Written evidence submitted by Migrant Help (AAC0129)
Migrant Help is a registered charity, and our aim is to support those who are displaced helping them to thrive in their new environment.
In 2019 we were awarded the AIRE (Advice, Issue Reporting and Eligibility) contract. The purpose of the contract is to assist people seeking asylum in the UK by providing impartial and independent advice, guidance and assistance, to help navigate the asylum processes.
As part of the AIRE contract, people who may be eligible to apply for asylum support can contact us for guidance. We also act as a single point of contact for reporting issues relating to their asylum support, payments and accommodation. In addition, following a decision on their main asylum claim, we discuss with the client the relevant next steps (for both a positive and negative decision). Our contractual obligations ends when asylum support is discontinued i.e. there is no further eligibility for asylum support.
Migrant Help are required to assist in the completion and submission of applications for Section 98 support for those with an active asylum claim and who are either homeless, financially destitute or facing destitution in the next 10 days. Applications are submitted to the Home Office Routing IA Validation (RIAV) team who make an assessment and provide a decision. If granted, they will liaise with the AASC providers to arrange accommodation and transport from the client's location to the allocated accommodation. Requests come from clients directly or with the support of third-party agencies and present primarily via the phoneline however also through our webchat channel or email.
There are two different application forms to apply for S98 support depending on the circumstances of the client.
1) Full referral form for those that have not previously been in initial accommodation or who left more than 28 days ago.
2) Abridged version of the form.
a. If the client left IA within the last 28 days.
b. If they have already had an application for S95 Accommodation and Subsistence support granted but are waiting for dispersal.
c. If they have been granted asylum support (S95 or S4) by asylum support tribunal, and they need access to accommodation on the day decision is made by the tribunal.
d. We will also soon be using the abridged form to support clients fleeing domestic abuse to apply for emergency accommodation more quickly. Applications are currently being made using the full form covered in point 1.
Please note, the abridged version is a single form covering the same questions but is used to cover scenarios a, b, c (soon to be d) of the above.
These application forms are Home Office documents and request key information including a pickup address, information of any funds or assets, address history and any safeguarding or medical concerns and details of medication that a client or their dependent is taking. In addition, where there are children in the household and they are immediately destitute, we will support in referring to child social services; and additional referrals and signposting steps for those fleeing domestic abuse.
Upon receiving a request, we will arrange a call back from our dedicated team who will assist in completing the appropriate referral form. In line with our contract, we must support clients to submit a full and complete application, this means as well as the application form, we must request any supporting documentation that will aid assessment. Not all applications require supporting documentation and if a client is unable to provide any documentation that we identify as being needed to support an application, we will assist in completing a self-statement in their own words while on the phone.
Once the application is complete, i.e. the form has been filled in over the phone and any supporting evidence received, we have 15 minutes to submit the application to the Home Office. This is one of the key performance indicators (KPIs) of the contract and we meet this KPI consistently month on month. Although not stipulated within the contract, if a client confirms that they will be sending in documents requested but these do not come through within 48 hours, the application will be submitted without this information so that the Home Office can assess with the information already collated.
Applications are sent securely from our system which sends an email with a link to the Home Office team. When they click on the link, they must log in with their credentials and can then review the application and decide. Although it falls outside of our contract, the Home Office will update us on the outcome of the application through our system and we will contact the client to update them and to advise on the next steps.
Decisions on these applications are received on the day of destitution, but we can submit them up to 10 days prior to that date. Most applications are made on the day of destitution, however. If an application has been declined, we will go through the reasons with the client
and provide advice and guidance in line with the contract and information received to support the client with the next steps. This may be advising what additional information they can provide to reapply, assisting to apply for S95 support, if they haven’t already done so or, if they are not eligible for S98 support, signposting for legal advice or supporting with other applications, such as Section 4, where appropriate.
