children, and teachers, as they

can communicate in English.

Ultimately the children and their families will have a certain degree ofautonomy and will be able to exercise that through their ability tocommunicate with the Admissions system.

The families may also be in a better position to deal with problems within theirpersonal life and issues surrounding their asylum claims. Due to theirknowledge of the language or access to support, these families may be ableto manage issues surrounding housing, orientation in a new city, incomesupport, solicitors, access to education for the adults in the family,registering with a GP and other services that offer support and guidance.These factors all affect the well-being of the child and are directly linked to theindividuals ability to deal with their new environment.

Of the 69 referrals made, 8 individuals, from 6 families did not require anysupport in terms of accessing school places. Of these, at least one parent(from each family) was able to speak English. Due to their language skills, thisparent was able to contact their local school independently or with the help ofa family friend.

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Asylum seeking families with multiple needs who requiresignificant support

There are many reasons that a family may require support. The pilot projectwas involved in supporting 17 individuals from families. The support suppliedhas been varied but has always had a focus on the needs of the childreninvolved with a priority of helping the children to access a school place. Thefollowing section gives details of the variety of support given to the childrenand their families.

Supporting contact between the school and the family.

With all of the five families it has been necessary to approach them to makethem aware of an opportunity to start at school. This was often related to aninability to understand the letter they had received offering them a place atschool.

ExampleA support worker and the pilot project worker met the family at their house toconfirm that they are still living there. Once the family was offered a schoolplace, a second visit with an interpreter was arranged and the needs of thechild were clarified to see if they needed support in accessing their place. Ifthey expressed a need, the project worker escorted them to the school (withparents if applicable) and explained the bus routes and tickets on the way.There is usually a need to arrange for an interpreter to facilitate the interview,

so that was arranged in advance. The child is given a start date once theyhave completed the enrolment. The project worker supported the child inattending on their first day at school and then maintained contact with theschool to ensure that the child is settling in.

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Access to financial entitlement.

This included ensuring families are registered with the Immigration NationalityDirectorate and also ensuring families are aware of their benefits entitlements.

ExampleRegistration proved to be a lengthy process in one case because it involvedtravelling across the city on a very limited bus route. The person concernedwas a single mother with two children under six, with no English or knowledgeof public transport or the layout of the city. The woman was unaware of theneed to register in order to obtain to benefits and when contact was made,she informed that project worker that she had no money at all. The projectworker accompanied the family, showed them the bus route and supportedthem through the registration process.

ExampleThe uncle of a child seeking admission to school had been acting as hisguardian for a number of months. The uncle was illiterate in his nativelanguage and English. He was unaware of his eligibility to access additionalfinancial support for looking after a child. The project worker took the uncle tothe Job Centre with an interpreter and managed to ascertain that he was ableto access additional support. The support was back-dated to when the unclebecame guardian.

Access to legal representation

Although most families were able to arrange their own solicitor there wereoccasions where it was necessary to support a family to obtain legalrepresentation. This involved contacting legal firms with offices in Leeds whoreceive legal aid, making appointments and accompanying the familymember, with an interpreter, to the solicitors office.

ExampleThere was one occasion where a family had two separate asylum claims one for the father (and two sons) and one for the mother, (and two youngerchildren) who was separated from her husband during the journey to the UK.She had legal representation but was informed, by the solicitor that they wereno longer willing to represent her as the husbands case had already failed.This happened one week before her court case and left her feeling verydistressed. She was already suffering from mental health problems due to herexperiences of displacement and became very disturbed by the prospect ofgoing to court without a solicitor. The project worker established that it wouldbe possible to ask for an adjournment on the basis of legal representationbeing withdrawn. Contact was then made with a number of solicitors in thelocality that could provide support. It was then necessary to take the mother tothe solicitors and arrange an interpreter.

