DD2239 European Londoners Online Portal and Campaign

There are approximately one million European nationals living in London and while their rights post-Brexit are still to be confirmed, the Government has stated that they will need to apply for ‘settled status’ to remain in the UK after Brexit.

In July 2017 the London Assembly EU Exit Working Group hosted a session entitled ‘European Voices: EU Londoners Speak’ and in November 2017 the Social Integration Team hosted a roundtable with civil society and representatives from the legal sector to explore in more depth the issue of EEA+ and third-country nationals at risk of marginalisation post-Brexit.

Both forums demonstrated that European nationals in London are already reporting serious challenges following the referendum vote in June 2016. Although their rights remain unchanged in law until the date when the UK formally leaves the European Union, there is significant uncertainty over their future status in the UK. This uncertainty has contributed to some immediate challenges for European Londoners including feeling unwelcome, discrimination, hate crime, problems accessing credit and mortgages, difficulties renting private property, problems gaining employment, discriminatory treatment stemming from confusion about entitlements to services, and resulting mental health problems.

If the Government’s proposed ‘settled status’ scheme goes ahead, some European Londoners will face additional barriers to obtaining the proposed ‘settled status’. These are expected to include :

• People with immigration complexities that make their eligibility for settled status uncertain, for example third-country nationals relying on EU law rights based on CJEU jurisprudence.
• People who might struggle to evidence their eligibility, such as those who have not been given proper records by their employer, have been exploited, or are fleeing domestic violence and therefore do not have access to necessary documentation
• People who are unable to access the system to apply for settled status, for example due to language barriers, disability, or lack of administrative or digital capacity
• People who do not apply, either due to lack of information, lack of support or through lack of trust in the system.

There is also a shortage of quality advice and support given the pressures services are under and the scale of the challenge. The removal of legal aid from immigration and family reunification cases has further stretched what advice and support is freely accessible. This adds to the stress (and potentially to the costs) facing even those European nationals with a straightforward claim for status.

The Mayor has committed to launch a new online portal on London.gov to make it easier for European Londoners to get the information they need to stay in the UK after Brexit. A landing page launched by the Mayor on 1 March received a high level of traffic with over 9,500 unique views in its first week, the most visited page on the site at the time. The resource will be developed in partnership with legal advice and support services to ensure that it supports and complements existing activity and capacity, as well as the needs of users.

The online portal will also be complemented by an information campaign that will promote strong messages of welcome to European Londoners and will work directly with communities and civil society, with a focus on those most at risk of marginalisation.

Alongside this, work is underway with London Councils to host a roundtable with London borough councils to share best practice on supporting European residents including through partnership working with civil society, advice agencies and embassies to meet the needs of residents. Borough councils will be kept up-to-date on the portal and campaign through this, and where possible GLA communications will be coordinated with borough-level marketing.

The London Strategic Migration Partnership (LSMP) and the Migrant and Refugee Advisory Panel (MRAP) represent further opportunities for partnership working with local authorities, civil society, and the Home Office to ensure European Londoners can access their rights. The LSMP and MRAP have a dedicated workstream on vulnerable European Londoners that seeks to manage the impact of the EU Referendum result on London. Work with them includes building an understanding of barriers to vulnerable EU nationals in London securing status in the UK, and working with London stakeholders to increase awareness of EU nationals and other migrants’ rights.

The following groups have been highlighted as being at risk of marginalisation because they are most likely to be affected by the additional barriers outlined above (paragraph 1.3):

• Those with limited English language proficiency, literacy or administrative confidence
• Children and young people, especially those in care or those who are separated from their family
• Disabled people
• Older people
• Carers
• Roma EEA+ nationals
• EEA+ nationals in the LGBT community
• Non-EEA family members of EEA nationals
• Those with retained and derived rights, including third-country nationals relying on EU law rights based on CJEU jurisprudence, such as Zambrano carers
• EEA+ nationals in detention centres and facing removal
• EEA+ nationals living in houses in multiple occupation
• EEA+ nationals in precarious work and those who have fallen out of work
• EEA+ nationals who are homeless
• EEA+ nationals who are victims of trafficking
• EEA+ nationals who have made unsuccessful applications for permanent residence.

Objectives:

1. Development of an online portal on London.gov where users can access up-to-date information and advice about their rights after the UK leaves the European Union, and to signpost users to appropriate advice and support services.

Development of a campaign as part of #LondonIsOpen to promote messages of welcome to European Londoners.

