Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to provide (a) adults and (b) young people awaiting the processing of their asylum application with access to (i) leisure and recreational activities, (ii) education and (iii) work opportunities whilst they are in (A) initial and (B) contingency asylum accommodation.

Within adult and family contingency and initial asylum accommodation, our service provider has a robust delivery model in place to ensure our service users are able to occupy the site with suitable facilities to minimise the impact on the local community. However, we appreciate there may be a need for some front line services to support our users. We do have an on-site specialist team 24 hours a day 7 days a week provided by our provider who are on hand to provide support and advice as well as monitoring the service users’ wellbeing, movement and escalate any safeguarding concerns.

Local authorities have a duty to provide suitable full-time education for all children of compulsory school age resident in their area. The education must be appropriate to the child’s age, ability, and any special educational needs they may have, regardless of their immigration status. Local authorities must offer free school places in accordance with their published admissions arrangements, and they must ensure that there is no unreasonable delay in securing school admission for any child. This includes provision for children who are temporarily living in an authority’s area for long enough to attend school including the child of an asylum seeker in interim asylum support accommodation.