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Concerns grow over centres for asylum seekers in wake of reforms

While the abolition of vouchers and the dispersal system has been applauded, hard questions are now being asked about their replacements. Lauren Revans reports.

Asylum, migration, citizenship and humble pie were on the House of Commons' agenda last week when home secretary David Blunkett finally admitted the failings of the government's current asylum policy and outlined his plans to "fundamentally overhaul" it.

To cheers from MPs on both sides of the House, Blunkett publicly acknowledged that the current system had suffered "real problems".

"It is too slow, vulnerable to fraud, and felt to be unfair by both asylum seekers and local communities," he confessed. "That is why today I do not intend to tinker with the existing system but bring about radical and fundamental reform."

First in the firing line is the much-criticised voucher scheme, introduced for asylum seekers in April 2000 in place of social security benefits as part of the government's new centrally administered national asylum support scheme.

Campaign groups and welfare organisations were calling for the scheme to be aborted before its introduction, and in October 2000 Blunkett's predecessor Jack Straw promised a review of the unpopular system. The review's findings, finally published last week, highlight key concerns about the scheme's operation including the availability of accurate information for asylum seekers in a language they can understand, the failure of shops to operate the scheme correctly, and administrative and operational problems resulting in a poor service by the National Asylum Seeker Service (Nass) to asylum seekers.

There are also allegations of vouchers stigmatising asylum seekers, and concerns about both the level of support - 70 per cent of income support - and the impact of the "no change" rule.

Last week, much to the delight of all campaigners, Blunkett agreed that the vouchers must go. To the disappointment of many, however, Blunkett added that this change would not take immediate effect. Instead, the vouchers will be given an 11-month reprieve before being superseded by a "more robust but less socially divisive scheme" of ID smart cards by next September.

"The government's decision to abolish vouchers is both morally right and politically inevitable," argues Rebecca Hickman, political adviser for children's charity Save the Children. "However, it is completely unacceptable that the voucher system should be allowed to continue for any length of time, consigning more children to poverty, supported by a degrading system."

Blunkett confirmed that the government was exploring the potential for "automated credit transfer and other mechanisms to provide financial support for asylum seekers", but was warned against exchanging "the paper voucher for a plastic voucher" and against introducing any system that could exacerbate the problems asylum seekers already face in accessing basic services.

In the meantime, the government will increase the cash element of support received by asylum seekers from £10 to £14 per week to make it easier to make up the exact value of a shopping bill and to increase the scope for increased access to goods unavailable with vouchers. The value of voucher support will also be uprated in line with the April 2001 increases in income support, although will remain at 70 per cent.

According to the Refugee Council, Blunkett's statement raises as many questions as it answers. Nowhere is this clearer than in relation to the planned "national network of induction, accommodation and removal centres".

While responses to the notion of short-stay induction centres for new applicants have been largely favour-able, the government will have a much harder job convincing campaigners that accommodation centres are the answer to current dispersal scheme problems highlighted in Blunkett's dispersal review findings, also published last week.

Key questions which will determine the acceptance of accommodation centres focus around the amount of time asylum seekers will spend in them, how far from the nearest town they will be built, how large they will be, and what "clear criteria for allocating places" will be used as long as there are insufficient places for all.

While acknowledging the potential benefits of being able to access basic services, legal advice and interpreters under one roof, the Refugee Council is still concerned: "If asylum seekers are there too long, you run the risk of institutionalising them and taking away their independence," a spokesperson warns. "Even if they are free to go in and out, if the centres are in the middle of nowhere, where will they go? That is not going to help integration."

The Treasury has promised £250m of new money to build the centres, and work on the first four - each with around 750 places - will begin immediately, with a proportion of new asylum seekers to be offered a place by the end of 2002.

Chartered Institute of Housing policy officer Sam Lister remains sceptical: "The problem with vouchers is that they restrict people's choices. If asylum seekers are going to be put into hostel accommodation they are going to be getting support in kind. That restricts their choice even more.

"In all other aspects of social assistance, we are moving away from institutionalised care, to care in the community. There is no reason why asylum seekers should be picked out for different treatment."

For Jill Roberts, director of asylum advice for charity Refugee Action, the most worrying part of the government's plans is the proposal to "streamline" asylum seekers' appeal rights, limiting them to a point of law. This will eliminate appeals on a point of fact, making it even more essential for asylum seekers to have access to assistance and legal advice at the earliest possible stage. Almost a fifth of applications currently fall at the first hurdle, rejected on the grounds of "non-compliance" because of an error or omission in their 90-page application form that they must complete within 10 days of their arrival.

"If they are going to speed up the system, then it has to be much more accurate from the first instance," Roberts says. "Asylum seekers will need legal representation from the beginning because their rights to appeal are going to be curtailed."