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Accessing free bus passes

If a family is living more than 3 miles away from the school that they areattending, they are entitled to a free bus pass. The family, or support worker,must contact Education Leeds to request a bus pass. The family need to

provide a passport photo for the application. This simple task is very difficultfor a family that does not know the city, or where and how to get a passportphoto. Where language is a barrier, additional help is needed with filling informs,

Support with using My Bus Transport

This was particularly important for young people who had been placed inschools outside their immediate locality. Lack of familiarity with using publictransport, limited language skills and unfamiliarity with the new area all make

this a challenging task where initial support is needed.

ExampleA 13 year old girl was supported in getting to school and introduced to the busroute. Before she returned home, the driver of the bus was asked by someonefrom school to drop her off at a particular stop. The driver somehow managedto drop her off two stops later. Fortunately, she managed to find her wayhome. Her father, who was waiting at the bus stop, was very upset when shedidnt appear. On her second day at school, a driver once again dropped heroff at the wrong stop and this time she got lost. She was eventually foundwandering the streets in deep distress. Her father was not willing to send his

daughter to school again until the problem was resolved. The project workerspent some more time coaching her on the bus route and she has been goingto and from school for nearly one month at the time of writing.

Accessing English classes (for the parents)

Five families with ongoing support needs have also required ESOL classes forthe parents. The project worker attempted to enrol the parents at colleges butfound that all the colleges in their area are full. With the introduction of newchanges to the funding for Asylum Seekers (19+) in September 2007, these

individuals will be expected to pay for their own classes.

The pilot project worker also contacted an organisation called L.A.S.S.N,(Leeds Asylum Seekers Support Network) who provide one-to-one hometutoring and befriending schemes. They are unable to provide any support atthe moment due to a shortage in volunteers joining the scheme.

The communication skills of the parents will have a big effect on the familysability to access the support services that are available to them. The shortageof ESOL classes, particularly in East Leeds, has a direct impact on a familysability to improve their language skills and become an active member of their

community.

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Plans to provide ESOL within schools is a promising solution that would helpschools develop close, supportive relationships with families. These classeshave been introduced in South Leeds with some success, althoughattendance has been lower than expected.

Making links within the community

When a new family arrives in Leeds they can feel very isolated and lonely.There is a high risk of dependency on project workers to solve any problemsthat arise and therefore there is a lack of empowerment. Making links withothers in the community is particularly significant.

ExampleA Somali mother who was new to the country did not know anyone in the area

and was a single parent with young children. She was introduced to a localSomali womens group. She was happy to have met some other women whowere in the same situation as her. She also has one friend from the groupwho now acts as an unofficial interpreter for her when she needs to ask forhelp or information.

Registering CYPs and families with a GP or referral to theHealth Access Team

Access to health care is one of the most important aspects of a new arrivalasylum seeker or refugee. It is fundamental that they are registered with adoctor as soon as is possible and that they have their health checked.

Housing Providers are supposed to inform new tenants of the location of theirnearest GP and to tell them to register there. This does not always happenand as a result it has been necessary to support a families with registrationwith the GP.

In order to complete the initial assessment form correctly it is necessary tocollect a form from the doctors, complete it with the client and an interpreter

to ensure that all the necessary information is provided and to then escortthe client and an interpreter to the GP appointment.

On a number of occasions the project worker has also made referrals to theHealth Access Team who can do a limited number of house visits.

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Un-accompanied Asylum-Seeking Children (UASC) in the careof social services

There are approximately 160 Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Children livingin Leeds. This may increase with the introduction of the proposed reforms,where more unaccompanied minors would be placed out of London in citiessuch as Leeds. The Children Asylum Refugee Team, (CART) provides thesechildren and young people with support. However, there is a lack of fundingand there are a number of concerns regarding the way in whichunaccompanied minors are disadvantaged. This has become apparentthrough working with the CART and providing pastoral support to 17 youngpeople. Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Children are housed in sharedhostels, placed in foster care or housed in the community.

Supporting Education Leeds to locate Unaccompanied

Asylum Seeking Children who have been moved by CART

Unaccompanied minors are often moved from one property to another, whichcan make their whereabouts difficult to establish. This has causedconsiderable problems when trying to contact these young people when theyare offered a place in school. A system of checking the details with CART,before undertaking a house visit, has helped to reduce the amount of timewasted visiting empty properties.

