FINAL REPORT
CAMPUS SERVICE REVIEW
REPORT
September 2008
CONTENT
Page No.Executive Summary / 2
Summary of Recommendations / 3
1.0 / Introduction
1.1 Legislative Context
1.2 Profile of UASC in Glasgow / 4
2.0 / Campus Service Review
2.1 Aims and Objectives of the Review
2.2 Scope of the Review and Membership the Review Team
2.3 Review Methodology / 8
3.0 / Background to the Service
3.1 Aims and Objectives of the Service / 10
4.0 / Strategic Relevance
4.1 Children and Families Strategic Needs
4.2 Strategic Priorities
4.3 Service Model
4.4 Meeting Strategic Priorities / 11
5.0 / Demand for the Service
5.1 Capacity and Referral Routes
5.2 Referrals and Admissions
5.3 Occupancy Levels
5.4 Care Planning, Support and Outcomes for Young People
5.5 Transitions Support / 15
6.0 / Quality and Effectiveness
6.1 Standards and Performance
6.2 Service User Consultation
6.3 Stakeholder Consultation / 21
7.0 / Financial Framework
7.1 Funding
7.2 Cost of the Service
7.3 Unit Cost Analysis
7.4 Income / Expenditure
7.5 Comparison with Other Services / 26
8.0 / Provider Capacity / 29
9.0 / Compliance with Social Work Services 8 Core Service Objectives
9.1 Provider’s Self Assessment – Action Plan / 30
10.0 / Conclusions / 32
11.0 / Recommendations and Service Review Action Plan
11.1 Service based Action Plan
11.2 Strategy based Action Plan / 34
12.0 / Appendices
12.1 Consultation - Analysis of Responses
12.2 Operational Management Agreement / 39
Executive Summary
This Service Review Report provides an analysis and evaluation of the effectiveness of the Campus service in meeting the needs of Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Children and Young People (UASC), arriving in Glasgow. The Review, aimed to:
· Assess service effectiveness in meeting the original aims and objectives;
· Evaluate service effectiveness in flexibly meeting the needs of UASC;
· Review strategic relevance as a consequence of changing trends and needs;
· Identify gaps in service provision for use in informing the future development of a strategic plan for responding to the needs of UASC;
· Make recommendations in relation to the future model of service delivery on the basis of the above.
Using an evidence based approach, including desktop data analysis, consultation with a range of stakeholders including service users and a Self Assessment completed by the service provider the review findings can be summarised as follows:
The service has been effective in meeting the needs of those young male asylum seekers aged 16 – 18 years, referred to the service and, has been received positively by these young people. Young people feel safe within the service and view the support provided by both Campus staff and Social Work Services Asylum Assessment Team (AAT) very positively. All young people using the service engage positively with educational opportunities offered, particularly in relation to English language skills.
The service has shown significant capacity to respond flexibly to changing needs and trends amongst this group of young people and, has developed robust community infrastructures, particularly in the area of access to further education and health services for young people and, works effectively with Social Work Services. There is clear evidence that the service networks effectively with other organisations and works positively in partnership with the Social Work Services AAT.
Where young people have been granted leave to remain in this country significant difficulties exist in securing appropriate move-on accommodation and whilst recent progress has been made in this area this remains an issue of concern.
The Campus service is limited in its capacity to respond to the range of more intensive support needs which are known to exist amongst the wider population of UASC and therefore needs to be viewed in the context of the need to develop a wider range / infrastructure of services to meet the additional needs of these children and young people.
It would be difficult to meet the needs of young women within the Campus service. Safeguarding concerns relating to a mixed gender population and degree of vulnerability shown by young women indicates other gender-specific services would better meet their needs. A number of young women presenting in Glasgow are victims of multiple rape, are pregnant and are often traumatised, a growing number have been trafficked illegally to the city. Some of the young male Campus residents’ cultural attitudes towards female workers suggest this environment would be difficult for young women.
The introduction of the New Asylum Model (NAM) will result in quicker decisions regarding legal status and an anticipated increase in the number of young people being returned to their country of origin. This in turn will require all services supporting asylum seeking children and young people to be more flexible in their approach and tailor services to meet the changing circumstances of their needs e.g. stays of shorter duration in this country etc.
The Campus service is considered to offer significant value for money, when compared to other alternative accommodation-based services available in the City. This in the main has been due to the economies of scale afforded by the size of the service and number of available places linked to staff ratios and unit costs that are unavailable to other service providers. Furthermore, the service has been successful in preventing young people being placed in more expensive, less appropriate, resources.
The Review Team concluded, based on the all of the evidence available, that the service model remains strategically relevant and important in relation to providing responsive accommodation and social care supports to UASC in Glasgow.
Recommendations
The findings of the Review Team resulted in a number of recommendations being made in the form of an Action Plan which is included with this document. These include a range of actions to be addressed in the following operational, service based areas: -
1. The current referral criteria and Operational Responsibilities protocol for the service should be updated to more accurately reflect existing practice.
2. The current care management, care planning and support arrangements for the service should be reviewed in line with the requirements of Social Work Services for these areas.
3. The current arrangements for monitoring the existing protocol to assist young people to move on from the service should continue to assess their effectiveness.
4. The service should develop / improve internal processes and procedures in relation to service improvement, consultation, complaints and incidents.
5. The service should review methods of communication with young people to ensure that these are responsive to the language and cultural needs of young people accessing the service.
In addition, the Review Team recommends the following action in relation to strategic planning priorities for this service user group:
1. The development of a Commissioning Strategy to address the wider needs of UASC arriving in Glasgow to include, discrete services for vulnerable young women, specialist assessment services, specialist mental health services, discrete services for young people aged under 16 years and an expansion of existing accommodation based services, including accommodation based outreach support.
