The Home Office has stepped up efforts to help unaccompanied asylum seeking children, by directing all local authorities with children’s services to provide care placements for them, as part of the New Plan for Immigration.

In November, the government announced that it was making the National Transfer Scheme for unaccompanied asylum seeking children mandatory for local authorities with children’s services. At that time, many councils did not accept the transfer of children, resulting in significant pressure on the few which did.

The decision to mandate the scheme will ensure unaccompanied asylum seeking children receive the critical care they need and end the use of hotels for them.

In December, the government directed 177 local authorities to take part in the mandatory scheme, meaning they received legal notices setting out that they would now be required to accept transfers of unaccompanied asylum seeking children. Since then, there have been tangible improvements both for the vulnerable children and the local authorities already involved, including youngsters being moved from hotels to permanent accommodation.

Further details on the announcement click here