If an application is accepted, the Home Office will provide the pickup address and approximate time for collection. The AASC providers are responsible for the pickup and transport of clients. The Home Office will liaise directly with the AASC provider who will then notify us of the approximate pick up time. We must advise clients that they could take place up to 3 hours prior and post the provided time. We frequently receive follow up and chase calls from clients and notifications of failed collections. This can be because of the client not being at the collection point or the provider not attending. Upon notification of a failed collection, we will make further contact with the Home Office for this to be rescheduled and can raise complaints against the AASC provider where appropriate. The Home Office do not require new application form to rearrange transport if the missed collection was within 7 days. However, if the client contacts us after 7 days, we are required to send a new application form for approval.
Although our dedicated team work 8am – 8pm Monday to Friday (excluding bank holidays), we provide an out of hours service that operates 8pm – 8am Monday to Friday and for the full weekend and bank holidays. Through our out of hours service, we can submit requests for emergency accommodation for clients meeting certain criteria (set by the Home Office) to their on-call staff members. The criteria set includes domestic abuse, those with physical disabilities, mental health concerns, pregnant women and families. We also have contact details for the AASC out of hours teams should a collection not have taken place to attempt to rearrange.
When the AASC / AIRE contract first started, the model was for all arrivals to be routed through one of 8 ‘core’ initial accommodation centres across the UK. Migrant Help has a physical presence (along with established Health teams) in all these sites. For each office we have a Regional Manager who is responsible for our operations in that specific geographical region (Northwest, Wales, West Midlands etc. aligned with the AASC contract regions) as well as partner / stakeholder management and engagement. We also have an Assistant Manager and a team of Client Advisers. With this model we were able to see all clients face to face.
However, this model changed during and following the Covid 19 pandemic. Clients were not moving through the system and there was a large increase in the usage of contingency (hotel) accommodation. Clients were no longer going through the core IA sites and so we adapted our services accordingly.
The operating model by the AASCs in contingency hotels does vary which can cause operational difficulties. For example, two of the three AASCS typically have staff based within the hotel and we can then liaise with them directly. One however, appears to not follow this model for all of their hotels which can make communication more difficult.
The AASC provider notifies us of all new Asylum arrivals requiring our service, via a secure SharePoint site, a Daily IA Arrivals list. This information should include the clients’ full details, name, address, nationality, group size, any known vulnerabilities / disabilities and a contact telephone number. We receive no information or data, directly from the Home Office.
However, in a lot of cases, the client does not have a telephone number or the AASC provider has not provided this information, and we are then reliant on the AASC provider staff to support with communicating with the client. We also escalate these cases to the Home Office for their support in sourcing information or implementing communication channels. Where a client does not have their own mobile telephone, we use an appointment system to arrange to communicate. We send a list of appointments to the AASC providers the day before the appointment, allowing the AASC provider time to communicate with the clients and advise them that Migrant Help need to talk with them, and they are to remain in the hotel the following AM or PM where they will be provided with a telephone for that contact.
The AASC providers sometimes make mobile telephones available for that interaction and on numerous occasions, Migrant Help has also purchased telephones and issued them to the hotels on the agreement that the AASC provider will ensure they are managed (charged etc.) and ready for use.
We are making numerous attempts for some locations to try and make contact with clients wasting vital time and resources.
Once we can communicate directly with the client, we will deliver an Induction briefing to all new arrivals into Initial Accommodation (IA) under S98 eligibility, across the UK. The Induction is designed to complement the AASC providers Induction which is largely focused on the accommodation, house rules, health and safety, fire regulations and a local area orientation i.e. access to local health provision, arrangements for school registration etc.
Our Induction focuses on a client’s rights and entitlements of asylum support, the requirements to notify the Home Office of Changes to their Circumstances, accessing legal provision etc.
We aim to deliver a verbal Induction within 5 working days. We also provide a hard copy written Induction leaflet, produced in the top 10 languages. The leaflet is very pictorial for ease of understanding. We print thousands of copies each year and the AASCs provider physically hands a copy to the client on arrival into the Initial Accommodation / Hotels. The content is refreshed annually. This year our Lived Experience Advisory Panel (LEAP) also reviewed the document. This gave us firsthand feedback on the information by those who use it.
In addition to the initial Induction, we are also required to support clients to complete their Asylum Support Form (ASF) for S95 support also within five working days of being notified by the AASC, which allows the Home Office to assess a client's eligibility. It is not until this form has been completed, assured, submitted via ATLAS, assessed by the Home Office and approved, that a client is then entitled to an ASPEN card for their weekly financial support. There is one exception, where a client is in certain self-catered IA, they may be allocated an ASPEN card upon arrival so they can support, and cook for, themselves whilst in that IA only. Most IA accommodation is fully catered.
We aim to complete the appointment for the verbal Induction briefing and the completion of the ASF at the same interaction. The most challenging part for us remains being able to contact the client.
It may be necessary for Migrant Help to contact clients again, after the initial ASF appointment if the Home Office needs additional supporting information. If this is the case, then we will use the appointment system as set out above.
Clients may leave accommodation (abscond). We are reliant on the AASC provider to inform us so we can close the case down and no longer pursue them to deliver an Induction and complete the ASF form. There can be delays in this process which does cause wasted resources.
We attend a Home Office led meeting 3 times a week (Monday, Wednesday & Friday) known as the Routing and Capacity Call. This pulls together all the 3 AASC providers and Home Office colleagues across Routing (RIAV) and capacity. We are given information on the flow of recent arrivals, forecasts of future arrivals in the coming days, information on the flow from Manston to ring-fenced hotels and then from ring-fenced to IAs, where our services start. This helps us with planning and preparing resources. This is also a platform for
us to raise any issues and barriers we are facing in contacting clients, either site or case specific.
We are the single point of contact for clients to raise issues and concerns with their AASC provider, the payment provider and the Home Office. Under Issue Reporting we have a key performance indicator (KPI) that requires us to report issues to the appropriate party for resolution within 30 minutes of them being raised. This is a KPI that we meet consistently month on month. Issue Reporting covers Maintenance, Requests for Assistance (RFAs), Complaints, Asylum Payment issues and Feedback. We have regular meetings with the AASC and Payment provider teams handling the issues we report. These are an opportunity for us to work collaboratively to better support our clients. We discuss trends and concerns, working together to identify a way forward in line with our respective contracts.
Clients can contact us via the helpline, webchat or the Raise an Issue form on our website to report such concerns to us. These channels are all available 24/7/365. All tickets are sent to the appropriate party securely through our system and they can update the tickets and mark these as resolved.
Maintenance
In collaboration with the AASC providers, we have a fault matrix built into our system which allows us to report and categorise maintenance issues to the relevant provider in line with their contract. When a client calls to report a maintenance issue, we will take as many details as we can of the specific issue and provide the client with the associated SLA, either 4 hours for Category 1, 5 working days (with a 24 hour interim solution) for Category 2 and 21 working days for Category 3 issues.
As well as sending the notification through our system to the provider, we will attempt to call them for any Category 1 issues to ensure they pick these up promptly.
It is not within the AASC contract to update us on the steps they need to take to resolve a maintenance issue and unfortunately, we receive limited information, normally restricted to an initial acknowledgement and confirmation of an issue being solved. It is also not within our contract to follow up on issues logged and we are therefore reliant on the client making further contact with us if the issue persists. When a client calls in to follow up on the resolution, we will either reiterate the associated SLA or assist them to raise a complaint if the SLA has passed. If they have further details to provide, these will be passed on to the provider and if the issue has progressed into something different, a new ticket will also be raised.
The accommodation provider can recategorize issues logged should on closer inspection they believe it has been categorised incorrectly. They will notify us of this through the system and the team will contact the client to make them aware of the change to SLA and the reason for the change having been made (if this is provided).
Requests for Assistance (RFA)
Within our contract there is a list of specific queries that we must raise as an RFA. During mobilisation and as the contract has progressed, we have worked with both the Home Office and AASC providers to drill down into these request types to make them more specific and to ensure we can log issues reported more intuitively. The types of issues that can be reported through this route range from active and historic safeguarding concerns and support related queries that go directly to Home Office teams including compliance, asylum support and safeguarding.
The reports that go to the AASC provider include, but are not limited to, the following:
Many of the categories listed above also go to the Home Office Safeguarding Hub / assurance team etc.
Depending on the nature of a request, we will contact the emergency services and refer into social services for additional support. On occasions we will also help secure a refuge placement, contacting the domestic abuse helpline or signpost to other organisations such as mental health helplines and victim support and will call the accommodation provider to alert them to serious incidents taking place or major safeguarding concerns identified.
When raising incidents with the provider we will include information on the concern or incident being reported, as many details for any perpetrators involved, reference numbers for any referrals made or calls to the emergency services as well as details for the clients GP and any other organisation we have signposted to.
As a result of the increased use of contingency accommodation and increased length of stay in such accommodation, we receive safeguarding concerns relating to mental health and threats of self-harm from those within this type of accommodation. We also receive report of unrest and anti-social behaviour/issues between residents in such accommodation due to tensions being high and a lack of updates around dispersals and length of stay being shared.
As with maintenance issues, there is no requirement within the AASC contract for them to update us on actions being taken to address concerns. There is also no SLA within their contract that stipulates when an issue will be addressed and/or resolved. However, if we receive a follow up from a client after 5 working days and they advise no action has been taken or the issue is unresolved, we will assist the client to raise a complaint with the appropriate party to investigate and resolve.
Asylum Payments
We are required to report issues with the payment provider (PFS) or the Home Office ASPEN team. Issues include, lost or stolen cards, issues with activating a card, checking balances and reporting missed or incorrect payments. There is no specific SLA for these issues, but we do receive a few updates from the parties which we can pass on to clients should they call in to follow up.
Complaints
In line with the contract, we can raise complaints with the AASC providers, Asylum Payment provider and Home Office Asylum Support as well as ourselves.
A complaint can be raised for the following reasons:
The AASC provider, Payment provider and Migrant Help have 5 working days, and the Home Office has 20 working days to take appropriate action and resolve a complaint. For complaints against AASC and PFS, if there has been no update and the complaint is still unresolved on Day 6, an automatic escalation is sent to the provider to follow up. If there is still no action on Day 8, an automatic escalation is sent to the Home Office. Following each automatic escalation, we will call the client to make them aware.
If there hasn’t been any update or resolution on a Migrant Help complaint on Day 6, an automatic escalation will be sent to the Home Office.
The providers can reject a complaint, they will pass this to the Home Office who will review and if they agree, we will be instructed to notify the client and redirect to the appropriate party where required.
In addition, if the client receives a response and is dissatisfied with the response received, we will escalate the complaint to the Home Office for further investigation and response, outlining the reason the client does not feel their complaint has been investigated or responded to in full.
Common issues/trends:
Feedback
We can log feedback against the Home Office, AASC and Payment providers and ourselves. No response will be issued in response to such disclosures, but these are considered.
Feedback received can range from suggestions around the contract, areas of improvement, positive feedback around an interaction they have had with one of the services or negative feedback that they do not want to log as a complaint.
Migrant Help staff can identify and manage signs of vulnerability and at-risk client and understand their responsibilities in respect of the protection of vulnerable persons and that they respond to concerns in an appropriate manner.
Where Migrant Help staff identify that a client may be at risk or have specific needs, we must report these concerns to the Home Office and the relevant AASC Provider responsible for the client’s Asylum Accommodation within one calendar day of such needs being identified. Where there is a clear and present risk to the safety of a client, Migrant Help notify the relevant emergency services and notify the Home Office and AASC provider of actions taken. Migrant Help staff provide information and signposting on appropriate services and support which may be available and relevant to the clients’ needs.
Where a risk to health and wellbeing is identified, or there are concerns over a client’s welfare, Migrant Help notify the Home Office and AASC Provider through a Request for Assistance (RFA), details of the incident are captured and object forwarded to the Home Office and AASC provider. For example, if a client was experiencing suicidal ideation, the Migrant Help call handler would assess if there was a current risk through questioning plans and timeframe, and contact emergency services if so, raising an RFA to highlight what the client said, and actions Migrant Help had taken. If there was not an immediate risk to life, Migrant Help would signpost to mental health support and raise an RFA to provide an overview of the incident and actions taken.
When Migrant Help raises an RFA, they set the status of the incident to ‘unresolved’, it is only the Home Office or AASC Provider who can ‘solve’ the incident. There is no timeframe on when an incident should be ‘solved’. Migrant Help is not always updated on actions taken by the AASC Provider, where there are updates, they often acknowledge response of the incident to confirm it been passed to their safeguarding team or a welfare check has been requested.
Where an incident requires escalation, Migrant Help staff can phone the AASC Provider to notify them of the RFA that has been raised and ask that it is urgently reviewed. For example, if a client discloses domestic abuse to Migrant Help and state that they wish to be moved away from the perpetrator, who they are sharing Home Office accommodation with, Migrant Help will raise a RFA to request this urgent move from the AASC Provider and follow up with a phone call to ensure it is picked up. Each AASC Provider has a Safeguarding Team and Migrant Help can also email them to escalate any concerns.
Migrant Help staff do have a responsibility to report any concerns they may have about a child or minor under the care of a Migrant Help client, for example the child of an asylum
seeker, or an adult at risk. Where Migrant Help identify the need for a referral to the Local Authority, they will complete this and update the Home Office and AASC provider of completion via an RFA. We do not have access to information on whether AASC providers have completed a Local Authority social services referral, and therefore make a referral based on being the first responder to receiving the information from our clients.
Migrant Help maintains complete and auditable records demonstrating how advisers considered and responded to the circumstances and requirements of clients with specific needs, or at-risk clients. This includes the recording of when a referral is made to the Local Authority. They are recorded on an internal incident reporting system, using Dynamics 365 Software. Incident reports must be completed within 24 hours of an incident being reported, and reviewed by the relevant manager to check appropriate action has been taken.
Migrant Help has a Safeguarding Manager and part of their role is to be a point of contact for the AASC Provider Safeguarding teams, assisting with escalations and attending multi- agency meetings regarding our clients. The Safeguarding Manager attends monthly complex case calls which are facilitated by the Home Office with each AASC provider, to discuss clients that present complex issues and needs and require a more in-depth conversation and joint risk-management plan to effectively manage the cases. The Safeguarding Manager also attends the Asylum Support Contracts Safeguarding Board and holds monthly meetings with each Accommodation Provider Safeguarding team to communicate any concerns or issues relating to clients.
Migrant Help Outreach team provide support to vulnerable asylum seekers who are considered to be at risk or have specific needs. This support is delivered in line with our AIRE contract and clients can either self-refer or be referred by a third-party supporting them to our Outreach team. These referrals often mean that we need to work closely with AASC providers.
Vulnerabilities and risk
The Outreach team recognizes the indicators of a vulnerable or at-risk child or adult with specific needs and responds to their needs appropriately by referring to the local authority social services. The AASC providers are also responsible for referring se at risk or clients with specific needs to relevant local authority teams for a care and support assessment. It is the AASC providers who would liaise with relevant local authority teams to facilitate the transfer of clients into local authority care if most appropriate.
Contact with AASC
Contact with AASC providers is typically through issue reporting via a Request For Assistance. However, there are occasions where direct contact is required due to the severity of the incident. The most common reason for direct contact with AASC providers is to highlight an urgent safeguarding concern which could require an urgent move, such as in a case of domestic violence where either an alleged perpetrator or the victim may require a move.
Serco and Mears are responsive at this step. It is worth noting that Clearsprings Ready Homes are more difficult to reach by telephone.
For all non-urgent queries where AASC involvement is required an email is sent to designated safeguarding emails.
Clients are notified of the outcome of their asylum claim by the Home Office. Migrant Help are notified of a positive decision at the point that asylum support is being discontinued by the Home Office. The AASC providers are notified by the Home Office separately.
We offer our optional Positive Move On service to all clients we receive details of from the Home Office. Our Positive Move On support is provided by Reed in Partnership in England,
Scotland, Northern Ireland. In Wales our Positive Move on Service is provided by the Welsh Refugee Council.
