Please find the Good Practice Guidance, supporting unaccompanied children who arrive in the UK and are at risk of going missing, which was published in February 2024.
National Transfer Scheme (NTS)
NTS leaflet for children and young people to explain the process and provide reassurance.
Coram’s Young Citizens
In this video young people from migrant and refugee backgrounds share their experiences to help young people new to the UK who may be struggling with their mental health.
The film was made with Coram’s Young Citizens, a group of young people from migrant and refugee backgrounds who design and run workshops for other young people from similar backgrounds. Workshop topics include skills for wellbeing and building support networks.
Royal invitation recognises Kent nurse’s work
A Kent nurse’s work on behalf of very vulnerable children was recognised when she was invited to a VIP reception at Buckingham Palace, hosted by the Prince of Wales.
Nancy Sayer, the designated nurse for looked after children in Kent, was nominated to attend because of her leadership in caring for unaccompanied asylum seeking children.
Nancy, a mother of two who has worked in nursing for the past 29 years, said: “While it is always rewarding to know that you have made a difference to a child’s life, it is lovely to be recognised for your work. I really enjoyed the reception at Buckingham Palace. I knew I had been nominated but it was still a surprise when the invitation came in the post. It was a lovely event. HRH Prince Charles spoke to the gathering and said how valued nursing was.”
As an expert in the clinical needs of looked after children, Nancy had to act quickly when a spike in the numbers of unaccompanied asylum seeking youngsters entering the county in 2015 and 2016 meant health and care services to meet their needs were required urgently.
“We needed to carry out a health assessment on each child and set up a health plan for them. This was a lot of work,” she said.
“I was able to secure backing from NHS England and I put out a call for GPs, clinicians and paediatricians to support us.
“These children had sleeping issues as they tended to travel at night and many didn’t feel safe at night, they needed help to learn English, there were digestion problems when the type of food they were eating changed, there were injuries they had sustained on their journeys and injuries which had not healed properly and foster carers needed extra support.
“We had to manage community anxiety, we gave reassurance and we found that communities were very understanding once they realised what difficulties these children had to get here.”
Her work and the work of her colleagues is to become a model for others across the UK to follow with Nancy and her team leading a national conference in Northampton in May and another in Leeds in June to share their learning.
As well as organising the two conferences Nancy and her team have also put all of their learning onto a website – so that others can benefit from their experience. The website is UASC Health – https://www.uaschealth.org/
Outreach support for UASC in West Kent
The health assessment process for Unaccompanied Asylum Seekers (UASC LAC) looks at the general health of this group. Young people in this group can have complex health needs, resulting from the experiences in their home country and their ‘journey’ to the UK.
We looked at the pathway for supporting the needs of UASC in terms of sexual health. Screening for blood-borne infections and sexually transmitted infections would ideally be offered as part of the LAC process for USAC arriving in Kent. Sexual health questions would also be asked as part of the IHA. Local pathways should be followed for referrals into appropriate local Sexual Health Services.
As Sexual Health Outreach Nurses, we had been asked to support the UASC with Sexual Health provision in West Kent. During the process, we realised that the young people had specific learning needs which had to be addressed before any basic sexual health discussion could take place. We identified a lack of knowledge and understanding of the UK social and cultural norms by the young men. This was supported by further research into asylum seekers’ experiences in other parts of the country. There have also been reported incidences of inappropriate behaviour in the UK and other parts of Europe involving young asylum seeker males. The FPA document ‘Supporting Asylum Seekers’ identifies that the young people need ‘an opportunity to learn about the law and common cultural practices including behaviour towards women’. Our sessions are to help raise awareness and to give insight into how behaviours, such as whistling at women or following women could have a negative impact on relationships. These behaviours may be acceptable in their home country, but are not in the UK and can even result in a criminal offence.
Our aim was to provide information about cultural norms around relationships, behaviour towards girls and women and to look at the issue of consent and the law (on a basic level).
We provided a group-based discussion, with support from our Reception Centre colleagues, including up to five different interpreters. We gave the interpreters an introductory letter to explain our goals for the session (template available on UASC website), as they would play an integral part in the discussion.
A series of drawn and photographic scenarios were shown to the groups, which we used to facilitate a discussion with the young people. We initially made this in the format of a Powerpoint presentation, however the use of individual packs of scenarios was found to be more effective in the smaller group discussions. Each small group was supported by an appropriate interpreter.
The images that we used included:
- Picture of a lone woman walking at night
- Picture of young people drinking alcohol having fun with friends
- Young people in a public swimming pool (wearing bathing suits)
We were very keen to explore the young mens’ views and thoughts on the images and reassured them that there were no right or wrong answers. We believe that this approach facilitated a more productive learning experience. It helped to challenge their preconceptions in an informal way and it also enabled us to gain a better understanding of their perspective. A good example of this was when a group was shown a photo of a solitary young woman walking along a dimly-lit street. A discussion ensued and concerns were raised for the young woman by the young men as they felt the woman should have been with a male family member to ‘look after her’. However, we told them that the young woman could just be going home from college or work and that her family would more than likely be aware of where she was. This we feel, gave the young men a different perspective. The group discussion enabled us to see that the young men’s experience of ‘chaperoning’ women, in their view is a loving and protective thing to do for a member of the family. Showing concern for a lone woman by trying to befriend her or escort her safely could be intimidating to the woman.
Demonstration of mutual respect in these discussions is, we believe, paramount to the work being of value.
Our session only lasts for an hour; the content is not exhaustive and is only meant to provide a starting point, to open the conversation and to provide a foundation to further learning opportunities.
Our vision would be that further sessions would include:
- Consent and the Law
- Healthy Relationships
- Sexually Transmitted Infections
- Contraception
- Internet safety
- FGM-attitudes and myths
Unaccompanied asylum seeker children have a right to access information about sexual health and the services that are available in the UK and this will provide the building blocks for them to be able to have positive and healthy relationships in the future.
RESOURCES AVAILABLE to download below, and from our Public Health page: