EDUCATION FOR REFUGEE AND ASYLUM SEEKING …

EDUCATION FOR REFUGEE AND ASYLUM SEEKING CHILDREN: ACCESS AND EQUALITY IN ENGLAND, SCOTLAND AND WALES

Education for refugee and asylum seeking children: Access and quality in England, Scotland and Wales Refugee Support Network, July 2018 This report was written for UNICEF UK by Catherine Gladwell and Georgina Chetwynd from Refugee Support Network (RSN). With thanks to RSN research assistants Saliha Majeed, Carolyn Burke and Torie Stubbs, who carried out focus group discussions, key informant interviews, and assisted with data coding alongside their regular direct work with children and young people.

EDUCATION FOR REFUGEE AND ASYLUM SEEKING CHILDREN: ACCESS AND EQUALITY IN ENGLAND, SCOTLAND AND WALES

FOREWORD FROM UNICEF UK

Education is a right for every child and a critical opportunity. For children and adolescents worldwide, it holds the key to a life with less poverty, better health and an increased ability to take the future into their own hands. For nations, it holds the key to prosperity, economic growth, and poverty reduction.

In 2016, UNICEF issued An Agenda for Action on Children, Migration and Displacement. The six-point agenda calls on governments and world leaders to place children at the centre of policy decisions about migration. The fourth ask focuses on education and other services, calling for decision-makers to: Keep all refugee and migrant children learning and give them access to health and other quality services.

UNICEF UK's mission is that we are here for every child, particularly the most vulnerable. All over the world, including the UK, we uphold the Convention on the Rights of the Child and work with partners and supporters to promote children's voices, unlock resources for programmes for children, and advocate for and create change.

For children on the move who come to the UK, education is one of the first and most critical services they need access to. In 2017, UNICEF UK commissioned research to understand how far refugee and asylum-seeking children are currently accessing their right to education in the UK. This report provides an up-to-date overview of the scale and impact of the di culties facing child refugees and asylum-seekers in the UK, highlights barriers they face in accessing, remaining and thriving in education, and proposes recommendations for national and local decision-makers and service-providers.

EDUCATION FOR REFUGEE AND ASYLUM SEEKING CHILDREN:

ACCESS AND EQUALITY IN ENGLAND, SCOTLAND AND WALES

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CONTENTS

Executive Summary

Acronyms

1. Introduction

2. Review of current policy, literature and statutory guidance

3. Methodology

4. Findings: Access to education

4.1 Speed of access and interim provision 4.2 Barriers to access: what are the challenges?

4.2.1. Systemic barriers 4.2.2. Individual institution barriers 4.2.3. Contextual barriers 4.3 Improving access: what helps? 4.3.1. Local Authority good practice 4.3.2. School and college good practice 4.3.3. Voluntary sector good practice

5. Findings: Remaining and thriving in education 5.1 Barriers to remaining and thriving: what are the challenges? 5.1.1. Systemic barriers 5.1.2. Individual institution barriers 5.1.3. Contextual barriers 5.2 Remaining and thriving in education: what helps? 5.2.1. Local Authority good practice 5.2.2. School and college good practice 5.2.3. Voluntary sector good practice

6. Looking to the future: what needs to change?

6.1 Access to education 6.2 Remaining and thriving in education

Bibliography

Appendices 1. Copy of FOI request submitted 2. List of Key Informant Interviews

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EDUCATION FOR REFUGEE AND ASYLUM SEEKING CHILDREN: ACCESS AND EQUALITY IN ENGLAND, SCOTLAND AND WALES

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

This report examines refugee and asylum seeking children's access to and experiences of education at the primary, secondary and further education levels. The report draws on three new data sources: quantitative data compiled through Freedom of Information (FOI) requests to all Local Authorities in England, Scotland and Wales ? the first such e ort of which we are aware; in-depth interviews and focus group discussions with refugee children and parents across three regions; and key informant interviews with relevant experts from across the three countries. The report reflects the reported experiences of 86 refugee and asylum seeking children - relayed directly or, in the case of younger children, via their parents.

Access

Speed of access to education

No one region of the UK has met the 20 school-day target for accessing education for all of the Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Children (UASC) in their care. The most significant delays occur at the secondary and further education levels, where up to a quarter of children have had to wait over 3 months for a school or college place. Resettled Syrian children obtain school places faster than any other group, with the exception of those with Special Educational Needs (SEN). In the face of said delays accessing education, several UK Local Authorities have developed innovative interim education provision for UASC and resettled children awaiting a school place.

Barriers to access

At the systemic level, refugee and asylum seeking children's entry to education is delayed by long waiting lists (particularly for ESOL /English for Speakers of Other Languages/ places in Scotland); complex online applications processes that family members are unable to navigate; and in year arrivals. Alongside this, a number of Local Authorities are experiencing a diminishing of in-house expertise as a result of the reduction in the number of specialist UASC teams across the UK.

At the individual institution level, refugee and asylum seeking children's entry to education is delayed primarily by three key factors. First, a lack of readily available places for children with SEN. Second, a reluctance of schools to admit students at the upper-secondary level (due to fear of negatively influencing results profiles). Third, the need, in England, to undertake a lengthy process of applying for the Secretary of State for Education to direct an academy to take a child (in comparison to a Local Authority being able to direct a school themselves).

Contextual barriers delaying refugee and asylum seeking children's entry to education include challenges resulting from being placed in temporary initial accommodation (for children in asylum seeking families); participation (for UASC) in the National Transfer Scheme, when delays occur; mental health di culties and ongoing age assessments.

EDUCATION FOR REFUGEE AND ASYLUM SEEKING CHILDREN:

ACCESS AND EQUALITY IN ENGLAND, SCOTLAND AND WALES

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