Agenda item

Cllr Conway welcomed and thanked the local VCFS for the care and support they have provided to those refugees and asylum seekers across the borough.

 Will Cooper, Deputy Head of Strategy and Engagement provided the Committee with the most recent progress of the schemes and noted that his team would be providing regular updates to the Committee on these schemes that Barnet are currently taking part in.

 Mr Cooper updated on the Homes for Ukraine scheme and noted that this scheme has been received enthusiastically by Barnet residents with approximately 480 people who have already arrived, and we currently have many sponsorship arrangements in place.  The scheme is approaching the halfway point and the team will begin to check in with those who have come over to see how they are getting on in their initial placement. The team have been granted powers to re-match people if the initial match has broken down however on the whole he noted that lots of funded community support has been given to all involved some of which includes English lessons, DWP support and coffee mornings for Ukrainians. More new people are joining the scheme week on week at the rate of approximately 10 – 20.

Mr Cooper continued that it has been a complicated system to set up due to the urgency of setting it up including lots of Council departments cross working to ensure these people are safely placed in borough however the team are now looking to move this scheme into a business-as-usual situation.

Cllr Stock asked why Barnet has more hotels providing temporary accommodation for asylum seekers than other boroughs . Mr Cooper advised that his was raised with the Home Office however there was no particular reason for this and is dependant on what is available and what arrangements are made between the hotel organisation and the Home Office.

Cllr Sargeant asked in relation to the resourcing of the team and if any more resource is needed to continue the success of the work. Mr Cooper informed that the level of resource within the team is currently sufficient following specific funding from the government for supporting Ukrainian resettlement.

Cllr Sargeant asked if there is anything urgent that members should be made aware of relating to any of the current schemes however Mr Cooper noted that despite there always being risks, generally all schemes are progressing well.

Cllr K Gurung asked about the capacity in hotels and the allocation of accommodation. Mr Cooper informed that he could not be sure of the total number of capacity in hotels in Barnet is however out of the 900 who are currently residing in these if they were all granted leave to remain status they generally would not stay in Barnet.

Cllr L Gurung noted that 186 of these who have resettled are aged under 18 and asked about schooling for these children. Mr Cooper confirmed that many of them have already started at local schools and fortunately Barnet has capacity to be able to accommodate these children.

Cllr Grocock asked for clarity within section 1.34 of the report and asked if these individuals are accompanied or unaccompanied and asked if their ages have been verified. Mr Cooper confirmed that most of them are in families therefore are accompanied however there are some who are unaccompanied.  Mr Cooper continued that there is a special team to work with these individuals to identify the truth behind their ages and a number of live age assessments are being and continue to be carried out to confirm these. 

Cllr Conway noted that is week is Refugee week and an event would be taking place in Montrose Park over the weekend (25^th & 26^th June 2022) and that refugees and asylum seekers are included to join in the event.

Cllr Radford asked where information on community support and language support can be found. Mr Cooper advised that the Barnet Council website has a dedicated web page holding all this information on, however it may not be completely up to date currently.

RESOLVED: that the Committee:

Noted the contents of the report and the breadth to of work the team are doing to support several resettlement schemes and sizeable population of people coming to the borough as a result of these schemes.

Both Cllr Conway and Cllr Sargeant thanked officers for their commitment and effort on this piece of work