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Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council wants to get half of 16-year-olds to leave families for cheaper ‘supported accommodation’.
A council report says: “This revised service model will result in differential and less favourable treatment for unaccompanied children in care and care leavers compared to local citizen children and young people.”
It adds: “The result of this service model would effectively be a two-tier service; one for looked after children and care leavers that meets the statutory requirements, and one for UASC that will mean that some of the statutory requirements will not be fully met.”
Government guidance says: “No young person should be made to feel that they should ‘leave care’ before they are ready.”
A March 2010 study of the council by children’s charity UNICEF said many Solihull social workers ‘were convinced that many more children should be in foster placements’.
The charity said: “Local authority accredited foster care is highlighted as the best form of care for unaccompanied children, yet expense is an issue.”
It quoted Noor, a 15-year-old boy from Aghanstian living in the borough, who said: “When I first arrived I was so upset that I couldn’t speak any English and that I didn’t have any friends.
“And the family taking care of me were also sad because they didn’t know how to make things better for me.
“Then, they found me another Afghan to speak to, I spoke to him and it really helped. He was being looked after by a foster carer who was a friend of my own carer.”
The council is responsible for about 150 children aged 17 and under from countries including Afghanistan and The Democratic Republic of the Congo.
The charity’s report, published in March last year, said the council had lost contact with children and feared there are child asylum seekers they do not know about.
Thre three councils UNICEF studied warned of ‘risks of exploitation, abuse and trafficking that children face in private fostering arrangements’.
The changes, set to be approved today, is to slash costs by 15 per cent as a result of Government funding cuts.
Jobs will not be replaced as part of the savings. This means caseloads will be “slightly higher” amongst UASC staff than staff working with local children in care.
The report warns: “This will have an impact on the quality of assessment, the quality of plans and amount of time a worker can spend with a young person or with the network around
them to achieve the plan.”
Yet it said the authority had found other councils “which operate a two tier level of service without apparent significant exposure”.
No consultation has taken place with young asylum seekers, it says.
Cash will be saved amongst 18s and over by moving them from supported accommodation into private housing with state beneifts, it says.
The changes have been made because the UK Border Agency (UKBA) has reduced cash given to the council.
The council used to recover all its asylum costs from the agency but a cut in cash paid per child means the service would overspend by £1.8m this year and £2.4m next year.
Accomodation costs mean UKBA cash is not enough, it says. It now gets £665 a week for under 16s, £497 for 16 to 17-year-olds and £150 over 18s.
The council says the law around UASC has been reported as ‘conflicting’ and ‘impenetrable’.
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