Once the unaccompanied minor has been contacted they may require a lot of

support that cannot be provided by CART or the Admissions team atEducation Leeds. Details of the variety of support are given below.

The impact of age disputes on the admissions process

Many unaccompanied minors are refused a place in school while an ageassessment is carried out. Understandably the schools are reluctant to takechildren that may be too old for mainstream schooling. Many unaccompaniedminors are claiming to be aged between 13 and 16 years old. If this is thecase they must be accommodated in a school. However if they are found tobe above this age then they could pose a risk to younger children with whomthey would share a classroom.

The alternative for them is to access a Further Education College and attendESOL classes. This involves a meeting with the admissions tutor at thecollege. Unfortunately the current demand is much greater than the provisionand as a result it is becoming very difficult to find appropriate courses for thisparticular group.

The current provision of one day a week is far from satisfactory when theseyoung people should be entitled to full-time education or the equivalent of

such training, as are all other Looked After Children.

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Supporting an Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Children toaccess a place in school or college

The project worker has worked with 17 unaccompanied minors during theperiod of the project.

Three were accompanied to an interview at a school in order to obtain aschool place. The school refused to accept them due to age disputes. Two ofthese young people are on ESOL courses one day a week and spend therest of their time at home watching television and wondering why they cannotgo to school. The third young person, who has a good level of spokenEnglish, is currently attending 2 classes provided by the community. (St.Georges Crypt and Archway.) He has been registered at Archway, the locallibrary, Yes Cyber (an Internet caf on Chapeltown Road, LS7) and theproject worker has also supported him with his English in one-to-one

sessions.

Three young people obtained school placements with support from theproject. One of these young people had to wait six months to obtain hisplacement pending an age assessment. A further young person obtained aplacement without support.

8 UASC are currently waiting to be offered a place in a school.

The remaining two UASC are currently awaiting transfer from City of Leeds toCarr Manor High School. There have been unusually long delays in

processing these transfers. At the time of writing it has taken 2 months andtransfer confirmation from Carr Manor is still awaited.

Assist UASC accessing health care provisionOne young person has been assisted with accessing a GP and getting a pairof prescription glasses from a local optician.

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Fast Track admissions to City of Leeds High School

The pilot project has established strong links with City of Leeds High Schooland the EMAG team, led by Beth Greenwood. A fast track system has beendeveloped, in which Education Leeds, The Childrens Society and the school

have co-ordinated a strategy which has been used for 2 UASC. This hasreduced the waiting time for UASC, with an approved age assessment, to 2weeks. This is comparable to the target time scale for other new arrivals.

Other issues surrounding the accommodation ofunaccompanied minors into mainstream schools

There have been a number of incidents recently at a Leeds school that haveinvolved these young people. These incidents have originated from

allegations of inappropriate behaviour between male unaccompanied minorsand younger, Asian, female students. This behaviour has caused a reactionfrom their elder, male siblings and the result has been a number of fightsbetween unaccompanied minors and students at the school.

The implications of these incidents are that there is a need for appropriateintervention. This could take the form of workshops with the young peopleinvolved to discuss appropriate behaviour in school and behaviour withchildren of the opposite sex. It may also be necessary to raise the awarenessof the impact that their current behaviour is having within the school and thestereotyping that this creates as a result.

Generally speaking schools also struggle to accommodate theunaccompanied minors as they are entering the school with very largeknowledge gaps, when compared to children who have been educated in theUK. They often speak no English and may have never been to school in theirhome countries, particularly Afghanistan. Although schools are doingeverything they can to accommodate these young people there is a greatconcern that the needs of the individuals are not being met.

Possibly as a result of these difficulties, I have experienced long delays inprocessing applications for unaccompanied minors in particular. Abdul Jallohof the Admissions team confirmed that he had similar problems when workingwith this group. Anne James of CART also confirmed that she felt that thisgroup were treated very differently due to their physical and educationalstatus.

