Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what financial assistance her Department provides to local authorities to support (a) unaccompanied asylum seeking children and (b) looked after children (LAC) in the care of the authority.

The Home Office provides funding to all local authorities who look after unaccompanied asylum seeking children (UASC). The national rate is £41,610 per annum for under 16s and £33,215 per annum for 16 and 17 year olds. We also provide funding for former unaccompanied asylum seeking who turn 18 need leaving care support. This equates to £200 a week. These rates were increased significantly in July 2016 by 20%, 28% and 33% respectively.

The current rates are based on a detailed analysis of financial information send to the Home Office by local authorities about their costs of caring for unaccompanied asylum seeking and refugee children.

In August 2017 a review of funding for UASC was launched and all local authorities who currently look after unaccompanied children have been invited to submit evidence.

Funding for children’s services, including looked after children services, is non-ring-fenced and part of the wider local government finance settlement to give local authorities the flexibility to focus on locally determined priorities. It is for local authorities to determine how to spend their non-ring fenced income on the services they provide, including services for looked after children. They do so taking account local need, priorities, and of course their statutory responsibilities.