Refugee and asylum seekers' children
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Legislation
Key documents
Further information
It is Government policy that children from asylum seeking and refugee backgrounds are given the same opportunities as all other children to access education. LEAs have a legal duty to ensure that education is available for all children of compulsory school age in their area, appropriate to age, ability and aptitudes and any Special Educational Needs (SEN) they may have. This duty applies irrespective of a child's immigration status or rights of residence in a particular area.
Schools receive funding for children of asylum seekers and refugees in the same way as they do for all other children on the school roll, through the Education Formula Spending Share (EFSS). The children of asylum seekers can also benefit from two grants which are available to all LEAs:
- The first is the Vulnerable Children Grant worth a total
of £84 million for 2003/04 and 2004/05. This grant allows LEAs to
allocate funding based on local needs in order to provide support to a range of
vulnerable children, including those from asylum seeking backgrounds. The main
focus of the grant is on school-age children but this does not limit LEAs from
taking a wider view and supporting children from birth to 19.
- The second is the Ethnic Minority Achievement Grant, which, among other things, provides support to ethnic minority pupils in learning English as an Additional Language. The vast majority of this grant is devolved directly to schools, allowing head teachers to decide the most appropriate support needed for these pupils. The total allocation for 2003/04 is £155 million, rising to £162 million in 2004/05.
Asylum seeker and refugee pupils of compulsory school age who are registered in a maintained school and whose parents are, or who are themselves, in receipt of support, e.g. vouchers or income support provided under the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999, are entitled to free school meals and milk where provided.
LEAs have discretionary powers to provide school uniform for pupils, or to offer financial help towards the cost of school uniform in cases of hardship. It is for the LEA to decide whether or not to do so and to decide on qualifying criteria.
Pupils recently arrived from overseas, including children of asylum seekers and refugees, with little or no English, need not be counted as being eligible for Key Stage tests, and do not need to be included on school rolls when calculating information for publication in the annual primary and secondary performance tables. This applies to pupils who were admitted to an English school for the first time on or after the start of the 2001/2002 school year, arrived from overseas prior to their admission and whose first language is not English.
It will only affect information published in the tables on individual schools and LEAs. National level statistics will continue to be compiled on the same basis as in the past.
The Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002 enables the Government to set up accommodation centres for some destitute asylum seekers and their families while their claims are being processed. The intention is that education will be provided within the accommodation centres. This legislation removes certain legal obligations from the LEAs that will have accommodation centres within their areas, particularly sections 13, 14 and 19 of the Education Act 1996 and sections 86(1) and (2) and 118 of the School Standards and Framework Act 1998. However, LEAs continue to be responsible for the provision of education in particular circumstances, e.g. for those children with severe or complex SEN which cannot be met within the centre. They also remain responsible for assessing children with SEN.
The DfES will ensure that the education delivered within the centres reflects the breadth and quality of education those children would have received had they attended maintained schools, but it will be possible to tailor it better to meet their specific needs. The children will not normally remain in the accommodation centres for longer than six months, with a possibility of a further three in certain limited circumstances. Ofsted will inspect the education provision. However, even when the two trial centres are open, the vast majority of children of asylum seekers will continue to be educated within maintained schools.