Key recommendations of the dispersal review include returning to the original policy of clustering asylum seekers in dispersal areas on the basis of language, ensuring they are properly briefed, improving consultation and involvement of local authorities and other local agencies, and having a better regional structure for Nass - all of which have been warmly welcomed.

Whether the government would be wiser to focus more of their energies on such improvements to the current dispersal system - which even its critics admit is successful in some areas - before embarking on a new centre-led scheme remains to be seen. But one thing is certain: the UK's asylum seeker system is not about to get any simpler.

"With these latest proposals, we will have potentially four different systems working at once," a Refugee Council spokesperson warns. "That's going to be very confusing."

Key proposals for reform

- ID smart cards will replace the standard acknowledgement letter and supersede vouchers; intended to guarantee identification and tackle fraud.

-Vouchers Cash element to be increased to £14 and total face value to be uprated in line with April 2001 income support increases; to be phased out by September 2002.

- Induction centres to be built in areas where most asylum applications are lodged (for example, Croydon and Heathrow) to accommodate new arrivals for two to 10 days to facilitate screening, health checks and identification procedures.

- Reporting centres All applicants will be required to report throughout the process; intended to introduce more rigorous control and improve contact with asylum seekers.

- Accommodation centres will offer full board, lodging, basic education and health facilities, legal advice and interpretation; four centres with a total 3,000 places to be built by the end of next year to trial the scheme.

- Removal centres Number of detention places will be increased from 1,900 to 4,000, with the opening of new secure removal centres; intended to end use of mainstream prison places.

- Dispersal system Reverting to the policy of dispersal to language cluster areas; more consultation with local authorities and other agencies; improvements to Nass.

- Appeals to be streamlined and scope for delays reduced; capacity of adjudication service to be increased by 50 per cent.

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How overseas volunteering could be a major motivator for staff

Staff retention and training could be improved if councils were to be more flexible in their treatment of staff wanting to volunteer overseas. Katie Leason reports.

Offering employees the chance to volunteer abroad could be a key retention tool for local authorities according to new research.

Human Traffic, a Voluntary Service Overseas and Demos report to be published next week, suggests that the public sector could be missing out on a vital retention method at a time when it is desperate to keep hold of staff.

The report says that the public sector fails to recognise the value of skills developed when people volunteer abroad, with staff finding it hard to re-enter the workforce or being demoted as a result of spending time as international volunteers.

Researchers, who surveyed a range of staff including social workers and health care personnel, found that the public sector's work practices discouraged employees from pursuing personal and professional development abroad. While senior managers in the public sector endorsed international volunteering from a moral viewpoint, middle managers were less in favour, mainly due to their workload. Generally managers did not view volunteering as "real work".

"The public sector has greater sympathy for international volunteering than the private sector but its bureaucracy makes it less able to take what volunteering has to offer," says director of communications for VSO Matthew Bell. He adds that the type of person who chooses to participate in VSO, combined with the skills they acquire during their placement, make international volunteers ideal candidates to energise public services.

The report shows an emerging trend of partnerships between private companies and volunteer organisations, where employees become eligible to take up voluntary placements abroad after working for a certain period. Introducing a similar process in the public sector could attract candidates and help with the recruitment crisis.

"Most young professionals want to build an international dimension into their careers. If we are trying to recruit graduates into the public sector then we have to offer them what they aspire to have," says Bell.

The report recommends that the public sector examine career trends and acknowledges that people want time to do different things.

Hilary Simon, vice chairperson of the Association of Directors of Social Services human resources and training committee, says that most local authorities should be able to guarantee valued employees an equivalent post on their return from international volunteering. "Anything that helps us to retain good staff is something that authorities should give serious consideration to," she says.

Director of the British Association of Social Workers Ian Johnston claims that some local authorities are being short-sighted in their attitude towards international volunteering. "People come back like a breath of fresh air. I'd have thought employers should be bending over backwards to encourage it," he says. cc

- Human Traffic by VSO and Demos will be launched at the House of Commons on 15 November. For more information contact 020 8780 7292 or go to websites www.vso.org.uk/media/demos.htm  or www.demos.co.uk/provolanteers.htm 

No chance of unpaid leave or secondment...

Social worker Glenn Mower went to Belize on a VSO placement hoping it would boost his professional and personal development.

Before he left, his council employer told him that there was no chance of unpaid leave or secondment, that his terms and conditions would not be guaranteed, and on his return he would only qualify for a starting salary.

In Belize, Mower worked as a university social work lecturer and spent time counselling couples and training staff in an older people's home.

"All my work time and much of my leisure time was focused on social work," he said.

Since his return to England in April, he has been unsuccessful in finding a permanent social worker position. "I went after one job but they told me it would take eight years to reach my previous position."

Mower believes that councils do not take volunteering seriously as a method of career development. "VSO is about people sharing their skills. I am not sure that local authorities realise that the job you go to is social work specific."