Portsmouth City Council: Helping unaccompanied asylum-seeking children and young people on their education journey

Under the umbrella of their City of Sanctuary work, Portsmouth City Council are providing broader outreach and support for their Unaccompanied Asylum-Seeking Children. This is known as the 'starting out' programme.

The 'starting out' programme includes:

• an opportunity for young people, upon arrival, to feel welcome, valued and part of the Portsmouth family
• a welcome film in a range of community languages
• an early English programme for unaccompanied asylum-seeking children and young people with a focus on soft outcomes
• a toolkit for schools and colleges
• training materials and workshops for professionals (including foster carers, DTs, social workers etc.)
• resources to aid communication.

Portsmouth is a major international port, with links to the European mainland. The city has therefore been welcoming unaccompanied asylum-seeking children and young people for a number of years. For those children and young people arriving in Portsmouth, and those being welcomed through the National Transfer Scheme (NTS), Portsmouth City Council created a bespoke, person-centred and needs-led programme through co-production across the full range of professionals to deliver a comprehensive range of support to help unaccompanied asylum-seeking children and young people start their education pathway.

From 2015, Portsmouth has welcomed a wide and ethnically-diverse group of unaccompanied asylum-seeking children and young people into the city. In addition to the introduction to education and induction work, they recognised the significant need to support the children and young people's emotional, mental health and wellbeing.

Before commencing their journey to school or college unaccompanied asylum-seeking children and young are introduced to the education system and wider life in the UK. The education team (specifically the Ethnic Minority Achievement Service - EMAS - and the Virtual School and College) have established a bespoke programme to support unaccompanied asylum-seeking children and young people and the wider team around through co-production between education and children's social care (CSC).

Initially the council received two years’ worth of funding from the Controlling Migration Fund to support schools initially enrolling unaccompanied asylum-seeking children and young people. The funding facilitated the council to create additional support in the form of a new EMAS advisor and a new Virtual School and College Education Advocate. The team worked collaboratively with CSC to provide a holistic package of early intervention and support for unaccompanied asylum-seeking children and young people. A key part of their work was to develop a range of resources for use by schools and wider stakeholders.

Once UASC come into the care of the local authority, a PEP (Personal Education Plan) or a POP (Personal Opportunity Plan) for Post-16 is completed. This outlines any and all previous educational experiences, identifies personal strengths and needs, and sets robust next-step targets.

Following this initial meeting, all children and young people are then invited to attend the ‘starting out’ programme as interim support until they start at school or college. Led by EMAS, this programme involves a series of weekly, three-hour, stand-alone, thematically-based sessions. The lessons are focussed on early English for Speakers of Another Language (ESOL) but are specifically tailored to meet the highly individual needs of unaccompanied asylum-seeking children and young people. The sessions are hugely interactive, creative and fun and focus on providing opportunities for positive interaction between the children and young people, their peers and staff as well as developing key educational skills, early English and an understanding of life in the UK. As well as in-person sessions, the education team use SeeSaw software to work with students remotely and is highly inclusive for all, allowing them to set ‘homework’ and support children and young people who may live out of city.

The sessions are run in a vibrant learning environment with refreshment breaks a key opportunity to develop social skills. Time is set aside at the end of every session to enable a member of CSC and the Virtual School and College teams to meet with the children and young people. EMAS' bilingual learning assistants are key to the success of this process as unaccompanied asylum-seeking children and young people may still be at the earliest stages of their acquisition of English. This bilingual support ensures that the young person's voice is always heard, giving them an opportunity to share positive stories or ask any questions they may be have.

Because the numbers of unaccompanied asylum-seeking children and young people fluctuate and, by their very nature, are not always known in advance, the EMAS team are very skilled at meeting the needs of those who attend. On average, a young person will engage with this interim programme for just three or four sessions before their formal education commences and numbers attending have ranged between one to sixteen.

The EMAS team have developed a range of specific resources, including a toolkit and training materials for use with schools and communication resources for Portsmouth's port officials (a point of arrival for some young people). The team also deliver termly training for foster carers, as well as training for other key partners (e.g. health), to raise awareness of the specific needs of UASC and how best to support them.

Portsmouth regards this collaborative partnership working as fundamental to ensuring that all professionals working across the city have a shared understanding and consistent approach in supporting unaccompanied asylum-seeking children and young people. For example, the education team have visited the port to see where children arrive and the processes surrounding this. Port staff then visited the starting out sessions so they could see children away from the trauma of their arrival. The feedback from port staff said this had helped them to develop a more sensitive and nuanced view of the children and young people.

The education team has also developed a ‘Welcome to Portsmouth’ film in four languages. The films introduce the key people (their roles and responsibilities) who will be central in supporting the young people on their journey, both from CSC and Education. It also sets out the processes and procedures that the young people will encounter, as well as answering many frequently asked questions and establishing realistic expectations.

These films are shared with unaccompanied asylum-seeking children and young people and those who care for them. This allows the themes covered to be discussed with the professional network, including carers, who can answer any questions they may have.

The Virtual School and College also provide a range of enrichment activities for unaccompanied asylum-seeking children and young people which offer learning, social and networking opportunities. This includes a two-week summer school where Education Advocates facilitate a rich and diverse range of activities. These are highly interactive sessions ranging from first aid training (certificated) to food preparation, bike repairs, music workshops and animal care. The summer programme not only supports English development but also supports the children and young people developing wider life skills and a greater understanding of our society.

The Education team continue to develop and provide support to local schools and colleges which unaccompanied asylum-seeking children and young people attend. On arrival, EMAS complete a baseline assessment (numeracy and literacy) for every child in both their first language and in English. This helps to identify what level of literacy the child has in both of their languages and can support signposting of any additional SEND. EMAS then share strategies with the school/college and wider team about how best to support the young person and positively communicate the young person's views and wishes.

Portsmouth City Council adopt a Trauma-Informed Model of Care (TIMOC) enabling all practitioners working with looked-after children to work in an attachment and trauma-informed way, which means young people are able to access the support that they need.

As part of their advocacy role for unaccompanied asylum-seeking children and young people, EMAS also produce ‘hearts and minds’ boxes. These are packs of resources that help support early literacy skills, providing, for example, tools for secondary schools to support early phonics work. They also include books of poetry and fiction written by or about refugees and asylum-seekers' own lived experiences for sharing amongst the entire school population (young people and staff).

This approach has resulted in UASC being supported in their timely transition to school or college and their voice being heard at all times.

The starting out programme is beneficial to:

• providing educational and social development while the transitions into full-time education are completed,
• increasing understanding of procedures and processes,
• improving confidence in English, social interactions and opportunities,
• developing an understanding of future progression and pathways.

In addition, thanks to collaborative partnership working, the team around the young person is more informed about their lived experiences and how best to support them.

The team created by the initial funding has now increased, with an additional education advocate now in post, with funding from the Virtual School and College. The support from both the director and the deputy director of children services and education, as well as the lead member for education has been fundamental in the success of the ethos and approach

Portsmouth City Council has created and developed a bespoke programme to support unaccompanied asylum-seeking children and young people by:

• ensuring the voice of unaccompanied asylum-seeking children and young people is heard and fundamental to everything we do
• embracing and promoting collaborative multi-agency partnership working (including regular sharing good practice, next steps and updates meetings)
• ensuring that all stakeholders understand the complex lived experiences of unaccompanied asylum-seeking children and young people
• Facilitating multi-agency training to ensure a consistency of approach and wider understanding of needs
• Learning from, and sharing good practice with partners from other local authorities.

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