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Suggestions for supporting the needs found during the pilotproject

The pilot project has assisted the Admissions team at Education Leeds byproviding support to families who have expressed a need during consultation

with the pilot project worker. This work has resulted in fourteen refugee andasylum-seeking families (44 children) gaining support. After each family wascontacted Abdul visited the house to complete the application forms. I thenvisited the family to complete an assessment of their needs related toeducation. This monitoring process could be improved to include languageability through simple assessments. If this work was carried out by anEAL/ESOL professional then it could be given to the school at the initialinterview and help to inform the school of the childs abilities.

CHIVA (Children in Vulnerable Accommodation) go to Hillside Induction

Centre on Leeds and Bradford Road on a Wednesday and undertakeassessments on asylum seeker children of school age. This model could beused to inform the assessment process to be undertaken at specific drop-insor in families houses. There is a need for joint partnership work to co-ordinateexisting services. This would allow practitioners with experience of workingwith asylum seekers and refugees to share their existing practices anddevelop new strategies.

There are a number of concerns surrounding the group of unaccompaniedminors and how they could be supported. Group work sessions based on theneeds of the young people could help to improve their understanding of some

of the common problems they face.

A dedicated worker who supports Abdul Jalloh would ensure that theAdmissions team is able to maintain the high turnover of children and youngpeople accessing school places and would result in shorter waiting times fornew applicants.

There may be some benefit in examining working practices and recordkeeping to establish if the system could be improved to provide more accuraterecords with a greater depth of information. The Pilot Project Worker would beinterested in developing this with Education Leeds.

A clear set of guidelines that explains the admissions process to schoolswould facilitate the process of allocating places. There are a number of pupilsthat have waited long periods of time because schools have not agreed toadmit them. A clear policy across the city should be made to help support thework of the Admissions team.

Further research could be commissioned to investigate the Children MissingEducation cases and to improve the process of reporting such cases to thecorrect organisation.

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The Community Cohesion Project

The Community Cohesion Project is a city wide strategy to support theintegration of new arrivals. The project is not just for asylum seekers andrefugees but also for all new arrivals, especially those who dont speak

English very well. 5 schools in the city will be given specialist status, one ineach wedge of the city. They will support induction, assessment andprovision of effective teaching and learning, and will be centres of goodpractice for the schools in each particular wedge.

There will be training centres for school staff on all aspects. The Centres arealso going to be ESOL centres for parents, not just in those centres but wewill organise other cluster groups of ESOL classes in other schools. Centreswill also be Parent Information Centres so parents can find out how theeducation system works, and the centres will also provide community meetingrooms. Every school has community rooms and it is free of charge for anycommunity type activities, please approach schools, the rooms are eager tobe used. The centres will have excellent ICT facilities, each centre will bevideo conferenced to benefit from economies of scale. Groups can hostvideoconferences with other centres as there are a number of issues relatedto travel between centres. Centres are getting set up this term and we arehoping to get the first of the ESOL class after half term.

The wedge based programme in Leeds

Education Leeds has developed a Wedge-based programme, in which

individual schools have been selected to work as specialist EAL (English asan Additional Language) providers. They will then provide this specialistknowledge to their neighbours, within their wedge.

Education Leeds publishes a document each term that lists any training datesfor the forthcoming term and also provides booking forms. (Faxable copies)Education Leeds has also developed a large amount of materials to use whenworking with EAL students. The oracy project documents are full ofinformation and ideas for teachers working with EAL and New Arrivals. Theseextra documents will give the teachers some extra support when working withEAL students.

The wedge programme has had a big impact on the provision of EAL to NewArrivals and has given schools an opportunity to work together and promotegood practice. There are an increasing number of schools, in the SouthWedge, who are working together to develop their understanding of the needsof this group and to share their good practice. Ingram Road, Hugh Gaitskelland Halton Moor are working in partnership to develop their departments.

Schools are also developing in-house mentoring programmes to providesupport for students who are under-achieving. These mentors are giventraining and support and help new students to develop their learning.

