THE county council is considering withdrawing from a scheme to resettle child asylum seekers amid concerns over the impact it is having on the budget and social workers’ caseloads.

Papers set to be presented to Dorset County Council’s cabinet reveal that the cost to the authority of caring for child refugees could spiral to £3.7m by 2019 – even though many of the youngsters are not living in the county.

The government provides funds to county councils but the report, by Director for Children’s Services Sara Tough, says this does not cover the total cost.

A report to the cabinet states that there are currently 13 unaccompanied asylum seeking children (UASC) – two aged under 16 and 11 over 16 – being accommodated by Dorset County Council.

Under the National Transfer Scheme DCC has committed to taking child asylum seekers from other local authorities where the youngsters number more than 0.07 per cent as a ratio to child population. Dorset could be expected to take up to 0.07 per cent of the county’s child population – or 54 children – by the end of this parliament. 

The county council receives £33,215 per child refugee aged over 16 per year from the government, but says the overall cost to the authority is £106,010 per year. If the county council were to take 50 child asylum seekers, assuming they were all over 16, the overall annual cost would be £5.3m. The government would provide just £1.6m.

The costs include social work management, placement costs, education, asylum claim and interpreters and advocacy. These figures relate to the National Transfer Scheme, and not the Syrian Refugee Resettlement Scheme, which is funded by the Overseas Aid budget.

The report reveals the pressure the scheme is putting on limited funds. The Looked After Children’s budget is already £5.1m overspent for this financial year, and with the county council facing a total overspend of £9m there is no hope of this being offset elsewhere.

Many of the children being accommodated by Dorset County Council are being housed outside the county.

The report notes: “There are very few DCC foster carers who are able to fully meet the needs of UASC in terms of diversity. As a result these children are being placed outside Dorset with foster carers who speak the same language/dialect as these children and better understand their cultural and religious needs.”

There are also concerns over the impact on social workers. The Dorset Echo revealed in September that one in four of all children's social worker posts were vacant and agency workers were being used to plug the gaps.

The report states: “Each young person requires an allocated Children’s Services social worker. This adds to our already excessive workload for social workers and as numbers increase the pressure will exponentially increase.”

The cabinet, which meets tomorrow, Wednesday, at County Hall in Dorchester, is asked to ‘reaffirm its commitment to the overarching principle of the scheme’.

But the report requests that councillors: “Consider a similar approach being taken by other authorities in relation to UASC that take account of the content of this report whereby the county council will disengage from the voluntary scheme until such time as the government:

  • Meets the full costs of placements and service provision
  • Makes adjustments to the operation of the scheme that eases some of the scheme requirements
  • Or makes participation in the scheme mandatory.”