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The government's asylum bill proposes changes to the way asylum-seeking children are educated. Anabel Unity Sale reports on the disquiet inside and outside parliament.

Home secretary David Blunkett is facing a testing time. He is trying to steer his controversial Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Bill through Parliament.

Last Wednesday, the new asylum bill made it through its third reading in the House of Commons, with 362 votes for and 74 votes against.

Neil Gerrard was one of the 13 Labour MPs who defied the government. The MP for Walthamstow, east London, told the commons he would not vote for the bill because "much of the asylum legislation is unnecessary and some of it is bad".

Annabelle Ewing, Labour MP for Perth in Scotland, told the commons the government should be "thoroughly ashamed" of itself for pursing a policy that involved the detention of children in accommodation centres.

Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesperson Simon Hughes MP echoed their views. He said children should not be "imprisoned" and that everyone had the right to freedom outside of such centres unless there was good reason for their detention.

One of the bill's more controversial proposals that has met with opposition from children's and refugee charities and MPs alike concerns the education of asylum-seeking children.

Under clauses 31 and 32 of the bill, asylum-seeking children living in accommodation centres would no longer be covered by key provisions of the Education Act 1944.

One of the 1944 Act's founding principles is that school-based education should be universally available. If the government gets its way with the asylum bill, asylum-seeking children living with their families in accommodation centres would no longer attend mainstream schools but be educated in the centres.

Aware of the negative response the clauses have evoked, Blunkett conceded last week that children would only be educated in accommodation centres for a maximum of six months, after which time they will be educated in mainstream schools.

This, however, may not be quite the goodwill gesture it appears. A Home Office spokesperson confirmed last week that the government plans to reduce the length of time it takes to process asylum applications from people in accommodation centres to six months, which would fit with Blunkett's "concession". However, if the faster application times fail to materialise, it may be entirely possible that after the six-month deadline children will still live in accommodation centres with their families while attending outside schools.

A report from the Children's Society, Save the Children and the Refugee Council published after the bill's third reading argues that educating refugee and asylum-seeking children in mainstream schools is their best chance of integrating them successfully into society. "Mainstream school is the ideal starting point to enable these children to rebuild their lives, while also enhancing the genuine inclusion of all children and their families into the local community and mainstream society," it says.

The research, finds that of the 118 young refugees and asylum-seeking children surveyed - including 90 unaccompanied children - 27 were in further education, 19 were in mainstream school, eight attended English language classes and eight were in alternative educational placements. Another 21 were waiting for a school or college place and eight could not apply for an educational place because they were in detention centres.

A key problem for these children, according to the report, is the length of time they have to wait for an appropriate educational placement. Twenty-five had to wait more than 20 days and some waited for six months or more.

The report recommends all refugee and asylum-seeking children be provided with a place in a mainstream school within 20 days of requesting one, in line with the legal requirement for looked-after children.

Access to education is not the only difficulty facing refugee and asylum-seeking children. Worryingly, the report finds that some of the 77 unaccompanied children being supported by social services have difficult relationships with social services staff or the quality of the service they receive or both. Some report not knowing the name of their social worker or having trouble contacting them.

Unaccompanied children also have problems in accessing health services. Of the 118 young people surveyed, 36 - all of whom were unaccompanied minors - were not registered with a GP.

Judith Dennis, report author and policy adviser for unaccompanied children at the Refugee Council, believes greater communication is needed between all agencies working with refugee children, and particularly social services and doctors.

She believes that making asylum seekers live separately, and educating their children separately, goes against the government's wider agenda of greater community cohesion.

Educating children in mainstream schools not only helps them adjust to their new home, but also benefits their family, she adds. "Families are more likely to come together, regardless of their nationality, through their children. When children play and learn together, families mix and get to know people in their area."

Patricia Durr, social policy officer for the Children's Society, says the value of social interaction with their peers in a school environment is missed if they are educated in accommodation centres. She would prefer to see "smaller-scale community based accommodation for families" rather than the government's proposed one-stop-shop accommodation centres, with all asylum-seeker services provided on-site.

Alison Fenney, head of policy at the Refugee Council, believes the government's motivation is far more sinister than wanting to provide asylum seekers with a holistic service. "It will be easier to remove people from an accommodation centre logistically because they know where they are and because emotional attachments have not been formed between asylum seekers and the local communities," Fenney argues.

She believes the new asylum bill is based on dealing with the people whose asylum claims will be rejected, and not on those whose applications will be approved.

The government has also angered charities with an amendment announced just before the bill's third reading in the commons that would see asylum seekers with citizenship or refugee status in other European Union states unable to claim support from UK local councils.

Fenney says the new amendment is based on the government's unfounded fear that people claim refugee status in the UK to access our benefits. "People who already have refugee status come to the UK because of family or community ties. The idea that they are 'benefit shopping' is being spun by the government as if it is a big issue when it simply is not."

Barnardo's parliamentary officer Pat Thompson believes removing access to benefits for asylum seekers would "cause real financial hardship" and lead to destitution.

In the House of Commons, plans by 30 Labour backbenchers to debate their opposition to the proposal to educate asylum-seeking children in accommodation centres were thwarted by the government's refusal to make time available. Now the only opportunity for any changes to that and any other part of the bill is during the second reading of the bill in the House of Lords, expected to take place on 24 June.

Although no deadline has been announced for the bill to receive the Royal Assent, it is expected it will get it by the end of the parliamentary session in July, otherwise the government will have to start the process all over again. With feelings running high over the bill's more contentious elements, it is unlikely that the government will want the bill to go the way of the Homes Bill, which ran out of time and had to be resurrected as the Homelessness Bill.

During its third reading, shadow home secretary Oliver Letwin described the bill as "a curate's egg - it has some good and bad bits". It is now up to the House of Lords to decide which is which.

- A Case for Change; How Refugee Children are Missing Out from 020 7639 1466 or go to www.childrenssociety.org.uk or try www.refugeecouncil.org.uk/