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Ethnicity distribution and implications for New Arrivals interms of accessing schools

In Leeds, there are 224 State Primary Schools and 43 Secondary Schools.(www.educationleeds.co.uk)

In order to establish which schools in Leeds that would be likely to take highnumbers of New Arrivals, a map of the City of Leeds showing ethnicdistribution (published by the Leeds Initiative) was compared with a mapshowing secondary schools (Education Leeds). The area within the outer ringroad (A6120) was selected due to the nature of dispersal of ethnicitysuggested on the map. Data showing the population by ethnicity in allsecondary schools in Leeds also highlights certain schools. These schoolsare located in ethnically diverse, inner city regions.

Each wedge has a very varied ethnicity population.

Near to the city centre, the ethnic density is a clear majority in somecases. (70% Primrose High School)

In the outer suburbs of Leeds the number of ethnic minority studentsattending schools drops to less than 5%. (Rodillian School)

The result of this is that some schools are experienced in dealing with newarrivals and have:

Strategies communication links with Education Leeds

Departments EMAG, EAL, SEN Materials documents for working with EAL students

Procedures enrolment and support

Mentoring programmes that support new arrivals.

Most schools were interested in working with TCS to develop extrasupport programmes that would facilitate their work. This would involveestablishing a referral system that would allow schools to contact theLEAP project regarding children or young people that needed support.

Other schools that do not take large numbers of new arrivals are struggling toaccommodate these children or young people. This is due to:

Tensions between the new arrivals and the existing students at theschool.

Schools not being aware of the support available.

A lack of experience working with new arrivals.

Of these schools, Hugh Gaitskell, Hunslet Moor, Ingram Road, WindmillPrimary, Roundhay Technology College, Parklands Girls High School City ofLeeds, The David Young Academy, Primrose High School, South Leeds andCarr Manor were contacted and visits were arranged with inclusion officers or

EAL staff. The pilot project worker was unable to arrange an appointment withCarr Manor.

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The consultations with schools highlighted a number of needs that schoolshave regarding support and development of their refugee and asylum-seekingchildren. The schools did not comment on the work done by the Admissionsteam and did not have an understanding of the process that involves thesechildren and young people. The schools will contact the Admissions team if a

refugee or asylum-seeking child attempts to apply directly to a school.

The schools in the South of Leeds that were interviewed for the project,expressed concern over the relationship of the host community with the newinternational arrivals. D. Whitely (EAL Coordinator, South Leeds High School)and C. Nix (Windmill Primary) said that many families were moved out ofSouth Leeds to East Leeds after complaints of racism and threateningbehaviour. They also said that there were some problems caused bycombining two very different secondary schools to create South Leeds HighSchool. The schools also expressed a need to develop ways of improvingrelationships between new arrivals and existing students.

The role of the housing provider

Housing providers providing housing to Asylum Seekers through the HomeOffice scheme have key responsibilities which include giving the new tenantan orientation of the local area, highlighting the location of the nearest postoffice, the nearest place of worship and the nearest health centre, GP anddentist.

Five families that have required support and all the unaccompanied minors

have not received an orientation of their local area from the housing providersand did not know the location of their local place of worship. They were notaware of the nearest GP, dentist or health centre. There is a need to establishwhy this support is not being provided and to develop strategies that willsupport the families and individuals concerned.

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Appendix 1

Examples of good practice in Manchester

A number of projects have produced a multi-agency approach in Manchester.On the 21st February 2007 the pilot project worker visited the Diversity andInclusion Team of Manchester City Council. A meeting was held, with JennyPatterson, and discussed the way in which the council had responded to theneeds of the community. The DIT is based in the East area of Manchesterwhere there is a high ethnic minority population. It was a milling and industrialarea in the past and has many hard to let properties. In the last five years thecouncil has had to respond to an influx of new arrivals. These have consistedof asylum seeking families, refugees, Gypsy and Rroma families, EasternEuropean families and other international migrants. Each year the councilplaces around 1000 children into school. The council has responded to the

needs of the community through a number of multi-agency projects that havesupported the work of the council.

