Why do we need NOREAM?
There are an estimated 215,000 undocumented migrant children living in the UK, including both refused asylum seekers and people who have overstayed the length of their visa, as well as a small number of clandestine entrants. All of these children are subject to the no recourse to public funds (NRPF) rule. There are also 100,000 children in families with temporary leave to remain who also have NRPF. Recent data from the Home Office over the COVID-19 pandemic reveals that applications for suspensions of the NRPF condition increased eight-fold between the first and second quarters of 2020, suggesting an increase in destitution among this group of people during the pandemic.
Children with NRPF are disproportionately from BAME communities, most commonly from the Caribbean, the Indian subcontinent and West Africa and face exclusion from most welfare services. One of the few statutory entitlements for children with NRPF is Section 17 support under the Children Act (1989) -supporting people with NRPF costs local authorities an estimated £25 million a year in London alone. However, there is no statutory guidance about working with children with NRPF, and little research evidence on good social work practice to safeguard the welfare of children with NRPF.
In the absence of a robust evidence base, social work practice with families who have NRPF can sometimes become defensive and focused on gatekeeping, or on immigration status rather than child welfare. Section 17 support can be hard for families to access, subsistence support too low, and housing of a poor standard.
The tragic death of two year old Lynne Mutumba and her Mother Lillian Oluk while being supported under section 17 illustrate the ways that families with NRPF can slip through the welfare safety net, and the ways in which the current system is inadequate to prevent harm to children.
NOREAM is a way of working with children and families with NRPF to improve outcomes for children who are subject to immigration control. This will be achieved in two interlinked ways: First, by reorienting local authority NRPF services to apply the principles of early intervention to an NRPF setting, and supporting people to resolve problems before they become crises which meet the threshold for assessment under Section 17 of the Children Act. Second, the project aims to take a whole systems approach, by developing cross-directorate and interagency strategies, which support families across the life course, and instituting multi-professional case consultations. These conferences will use specialist knowledge s to resolve complex cases for families with NRPF where the existing legislative framework does not protect children with a precarious migration status, using a structural understanding of neglect.
Families who do not meet the threshold for section 17 of the Children Act (1989) currently do not receive local authority support. However, evidence suggests that many families who are initially refused support later receive section 17 support from the local authority when their situation has deteriorated to a crisis point. By identifying issues earlier and providing a targeted intervention, the programme will prevent families needing more intensive support later and improve outcomes for children and families.