CSC0062

Written evidence submitted by the NRPF Network

Introduction

1. The No Recourse to Public Funds (NRPF) Network, hosted by Islington Council, provides advice and guidance to local authorities across the UK about statutory support for people who are excluded from mainstream benefits and housing assistance.

2. The NRPF Network project manages NRPF Connect, used voluntarily by 82 local authorities in England and Scotland to obtain immigration status information from the Home Office and to assist effective service delivery and case resolution. National data from NRPF Connect will be referenced in this submission. [1]

3. This response will focus on role of children’s social care in providing accommodation and financial support to families with no recourse to public funds and will address the following questions:

• What factors are causing the increase in demand for children’s social care?
• The reasons behind the rising cost of children’s social care for local authorities, and ways to mitigate this

Section 17 support for families with no recourse to public funds

1. Under section 17 Children Act 1989, local authorities provide an essential ‘safety-net’ for families who are unable to access benefits or local authority housing assistance under Parts VI and VII of the Housing Act 1996 due to their immigration status.

2. The Courts have been very clear about the purpose of section 17, stating ‘the local authority is empowered to rescue a child in need from destitution where no other state provision is available.' (See: AC & SH v London Borough of Lambeth Council [2017] EWHC 1796)

3. When a child is in need because they are homeless, or their parents do not have sufficient resources to meet their accommodation and/or basic living needs as a consequence of having no recourse to public funds, section 17 allows for children’s social care to provide accommodation and financial support to the family.

4. There are no immigration-related restrictions on providing children’s social care services to children or their families. However, when a parent is ‘in breach of immigration laws’, i.e., is without lawful status in the UK, Schedule 3 Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002 only allows accommodation and financial support to be provided to a family under section 17 when there is a legal or practical barrier preventing the family from returning to their country of origin. When a parent is without lawful status in the UK, the local authority will be required to undertake a ‘human rights assessment’ considering the family’s ability to return, alongside the child in need assessment.

What factors are causing the increase in demand for children’s social care?

5. Data recorded on NRPF Connect by 75 local authorities in England and Scotland showed that, at the end of March 2023, 1,544 families with no recourse to public funds families (including 2,719 dependants) were being provided with accommodation and financial support, at a collective annual cost of £28.4 million.

6. Although the number of families receiving support had decreased since the end of March 2022, the cost of providing this support remained almost the same. (At the end of March 2022, 1,650 families were supported by 69 local authorities at a collective cost of £28.3 million.)

7. Between 1 April 2022 and 31 March 2023, local authorities ended support for more families (1,213) than they took on for support (1,135), which partly explains why the overall number of supported families decreased.

8. Between 1 April 2022 and 31 March 2023, 3,073 families requested or were referred to children’s social care for support, a slight increase from the 3,024 requests made to 69 local authorities in 2021-22.

9. The families provided with section 17 support by children’s social care at the end of March 2023 were diverse in terms of the parent’s immigration status: 38% had no leave to remain, 27% had leave to remain (11% with a NRPF condition), 19% were European Economic Area (EEA) nationals or held an EEA-related immigration status, and 15% were seeking asylum or had made an unsuccessful asylum claim.

10. Again, the families requesting support in 2022-23 were diverse in terms of the parent’s immigration status: 42% had leave to remain (21% with a NRPF condition), 25% had no leave to remain, 18% were European Economic Area (EEA) nationals or held an EEA-related immigration status, and 14% were seeking asylum or had made an unsuccessful asylum claim.

11. It is clear that immigration restrictions preventing people from accessing benefits and local authority housing assistance leads to a demand for child in need services, specifically accommodation and financial support. We are aware that children’s social care will usually only be approached for support once informal or charitable assistance in the community has been exhausted, therefore, these figures are likely to represent the 'tip of the iceberg' in terms of wider need.

12. The Migration Observatory reported that at the end of 2022, 2.58 million people held valid visas that typically had a ‘No Recourse to Public Funds’ (NRPF) condition (up from 1.87 million at the end of 2021). As more migrants are subject to a NRPF condition, there is a risk that a greater number of families in this position will experience homelessness and destitution. Additionally, families and children affected by the Illegal Migration Act, when this is fully implemented, may be left unable to obtain leave to remain in the UK and at risk of homelessness and destitution. [2]

The reasons behind the rising cost of children’s social care for local authorities

13. Central government does not reimburse councils when section 17 is engaged to provide accommodation and financial support to families with no recourse to public funds, although such support is usually provided whilst families are waiting for the outcome of immigration claims.

14. A significant challenge facing children’s social care is that when accommodation and financial support is provided to families with no recourse to public funds, support will usually remain ongoing on a long-term basis.

15. At the end of March 2023, the average time that a family had been receiving support for was just over 1.5 years (580 days) and 260 households had been supported for at least 1000 days. In the financial year 2022-23, 76% of households exited section 17 support following a grant of leave to remain, which would enable them to access benefits and mainstream housing services. Only 3% left the UK.

16. The data demonstrates that the majority of families supported by children’s social care will exit support due to a grant of leave to remain or change in immigration status allowing access to benefits and mainstream housing assistance. For the families provided with section 17 support who are without lawful status in the UK, a return to country of origin will only rarely be the solution to a family’s situation of destitution in the UK, as the majority will meet the requirements of the Immigration Rules and be granted leave to remain in the UK. In such cases, children’s social care would be required to provide accommodation and financial support until the family obtain leave to remain enabling them to claim benefits and transfer to mainstream homelessness services.