2. Ongoing monitoring, at a Citywide level of service demand / turnover in light of the introduction of the New Asylum Model.
1.0 INTRODUCTION
The Campus service for Young Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Young People was established early in 2005 in response the the growing number of Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Children and Young People (UASC) who were presenting in Glasgow.
The service provides accommodation and 24 hour support for up to 30 young people aged between the ages of 16 and 18 years. The service was developed as a low support (foyer) service for young people and the day to day support provision is provided, through a contractual arrangement with Glasgow City Council Social Work Services, by The Mungo Foundation.
The review of the Campus service has been undertaken in line with the requirements of the Home Office Grant which was made available to facilitate support provision within the service from 1st April 2005 – 31st September 2008 and is in compliance with Glasgow City Council Social Work Services Contract Management Framework for purchased social care services.
This Review Report will set out the legislative and policy context in which the service was developed and describe the profile of UASC in Glasgow over the last two years.
The Report will also outline the development of the Campus service, provide an assessment of the effectiveness of the service, identify key areas for improvement and recommend future action required to further develop the service, taking account of current trends and service developments available to UASC in Glasgow.
1.1 Legislative Context
1.1.1 Children (Scotland) Act 1995
Children are defined in the Children (Scotland) Act 1995 (CSA 1995) as, unless otherwise defined, persons under 18 years of age. Asylum seekers under the age of 18 therefore come within the definition and are eligible for support under the CSA 1995.
UASC meet a number of legislative criteria that would require local authorities to provide care and support, primarily Section 25 of the CSA 1995 which states that “the local authority shall provide accommodation for children where no one has parental responsibility for them”. Asylum seeking children who are Looked After and Accommodated under the terms of the CSA 1995 are also considered eligible for support provided to all children and young people leaving care. The Protection of Children (Scotland) Act 2003 also offers a degree of care and protection for children and young people deemed to be at risk of harm.
1.1.2 Immigration Legislation
In addition to primary Scottish legislation UASC are subject to national legislative requirements.
The definition, for immigration purposes, of an unaccompanied asylum seeking child is given by the United Kingdom Borders and Immigration Agency (BIA) as:
"a person under 18 years of age or who, in the absence of documentary evidence establishing age, appears to be under that age" who "is applying for asylum in their own right; and is separated from both parents and not being cared for by an adult who by law or custom has responsibility to do so"
Since May 2002, the Central Government and the Home Office had been considering proposals that would result in UASC being dispersed throughout Britain, resulting in significant resource implications in terms of responding to the needs of an increasing number of UASC requiring access to Council services.
This process culminated in February 2007 with the publication of the Home Office Immigration and Nationality Directorate (IND) Consultation Paper entitled “Planning Better Outcomes and Support for Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Children” which proposed fundamental reform of the way that UASC are supported and managed.
This document was superceded in January 2008 with the publication of “Planning Better Outcomes: The Way Forward, Improving the Care of Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Children” which set out the Home Office vision of how these reforms would be taken forward.
The Home Office BIA approach will be focussed around the following 5 Key Reforms:
i. Ensuring that BIA, in exercising its functions, keeps children safe from harm while they are in the United Kingdom.
ii. Putting in place better procedures for identifying and supporting UASC who are the victims of trafficking.
iii. Locating UASC within specialist local authorities to ensure they receive the services they need.
iv. Putting in place better procedures to assess age in order to ensure children and adults are not accommodated together.
v. Resolving immigration status more quickly and, in turn, enabling care planning to focus on integration or early return to the country of origin.
These reforms raise a number of concerns for Local Authorities, which have been echoed during the Campus Service Review consultation as follows: -
· The decision-making process in relation to asylum claims will be quicker, limiting the amount of time available to services to work meaningfully with young people;
· Shorter lengths of stay within services may mean that young people would lose their motivation to participate in e.g. educational opportunities;
· Some services may experience a significant increase in the number of young people being refused asylum;
· Staff may be insufficiently prepared to support young people to prepare for return to their country of origin as, there has been limited experience, to date, of this occurring within the service. This therefore may be an additional training requirement for staff.
· Increased throughput of young people would create difficulties within some services, in day-to-day management of the service. In particular there are concerns that some services may lack the necessary resources to keep young people safe and provide the level of emotional support which may be required.
· The nature of current refugee support services may also require changes to better support the needs of UASC. At present the average stay in Campus is approximately 13 months. Under the new system young people will move through services more quickly, either as refugees or as returnees to their country of origin. Services supporting refugees are currently not experienced in dealing with previous UASC who, under the new system, will have little opportunity to acclimatise to their new country prior to moving through services.
In these circumstances services will be dealing with young people with very limited English language skills and understanding, and little opportunity within the timescales available to engage with language classes.
1.2 Profile of UASC in Glasgow
The section provides an overview of the profile of UASC presenting in Glasgow since the beginning of September 2005 and includes information on numbers, gender, age, country of origin of young people and placement on arrival.
a) No. / Gender of Young People 01 / 09 / 05 – 20 / 05 / 08
Total UASC / Male / Female1/9/05-1/4/06 / 28 / 18 / 10
1/4/06-1/4/07 / 57 / 31 / 26
1/4/07-1/4/08 / 73 / 44 / 29
1/4/08 - 20/5/08 / 5 / 3 / 2
TOTAL / 163 / 96 / 67
Table a) above illustrates the total number of young people arriving in Glasgow and, the gender balance of young people. A total of 163 young people presented in the City during the period 01 / 09 / 05 – 20 / 05 / 08, and of these 96 (approximately 59%) of new arrivals in the City were young men and 67 were young women.