• Community engagement and outreach work in partnership with civil society to engage with groups most at risk of marginalisation. This will include micro-grants to add capacity for civil society to deliver events for target groups. Specifically, the micro-grants will be of up to £1k each and will:

• Be delivered through an online call-to-action for established community groups with a demonstrable expertise. Bids will be assessed based on the organisation’s ability to deliver a successful event, and ability to reach audiences most at risk of marginalisation post-Brexit.
• Provide resource for community organisations to do outreach with European Londoners at risk of marginalisation. Grant funding could go towards venue hire and translation services to ensure events are as accessible as possible for target audiences.
• With the agreement of the legal sector, connect community organisations to potential pro bono legal advisers to support the event
• Enable organisations to disseminate printed materials from the campaign promoting messages of welcome, and provide a suggested framework for delivery of a successful event that will enable smaller organisations to engage
• Organisations will provide a short pro forma report after the outreach work has been completed which will outline the numbers of residents reached, the support provided, and any outcomes or follow-up work being undertaken. This will inform project monitoring to ensure funds are appropriately spent and will ensure that diverse audiences are reached.

Expected outcomes:

1. A trusted resource for European Londoners to access quality information and guidance and be signposted to advice and support services. Given the web-traffic to the existing landing page, it is anticipated that up to 3,000 people a week will access this support online.

1. Strong messages of welcome and belonging that mitigate the risks that European Londoners will face discrimination or prolonged uncertainty about their rights post-Brexit.

1. Community engagement and outreach with vulnerable groups at risk of marginalisation that empowers as many European Londoners as possible to secure their status to remain.

1. A platform to support Mayoral advocacy on citizens’ rights that meets the needs of Londoners.

Proposed break-down of expenditure:

Equality, integration and inclusion are the drivers behind this programme. This work to develop a portal directing European Londoners to information and support aims to reduce uncertainty, feelings of being unwelcome and discrimination facing vulnerable migrant groups. It will also seek to empower European Londoners to access their right to remain after the UK leaves the European Union.

Any commissioning processes will ask potential partners to demonstrate how their projects are inclusive of a diverse group and actively work to eliminate discrimination on the basis of the nine characteristics protected in the Equality Act 2010. In order to ensure the highest standards of equality, diversity and inclusion are upheld, the GLA will use outreach and engagement approaches to target activities at particular groups that are less able to engage or face greater barriers to engagement to enable them to participate, whilst ensuring that activities are open and accessible to all Londoners.

The guidance and resources will be produced in accordance with best practice for accessible communications.

1. Key risks and issues

b) Links to Mayoral strategies and priorities

This work forms part of the Mayor’s Social Integration Strategy, to remove barriers to integration relating to ability to access legal rights to citizenship and residence.

c) Impact assessments and consultations.

In July 2017 the London Assembly EU Exit Working Group hosted a session entitled ‘European Voices: EU Londoners Speak’ and in November 2017 the Social Integration Team hosted a roundtable with civil society and representatives from the legal sector to explore in more depth the issue of EEA+ and third-country nationals[1] at risk of marginalisation post-Brexit. In March 2018 the London Strategic Migration Partnership invited the Immigration Law Practitioners’ Association (ILPA) to discuss the concerns of the legal sector in relation to citizens’ rights post-Brexit. The portal will be designed in consultation with the advice and support sector, and user testing will ensure it is fit for purpose.

The expenditure of up to £90,000, will be funded from the 2018-19 EU Citizen Advice Service Programme budget held within the Communities and Social Policy Unit.

The foregoing sections of this report indicate that the decisions requested of the Director fall within the statutory powers of the Authority to promote and/or to do anything which is facilitative of or conducive or incidental to social development within Greater London and in formulating the proposals in respect of which a decision is sought officers have complied with the Authority’s related statutory duties to:

(a) pay due regard to the principle that there should be equality of opportunity for all people;
(b) consider how the proposals will promote the improvement of health of persons, health inequalities between persons and to contribute towards the achievement of sustainable development in the United Kingdom; and
(c) consult with appropriate bodies.

In taking the decisions requested of him, the director must have due regard to the Public Sector Equality Duty; namely the need to eliminate discrimination, harassment, victimisation and any other conduct prohibited by the Equality Act 2010, and to advance equality of opportunity between persons who share a relevant protected characteristic (race, disability, gender, age, sexual orientation, religion or belief, pregnancy and maternity and gender reassignment) and persons who do not share it and foster good relations between persons who share a relevant protected characteristic and persons who do not share it (section 149 of the Equality Act 2010). To this end, the director should have particular regard to section 3 (above) of this report.

Officers must ensure that any external services required for the European Londoners Online Portal and Campaign project be procured in accordance with the Authority’s Contracts and Funding Code (the “Code”) and with the assistance of Transport for London’s procurement team. Furthermore, officers must ensure that appropriate contractual documentation be executed by both the Authority and the relevant contractor prior to the commencement of the required services.