EXCLUSIVE: UK Border Agency has agreed to negotiate how costs
shortfall will be met
Government plans to disperse unaccompanied asylum
seeking-children out to a small number of "specialist" authorities,
easing pressure on London and the South East, could be
significantly delayed, it has been claimed.
Under
reforms published in January, the UK Border Agency planned to
begin negotiations in the spring, and have the first authorities
running by this autumn. Solihull, Liverpool, Cardiff, Glasgow and
Leeds began talks with UKBA over the scheme but concerns over
funding have stalled progress.
Solihull chief executive Mark Rogers told Community
Care this week he did not expect the scheme to be fully
implemented until April 2010, following a period of piloting.
In April, the 10 councils looking after the majority of
asylum-seeking children, including Solihull and Liverpool, went to
the House of Lords claiming the government owed millions of pounds
in unmet costs.
The move came after
council leaders warned that specialist authorities must be properly
funded, including the cost of continuing to care for youngsters
until age 21.
In February, Stuart Smith, director of children's services at
Liverpool Council, claimed
the Home Office had tried to "bribe" it into becoming a specialist
authority by promising to meet outstanding costs .
Following the councils' claims, the UK Border Agency has agreed
to negotiate how shortfalls will be met.
Rogers backed the specialist authority reform in principle, he
added: "There has been a fairly protracted period of negotiation
over retrospective settlements. Until councils get them they won't
re-engage with the reform programme - it's a case of quid pro
quo."
In a letter to all council chief executives outside London and
the South East seen by Community Care, the UK Border
Agency said it now "wanted to make progress on the establishment of
specialist authorities", starting with meetings with councils in
mid-October.
The letter, on 28 August, from Brian Kinney, the director of the
UASC reform programme, said UKBA hoped the agreement on the issue
of prior claims "has gone some way to mitigating the main concern
local authorities had about becoming involved," referring to
funding for children over the age of 18.
But when contacted by Community Care, Liverpool,
Cardiff, Glasgow and Leeds said they were still in talks over the
specialist authority scheme and that nothing had been decided.
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