Asylum seeker children could be turned away from Croydon if government doesn’t meet costs

By Tara O’Connor, local democracy reporter

The cost of caring for unaccompanied asylum seeking children must be covered by government, Croydon Council has demanded.

If government doesn’t fund the care of the children – the council says it could stop accepting them.

The council has warned that frontline children’s services could be thrown into chaos if funding isn’t received as it’s already costing them up to £9 million a year.

The authority has historically taken in more children that other local councils – due to the Home Office’s Lunar House being based in Croydon.

The council is begging the government for urgent help to plug a £2.3 million funding gap in the cost of looking after the young asylum seekers this year.

Croydon’s council leader Hamida Ali, has warned that without help the borough could be forced to stop supporting the any new children and young people seeking asylum.

In the past decade the authority has cared for 5,000 of these vulnerable children and while it does get some funding from central government, it has had to top this up by between £7 and £9 million a year.

Councillor Alisa Flemming, cabinet member for children, young people and learning, said: “[The council] cannot continue to carry such an unreasonable and unsustainable financial burden.”

She added: “This pressure is unsustainable and could pose a serious safeguarding risk to the care we are able to provide for children. I urge the Home Office to hear and act positively to address these very real and serious concerns.”

The national level of children that each council should provide is 0.07 per cent of local children, according to the government’s own funding model.

In Croydon this would be 66 children but it currently cares for 156 children as well as having 477 older care leavers.

At a cabinet meeting on August 16, councillors agreed that the leader of the council will write to relevant secretaries of state to request calling for support and an urgent meeting.

Council leader Hamida Ali said: “Croydon has the highest proportion of unaccompanied asylum–seeking children and young people of any council in the country.

“We are proud of our record in welcoming and caring for such vulnerable young people but it simply isn’t reasonable to expect the council to continue to do this alone.

“Government has agreed that we are providing crucial support which is currently unfunded – but that consensus isn’t enough. With every month that passes, this council shoulders both growing financial risk and potential risk to the safety of our support to all our young people.

“We won’t jeopardise our frontline children’s services or our improving financial performance but we need a positive response from ministers now.

“Without it we have no choice but to keep all options on the table, including having to confront stopping to support new unaccompanied asylum–seeking children and young people.”