Issue - meetings

Resolved:

The Committee accepted the information provided as evidence for its review

Ian Smith (Director of Children’s Social Care) introduced the report and highlighted the following key points:

·           Whilst not eligible for public funds, individuals might still be eligible for local authority assistance under s17 of the Childcare Act 1989 or s21 of the National Assistance Act 1948.

·           There are strict criteria around eligibility for NRPF, including territorial responsibility, genuine destitution, they are not asylum seekers and that they are seeking to regularise their stay in the UK.

·           NRPF numbers have risen dramatically in the last few years and there has been an urgent need to manage the costs.

·           There was a specialist team dealing with cases such as these in Lewisham and many other local authorities, but this was disbanded 7 to 8 years ago as the National Asylum Seeker Service was established and picked up the cases.

·           Now NRPF cases are picked up within social care, which is not equipped to deal with it. There are a number of reasons for this, partly because assessment by social workers prioritises safeguarding (especially after the huge increase in Child Protection cases in 2012/13) and not NRPF eligibility criteria and partly because a number of NRPF claims are dubious or fraudulent.

·           The Home Office can take a long time to assess cases, which means people stay illegally in the UK for a longer period of time.

·           The Clue vs Birmingham case changed case law so that individuals only had to be intending to make an application to the Home Office, rather than having an application registered.

·           The economic downturn has had an impact, as economic pressures mean that support networks people may have used such as a spare room or work in the grey economy have reduced.

·           There are local factors in play, such as the hub for face to face contact for immigration applications in Croydon and the demographic of Lewisham, with large numbers of Jamaican and Nigerian families who are more likely to present as NRPF.

Justine Roberts (Change & Innovation Manager) then provided the Committee with the following information:

·         NRPF cases usually relates to families, which explains why there are a high number of women presenting as NRPF.

·         The vast majority of those presenting as NRPF are visa over stayers. Many have been in the UK for a number of years and some have been in the UK for so long that they are not clear on their own status and what they are entitled to. Many will also have children with British parents.

·         Before developing the pilot officers looked across London to see how other authorities approached NRPF. They found that there is no comprehensive reporting on NRPF across London or nationally and that generally responsibility has fallen to social care workers, whose systems are not set up to deal with those presenting as NRPF.

·         NRPF involves complex immigration law, which is not part of social work role and can make the decision making process difficult. The anecdotal evidence suggests that there is a high amount of fraud and misrepresentation  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6