'At first it was very difficult for me living alone in a foreign country and not knowing where my family is. But day by day life has got easier. When I started school and learnt English I started to make new friends.'

Who are unaccompanied children?

The UN defines unaccompanied children as ‘those who are separated from both parents and are not being cared for by an adult who, by law or custom, has responsibility to do so’.

Unaccompanied children include:

• those who enter the UK and apply for asylum. These children are usually known to social services departments. Since 1997 the main groups of unaccompanied asylum-seeking children have been from Kosovo, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Somalia, Iraq and Turkey
• children who stay with relatives or family friends as a private fostering arrangement. In many cases social services departments and schools do not know about the care arrangements for this group
• children who arrive in the UK with family or other usual carers but whose care arrangements break down after arrival. Many unaccompanied children have parents who are still alive, although in some cases contact with them is negligible.

Teachers may find themselves in the role of a significant adult in the life of an unaccompanied child in terms of advice and authority, praise for achievement and careers advice. This role may necessitate time and patience and may require teachers to step outside their initial educational role.

How are unaccompanied children cared for?

Unaccompanied children who have no informal (private) care arrangements and are assessed by a social services department to be in need are cared for by a social services department under the provisions of the Children Act 1989.

A social services department has two care options available.

• After assessment the child may be formally ‘looked after’ or ‘accommodated’ under the provisions of Section 20 of the Children Act 1989. A looked-after child will have a named social worker and clear legal entitlements to things such as a care plan, an independent visitor and support after he or she leaves care. Children cared for under Section 20 of the Children Act 1989 also have educational entitlements.
• A child or young person may be supported under the provisions of Section 17 of the Children Act 1989. Here a social services department assesses the child and concludes that he or she requires support services such as accommodation.

After assessment a social services department may decide to:

• place the child with relatives or in other informal care arrangements
• place the child with foster carers
• place the child in a residential home
• place the child in supported local authority accommodation. Some older unaccompanied children are provided with their own housing but supported by a visiting social worker
• place the child in a hostel or a hotel. Recent studies (Stanley, 2002; Munoz, 1999) suggest that the majority of 16- and 17-year-old unaccompanied asylum-seeking and refugee children are supported under Section 17 of the Children Act. Other young asylum seekers are placed in bed and breakfast hotels, are supported by vouchers and may not have a named social worker.

Educational entitlements

Local authority circular LAC 13: Guidance on the education of children and young people in public care (2000) asks local authorities to take a number of actions including:

• ensuring all children in the care of the authority have a personal education plan (PEP)
• establishing and maintaining a protocol for sharing data about the care and education of children in the authority
• ensuring that, except where a child is placed in an emergency, arrangement of a suitable placement should include arrangement of suitable education, and that no placement should be made without the education element being satisfactorily sorted. Where the placement has had to be made in an emergency and education has not been secured, or where education provision breaks down, then local authorities must secure an education placement within twenty school days.

Guidance on the education of children and young people in public care (2000) published at the same time as the circular recommends that schools designate a teacher to act as a resource and an advocate for children and young people in public care. The guidance and the local authority circular are both available from the Department of Health website.

The 2003 DCSF code of practice on school admissions also recommends that children cared for under Section 20 of the Children Act 1989 receive priority when placed on the waiting lists of over-subscribed schools.

The teacher’s role in supporting unaccompanied children

Practical strategies that schools can adopt to support unaccompanied children include the following.

The designated teacher

Many unaccompanied children are eager to learn, and often develop trusting relationships with their teachers. This can mean that teachers and lecturers are often the first outsiders to know when care arrangements are going wrong. Such problems may include the breakdown of informal and formal foster placements or unsuitable hostel accommodation. As mentioned above, all schools will have a designated teacher for looked-after children who should know of all unaccompanied children within the school. They can act as an advocate for young people in care, accessing services and support and ensuring the school shares and supports high expectations for them.

Making links

All schools are required to have a teacher with designated responsibility for child protection and contact with social services. This teacher also needs to:

• develop good links with the teacher who has responsibility for the education of looked-after children
• develop good links with the lead officers for the education of children in public care within local authorities. These are often within a specific multidisciplinary team which can include teachers, social workers, educational psychologists etc
• make links with other sources of support for unaccompanied children such as the Red Cross tracing and message services, befriending schemes and summer holiday schemes. Some unaccompanied children have few contacts with others from their culture. Schools can play a positive role by encouraging such contacts
• ensure that sibling or relative carers are aware of support available from the social services department
• be aware of the wide range of care arrangements for unaccompanied children when admitting new pupils and use an admission interview to gather information on care arrangements. Where children are living with unrelated adults, the school should ensure that the social services department is informed, with the knowledge of the family, so they can assess whether private fostering regulations apply.

Care planning and reviews

Specified teachers, often a head of year, will often be required to participate in care planning and statutory reviews of looked after children.

Advice and support of a significant adult

Unaccompanied children might not have access to the advice and support that parents can give. They may find it more difficult to get up in the morning, complete homework and organise their time. Parents give advice, for example on suitable careers. It is important that schools give unaccompanied children extra support, guidance and encouragement.

Sensitivity

Schools should avoid exclusive language and thinking, such as letters to ‘parents and guardians’ and letters about ‘parents’ evenings’. Sensitivity needs to be extended into curricular areas where children might be asked to do projects on their family.

New arrivals in key stage 4

Most, but not all, asylum-seeking children are over 13 on arrival in the UK. Some curricular flexibility may be needed to enable children who arrive in years 10 and 11 to engage in schooling. Further advice is given in '14- to 16-year-old new arrivals'.

School curriculum

Schools can consider the experience of evacuees and unaccompanied children in the curriculum treatment of refugee issues or certain periods of history such as the Spanish Civil War or Second World War.

Useful weblinks

Please note: QCA is not responsible for the content of external sites.

DCSF: Education Protects
The Department for Children Schools and Families'website details useful information about the education of children and young people in public care.

Refugee Council
The Home Office funds a panel of advocates whose job it is to guide unaccompanied asylum-seeking children through the asylum process and to help them access care and education. This panel is the Refugee Council’s Children’s Panel of Advisers. The Refugee Council also has information about befriending and advocacy projects.

Save the Children
Save the Children supports some local self-advocacy projects for unaccompanied children.

The Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture
The Medical Foundation runs a befriending scheme for unaccompanied refugee children.

Further resources

Cold comfort: the lottery of care for young separated refugees in England, Stanley, K, Save the Children, 2002

Other people’s children: an exploration of the needs and provision for 16 and 17 year old unaccompanied children, Munoz, N, London Guildhall University, 1999

Seeking asylum in the UK: a leaflet for adults supporting unaccompanied children with legal representation and the asylum process, Save the Children, 1999

Supporting unaccompanied children in the asylum process, Ayotte, W, Save the Children, 2000

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