17. For families who exited support following a grant of leave to remain in 2022-23, the average time on support was 1.5 years (553 days). Such a long period can be attributed to various factors. On 7 September 2023, the Home Office processing time for the family and private life applications commonly made by families supported by children’s social care was 12 months. A lack of access to free legal advice (with most immigration cases not covered by legal aid), and challenges raising funds to pay the high application fees or difficulties obtaining a fee waiver, also contribute to delaying a family’s ability to make a timely application. [3]

18. Only accommodation and financial support costs are recorded on NRPF Connect, which does not capture any additional expenditure incurred by a local authority, such as resourcing specialist workers or funding immigration advice.

19. Children’s social care will need to procure and manage temporary accommodation in addition to their core social work duties, and, in some cases, will need to undertake human rights assessments. Due to such long-term support commitments being commonplace, children’s social care will need to ensure that a viable pathway off support is identified, which usually requires a family’s immigration issues to be properly dealt with through access to legal advice and working with the Home Office through NRPF Connect.

20. In order to implement a specialist response, at the very minimum, children’s social care managers will need to establish protocols setting out responsibility for identifying families, case management, and who has oversight of overall caseloads and costs. Many local authorities resource dedicated workers or even a team within children’s social care. In some councils, a dedicated ‘NRPF team’ may sit outside of children’s social care and work in partnership with social workers to deliver accommodation and financial support and undertake case management of the immigration issues.

21. With very few immigration cases now covered by legal aid, local authorities are increasingly commissioning and funding immigration advice, recognising that this is a key component to ensure that families are able to effectively and quickly resolve their immigration matters. Although such an approach makes financial sense as an ‘invest to save’ model, it adds to the budgetary pressures arising from supporting families with no recourse to public funds.

Ways to mitigate rising costs of children’s social care

22. In light of its data evidencing the financial impact on children’s social care services of providing accommodation and financial support to families with no recourse to public funds, the NRPF Network has made a series of recommendations to government, which focus on three areas:

•       Ending homelessness and eradicating child poverty  
•       Reducing pressures on local government 
•       Reducing health inequalities  

23. In order to end homelessness and eradicate child poverty, the following changes are needed: 

•       End use of the NRPF condition  
• Give all people with pre-settled status access to means-tested benefits and homelessness assistance 
•       Reinstate legal aid for immigration matters 

24. Whilst these policies remain in place, several changes could be made to immigration policies and processes, access to benefits and other services, and access to legal aid, in order to reduce any negative impacts on families and children. These recommendations include:

•       Do not extend use of the NRPF condition to new immigration categories 
•       Limit all settlement routes to five years  
• Reduce immigration application fees and/or introduce a fee waiver for ILR applications on the family and private life routes 
• Remove child benefit from the list of public funds and amend benefit regulations to enable all households with children to access this, subject to the income threshold 
• Enable all working parents to access 30 hours extended childcare, tax-free childcare, and new schemes being introduced in 2024 and 2025 for 9-month to 5-year-old children. 
• Open up access to the Healthy Start scheme to all low-income pregnant women and families with no recourse to public funds 
• Reinstate legal aid for specific groups, which could include: families and adults supported by local authorities, all victims of domestic abuse, people who are rough sleeping and people making human rights-based applications.  

25. In order to reduce pressures on children’s social care, the following changes are needed:
• Central government to cover the full costs for councils when social care duties are engaged to provide accommodation and financial support to families with no recourse to public funds 
• The Home Office implements policy and procedural changes to ensure that going forward, councils only need to provide short-term support interventions under section 17
• The Home Office conducts a one-off exercise to grant leave to remain to people that have been receiving section 17 support on a long-term basis

26. Whilst councils remain un-funded by government for providing accommodation and financial support to people with no recourse to public funds, and a significant number of households remain supported on a long-term basis, the following steps need to be taken to mitigate the cost and resource impact on children’s social care: 
• Central government to deliver grant funding to councils, which can be used by a council to invest in improving its response when supporting households with no recourse to public funds under social care legislation. For example, this funding could be used to employ a specialist worker or commission immigration advice for families.
• Claims made by households that are recorded on NRPF Connect as financially supported by councils are routinely prioritised by Home Office casework teams for resolution so that they do not become ‘1000-day cases’ 
• When immigration or other national policies are formed that are likely to increase homelessness and destitution, a new burdens assessment must be undertaken that considers how this will affect existing or create new pressures on children’s social care and other local government services

27. Health inequalities can be reduced by exempting people, including children, who are being provided with accommodation and financial support under section 17 Children Act 1989.

28. The full set of recommendations are due to be published imminently and will be available on the NRPF Network website at: https://www.nrpfnetwork.org.uk/information-and-resources/policy

References

[1] 2022-23 data from NRPF Connect is due to be published imminently and will be available at: https://www.nrpfnetwork.org.uk/nrpf-connect

[2] https://migrationobservatory.ox.ac.uk/resources/briefings/deprivation-and-the-no-recourse-to-public-funds-nrpf-condition/

[3] https://www.gov.uk/guidance/visa-processing-times-applications-inside-the-uk#family-visas

January 2024