The city is split into 6 districts, similar to the 5 wedges of Leeds, which havevarying ethnic minority populations. As in Leeds, certain areas have muchhigher ethnic minority populations and consequently have schools that haveexperience of working with these families. In particular the East area ofManchester has a very mixed ethnicity population. A number of agencieshave been established to meet the needs of the local community.

EDNAST (East District New Arrivals Support Team) works to enable refugee

and asylum seeking children and their families to fully access services that willsupport their successful transition and allow them to take up opportunities thatwill assist them building a positive new life.

Routes a voluntary organisation that provides support for international newarrivals in Manchester. It is funded by the Black Health Agency. The projectprovides initial support to newly arrived families with children aged between 5and 13, linking them with the support services they need. They provide thesefamilies with help in the following areas: practical and emotional support,education, benefits, housing, health, and asylum issues.

First Base this project has been running for 5 years and was originally setup to address the needs of 12 primary schools who work with asylum andrefugee children, particularly Somali children. The project provides an out ofschool programme all year and also runs summer schools.

Emotional and Trauma Support (ETS) The council was aware of a largenumber of asylum and refugee children showing signs of stress and trauma.Over the last 5 years the ETS team has developed a range of creativetherapies with support from qualified staff. ETS has strong links with Routesand First Base as well as EDNAST, with members of the teams working in

partnership.

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MARIM (Multi Agency for Refugee Integration in Manchester) MARIM is thelead agency on the Multi Agency forum which arose in recognition of the needto develop a coordinated response to the dispersal of asylum seekers intoManchester following the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999.

Many of the approaches observed in Manchester responded to the needs ofthe community. In Leeds the South of the city is seeing an increase in thenumber of international new arrivals including many economic migrants fromEurope. In Manchester the North West district is seeing a similardevelopment.

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Appendix 2

Referrals made to the LEAP project by schools in SouthLeeds.

5 referrals were to colleagues, at the LEAP project, that where highlighted tothe pilot project worker through relationships that were developed with IngramRoad Primary and Hugh Gaitskell Primary through participating in the SouthLeeds Wedge training day and meeting the representatives from differentprimary schools.

Having a professional relationship with teachers allows good communicationto be established and pathways for support to be requested and structured.More opportunities for the LEAP project to promote its work to schools willhelp to facilitate the referrals procedure. The use of e-mail facilitated

arranging appropriate support. Communicating directly with the head of yearor the EAL tutor helped the project workers to gain an understanding of thechilds needs and if they could offer support.

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Appendix 3

Diary of meetings 2006 / 2007

Friday 1st

December 2006

Myfanwy Franks The Childrens Society (Researcher)

Abdul Jalloh Education Leeds (Admissions and Transport NewArrivals)

Tuesday 5th December 2006

Dr James Simpson (University of Leeds)

Wednesday 21st February 2007

Jennie Patterson (Diversity and Inclusion, Manchester)

Monday 5th March 2007

CHIVA team

Tuesday 6th March 2007

Harjit Sandal and Hazel Williams One Stop Refugee Council

Friday 16th March 2007

Jane Sinson and Alison McCoy Educational Psychologists

Friday 22nd March

Gill Hall (Childrens Panel Refugee Council)

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Appendix 4

Contact with schools

Wednesday 22nd November 09:00@ Derek Fatchett Centre (NE CLC) with Andrew McGlen

Monday 27th November 10:00@ City of Leeds High School with Chris Cowley

Wednesday 29th November 11:00@ David Young Community Academy with Alan Bolton

Monday 4th December @ 11:00@ South Leeds High School with Denise Whitely

Monday 11th December @ 08:30@ Windmill Primary with Mrs C.Nix

Monday 11th December @ 11:00@ Primrose High School with Asif Ali

Thursday 18th January @ 14:15@ Parklands Girls High School with Mrs Newton Appleby

Tuesday 6th February @ 14:30@ New Bewerley Primary School with Kae Sinclaire and Jenny Millington(Ingram Road Primary)

Tuesday 27th February @ 10:00@ Roundhay Technology College with Gene Clennell

Access to Education for Refugee & Asylum Seeking Children 04

Documents

Transcript of Access to Education for Refugee & Asylum Seeking Children 04