Question to the Home Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government how many serious incident notifications regarding unaccompanied children seeking asylum and placed in Home Office commissioned accommodation were made to the Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel in the period from April to October.

We take the welfare of those in our care extremely seriously. We have safeguarding procedures in place to ensure all unaccompanied asylum-seeking children in emergency interim hotels are as safe and supported as possible whilst we seek urgent placements with a local authority. 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.

The Home Office has no power to hold asylum seekers, including children, in hotels or any temporary accommodation if they wish to leave.

All Home Office staff and contractors engaging with asylum seekers are trained to adopt a risk-based approach towards potential indications of vulnerability and to refer relevant cases onto the Safeguarding Hub, a dedicated resource assigned to identifying and safeguarding vulnerable asylum seekers.

Safeguarding Hub staff advocate for an individual’s needs with the statutory agencies to promote appropriate safeguarding interventions. The statutory agencies retain responsibility for all decisions on intervention activity.