Cllr Chris White, as lead LGA Lib Dem Group member on the LGA’s Refugee and Migration task group, has asked for the following information to be passed on:
I know that many of you have been waiting to find out precisely where your council stands when it comes to central government funding and support for the Syrian refugees you may be welcoming into your communities. The LGA and the Lib Dem Group have been pressing hard for the Government to confirm that councils will receive additional funding beyond the initial 12 months if they agree to take refugees through this scheme.
As a result of the negotiations, it can be confirmed that the Government has agreed that there will be funding beyond 12 months for each refugee within the scheme. We are now working with them on the detail of this. Government also understands the need for full funding to minimise any impact on local services. After detailed discussion, we have had confirmation that:
- In the expanded scheme, there will be additional funding for refugees beyond the first 12 months and we understand this will not be taken from the overall council allocation
- These arrangements will be applied to all cases since the 20,000 expansion was announced so councils which come forward early will not be disadvantaged
- Refugees arriving in the first months of this scheme are unlikely to include unaccompanied children. We are in separate discussions with the Home Office and DfE to develop a fairer national scheme for unaccompanied asylum seeking children
We know Government understands that there remain many details to resolve – both in funding and in process – and we are committed to helping get it right, from the point at which refugees are assessed to their resettlement and ongoing support. We have been sharing your detailed questions with Government and proposing a way forward. We are working with Government to ensure that the new scheme can meet the needs of more people more quickly whilst minimising the impact on local communities.
Many of you have also expressed concerns about the mechanics of resettling individuals with extensive health and social care needs and we have emphasised the importance of knowing who is arriving and when. Home Office officials are meeting with UNHCR to discuss this. We will continue to press the urgency of these matters, and for further clarity, on behalf of all councils.
In the short term, councils who wish to offer places to refugees have to do so under the existing scheme and can find out more information onour website here. The first 12 months of a Syrian refugee’s resettlement costs are already fully funded by central government using the overseas aid budget. We expect the evolving scheme will involve a simplified and faster funding mechanism to avoid the significant costs involved in negotiating for individual refugees as at the moment.
It is helpful that the Minister also recognises the huge amount of hard work which has already gone into settling not only Syrian refugees but other asylum seekers and migrants, and that councils need a great deal more detail to make firm commitments at the scale needed. We are pressing Government to establish a local government working group to get the detail of the scheme right, and we will continue to work with RSMPs to inform discussions with views from across regional, political and different tiers of local government.
The LGA will keep you and our website updated as we hear more and you can read the latest correspondence from Government here