The service consists of advice in relation to applying for benefits, housing, opening a bank account, explanation of the grace period, significance of the national insurance number and E-Visa, documents needed for appointments and a housing referral to the Local Authority if the client consents.
Assurance
We have a Quality Management Framework, which sets out our quality expectations and the processes in place to measure, maintain and improve quality within the delivery of the AIRE contract. We assess quality and compliance on various level, including call and case assessments, calibration sessions, second-line checks, internal and external audits.
Our monthly call and case assessments are completed using our dedicated scorecards which set out best practice, as well as contractual and compliance requirements for each type of interaction. Client Advisers receive an outcome of either Underperforming, Developing, Successfully Performing or Exceeding. Depending on the outcome of the assessment, further development and support may be put in place for the Client Adviser. Our Quality Team carries out regular Second-Line Checks, ensuring assessments are carried out correctly and quality expectations are met during each interaction. Regular Calibration Sessions take place with every operational team to review the quality scorecards, confirm quality and compliance expectations and share knowledge and best practice across the operational teams.
We carry out various internal audits, including process audits, quality management audits, complaints audits and safeguarding audits. Any findings raised in these audits are logged on our Corrective Actions Log and followed up with the action owner until it has been completed.
We are also certified to ISO 9001 (Quality Management), ISO 45001 (Occupational Health and Safety) and ISO 27001 (Information Security), as well as the Advice Quality Standard (AQS), for which we are audited annually (for AQS this is biennially).
Training
We have listed below the courses that our staff complete. We have additional training for more specialised roles or when line management is involved.
Safeguarding Adults and Children ISO9001 Quality Management Housing Standards
Health and Safety Refresher
Working with a Telephone Interpreter OISC Level 1 Asylum
Safeguarding Against Radicalisation Cultural Awareness Refresher
Domestic Abuse and Intimate Partner Violence Female Genital Mutilation (FGM)
Workshop for Radicalisation and Prevent (WRAP) AIRE Quality Framework and Quality Assessment Customer Support
Modern Day Slavery
GPDR and Information Security Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Hate Crime
Abuse Related to Witchcraft Cyber-Security
Asylum Support and Asylum Process Overview Stress Awareness and Well-being Safeguarding Adults and Children
Modern Slavery First Responder Honour Based Violence
We have fifteen Key Performance Indicators (KPI) across our services. These are reported to the Home Office on a monthly and quarterly basis. The Home Office also has full access to our database to assure the work that we complete. The Covid 19 pandemic hit us hard but all services remained operational throughout. The use of hotels / contingency accommodation caused us to adapt our operating model processes, some of which remain
today. The contact centre’s waiting times have significantly improved over the last twelve months and will continue to improve through additional staffing, amendments to processes and we will shortly go live with a new data base which has many improvements and innovations particularly around clients being more self sufficient with their asylum support journey.
We meet the Home Office for our weekly touchpoint call, monthly Contract Management Group and quarterly Strategic Review Monitoring Board. We also have strong relationships with all of the AASC providers and meet regularly with them to discuss emerging issues and points for improvement.
AIRE | Advice, Issue Reporting and Eligibility Contract |
AASC | Asylum Accommodation Support Contracts (accommodation provider) |
ASF1 / ASF | Asylum Support Form 1 (for destitute asylum applicants and people whose asylum applications have been unsuccessful, to apply for support) |
ASPEN | Asylum Support Payment Card |
ATLAS | Secure System (where completed ASF1s are submitted) |
COC | Change of Circumstances |
ECP | Emergency Cash Payment |
IA | Initial Accommodation |
KPIs | Key Performance Indications (for our contract) |
LEAP | Lived Experience Advisory Panel |
PFS | Asylum Support Payment Card Provider |
RFA | Request For Assistance |
RIAV | Home Office Routing IA Validation Team |
S98 | Asylum Support S98 (for asylum applicants facing destitution within 10 days) |
SLA | Service Level Agreement |
Feb 2025