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Social services departments across the UK are in contact with an estimated 23,000 children of asylum seekers and 6,000 unaccompanied minors, a new survey by the Association of Directors of Social Services reveals, writes Lauren Revans.

In the year to April 2001, this additional pressure on children’s services cost social services departments an estimated £87.5 million. Only a third of departments said the extra expenditure had been fully refunded by the government.

To cope with demand for asylum seeker children, a quarter of social services departments had commissioned additional social workers, additional in-house foster placements and more external foster placements. Almost half of the departments required additional interpreters, and more than a third needed the help of extra support and administrative staff.

The issue of asylum seeker children also took up "significant amounts of management time" in 43 per cent of departments. Just under a third of departments had created dedicated teams of social workers to meet the special circumstances, and 42 per cent had introduced additional staff training.

Earlier fears among directors of the potential for widespread abuse of these children seem at least partially founded, with the survey finding that nearly a quarter of authorities had recorded incidents of physical abuse, a quarter were aware of cases of neglect, and nearly 12 per cent reported cases of sexual abuse.

The survey, sent out to every social services and social work department in the UK in July and returned by half, also shows that levels of racist activity were high in some areas, although others were not aware of any racist incidents at all.

Overall, though, social services departments believed they were maintaining Children Act standards in respect of protecting asylum-seeking children – although a small proportion were not applying the act’s standards in respect of vetting adult carers.

* However, a separate report published this week by Save the Children into unaccompanied young asylum seekers and refugees describes the services and care provided for these vulnerable children as a "lottery".

The charity’s findings show that many of the 16 and 17-year-olds interviewed were placed alone in private accommodation with little or no monitoring and support, and that some private providers contracted to take responsibility for care and support provision are not adequately meeting the young people’s needs.

The report calls for more joined up thinking at government and local authority level, and specifically for the introduction of "minimum acceptable standards of care and service provision" for these young people and "adequate financial resources" to ensure these standards are met.

The ADSS welcomed the charity’s findings but stressed that many of the concerns were already being dealt with in consultation with the department of health and the home office, with guidance due out "very soon".

Peter Gilroy, ADSS asylum spokesperson and Kent council's director of social services, added: "There are excellent services that have been developed around the country, but there is – as the report highlights – difficulties regarding the status and services to some young people."

Copies of 'Cold Comfort' are available from 01752 202301.

www.savethechildren.org.uk