Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many children have been transferred under the mandatory provisions of the National Transfer Scheme since 23 November 2021, broken down by local authority.

The National Transfer Scheme (NTS) transferred 3,148 children transferred to local authorities between 1 July 2021 and 30 September 2022. This compares to 739 children transferred in the same time frame in the previous year, a 326% increase.

With the increase in the numbers of unaccompanied asylum seeking children (UASC), we are working closely with local authorities to find more appropriate long-term care placements under the NTS. We are also providing local authorities with children’s services with £15,000 for every eligible young person they take into their care from a dedicated UASC hotel, or the Reception and Safe Care Service in Kent, by the end of February 2023.

National Transfer Scheme data is published at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/rasi-resettlement-asylum-support-and-integration-data-q3-2022 This data is broken down by local authority however as the data is published quarterly it is not possibly to split out the number of transfers from a specific date mid quarter.

The Home Office has robust safeguarding procedures in place to ensure young people in hotels are safe and supported as we seek urgent placements with a local authority. The young people in hotels are not detained and are free to leave the accommodation, in line with standard local authority accommodation for looked after children. To minimise the risk of a child going missing, records of children leaving and retuning to the hotel are kept and monitored. Support workers accompany children off site on activities and social excursions, or where specific vulnerabilities are identified. Young people are supported by team leaders and support workers who are on site 24 hours a day. Further care is provided in hotels by teams of social workers and nurses.

When any young person goes missing the ‘missing persons protocol’ is followed and led by our directly engaged social workers. The MARS (Missing After Reasonable Steps) protocol supports safeguarding planning and prevention. The local authority chairs a multi-agency forum for any young person missing from a hotel, in conjunction with the police and Home Office. When used correctly, similar protocols within police forces have reduced the number of missing episodes from placements by 36%.

Intelligence gathered in relation to young people who went missing from hotels and are subsequently located is fed into the appropriate agencies for consideration.