DD2492 Insecure Immigration Status

This decision form seeks the Executive Director’s approval (pursuant to the delegation made by the Mayor under cover of MD2680) of expenditure of up to £689,000 on programmes that relate to the provision of services for Londoners with insecure immigration status, with a focus on children in care, young Londoners, European Londoners and rough sleepers.

This decision form also outlines how £65,000 of approved carry forward on the European Londoners budget will be used, with reference to projects detailed in ADD2385. The Mayor approved a further £50,000 of the European Londoners budget to provide maintenance and further development of the European Londoners Hub under cover of MD2680.

The Mayor’s Social Integration Strategy All of Us set out his commitment to supporting Londoners with insecure status to access their legal rights to residency and citizenship. Through the Citizenship and Integration Initiative the Mayor has partnered with civil society experts to inform the development of programmes to meet needs of young Londoners with insecure immigration status and European Londoners impacted by Brexit. The Mayor has also been a champion for the rights of the Windrush Generation whose treatment highlighted the appalling effects that high fees and administrative barriers to residency and citizenship have on those who have lived in the UK for the majority of their life.

The impact of COVID-19 has disproportionately impacted migrant communities. Not only do migrants fulfil many key roles that disproportionately exposes them to the risk of infection, but the hostile environment also limits many migrants’ access to essential support including Universal Credit and homelessness assistance. Research conducted by the Migration Observatory suggests that nearly 1.4 million people have no access to the welfare safety net as a result of having no recourse to public funds (NRPF), and the burden of restrictions falls disproportionately on Black or Asian people, or people from other minority ethnic backgrounds.

The Mayor has been investing strategically in immigration advice and support services to meet the needs of Londoners with insecure immigration status in order to address these issues including through the funder collaboration “Justice Together” (approved under cover of DD2418). The programmes detailed in this decision document continue that strategic investment, building on existing programmes and seek to improve coordination of immigration advice for Londoners disproportionately impacted by both the impact of COVID-19 and Brexit.

Children and young people in care

Context and Purpose

Local authorities must be proactive in identifying children and young people in their care with immigration needs in time for the EU Settlement Scheme (EUSS) deadline, otherwise they will face barriers in accessing their entitlements. Research commissioned by the Mayor of London has estimated that roughly 107,000 children and 26,000 young people are undocumented in London alone and some of these children will be in the care of London local authorities.[1] Significant cuts made to legal aid in 2013 and increasing citizenship and settlement fees over the last decade have also made it more difficult for children to access settlement. There is a need for local authorities to embed proactive and rigorous practices to support children to access citizenship and settlement to help to secure their rights into adulthood.

This project enables local authorities to resolve immigration needs at a time when the deadline for the EU Settlement Scheme is looming and local authorities have faced scrutiny for high profile cases where adults who grew up in local authority care in the UK are now at risk of deportation as adults because citizenship claims were not made when they were children in care.[2] Local authorities do not consistently collect data on the nationalities of children in their care, so there is a struggle to identify children who do not clearly present with immigration needs. This is especially the case where children were born here or have lived here for most of their lives, where an assumption is often made that they have British citizenship if the right questions have not been asked.

Delivery Method

This project will be made up of three strands that will seek to:

• establish partnership working between three local authorities and children’s immigration specialist organisations to resolve children’s immigration status and citizenship needs;
• create a pan-London resource for local authorities to access training and other necessary resources to build their capacity to identify and support children and young people in care with immigration and citizenship needs; and
• fully evaluate the first two strands and create a reference group in order to develop an immigration advice model that can be embedded within local authority children’s services teams and establish a long-term legacy for this work.

The first strand of the project will grant fund three local authorities to commission organisations that provide SRA or up to OISC level 3 accredited expert immigration advice. All London local authorities will be invited to engage through an expression of interest led by the Association of London Directors of Children Services, and the grant funded local authorities will be selected by the GLA on the basis of the level of need identified and the ability to establish a model that is replicable. This grant funding for local authorities is also expected to cover local authority overheads to ensure that they can resource the project and establish a long-term legacy for the work to continue within the organisation and engage in developing a model that is replicable in other local authorities. Although this strand will be delivered through local authorities, the GLA will oversee the progress of the project and use outcomes to inform the Mayor’s wider work around access to immigration advice for vulnerable Londoners, including proactively embedding the learning in other local authority contexts through a reference group, including ensuring the sustainability of the work beyond this programme funding.

The second strand of the work will involve the GLA commissioning a pan-London resource for local authorities to access training and learning tools to build their capacity to identify and support children and young people in care with immigration and citizenship needs. This will also involve helping local authorities to establish clear referral pathways into specialist immigration advice and representation services for children and young people in care, drawing on the experience of the three pilot local authority areas to provide practical examples of putting this into practice. The GLA will monitor the progress of this work and work with the delivery organisation and local authorities to ensure that the programme is accessible and effective.

The third strand of work focuses on embedding the learning. The GLA will commission an evaluation of the first two strands of work. The commissioned partner will assess the outcomes of the work in consultation with local authorities, delivery organisations and young people who have accessed the support. This will help to draw out learnings from the project, such as positive outcomes for young people and cost savings for local authorities. Throughout this project the GLA will bring together a reference group of local authorities, other local government organisations, children’s immigration and citizenship experts and involve the perspectives of young people to inform this group. The group will assess the progress and outcomes of the work, as well as troubleshooting areas to ensure that the model can be reproduced across local authorities. This group will be convened from the outset of the programme and will use the learning from both phases to establish new models of practice for supporting children in care and develop a mechanism for the extension of this practice across London local authorities.

Impact and Deliverables

This project aims to:

• develop a lasting model that can be taken on by local authorities across London to ensure that they identify and support children and young people in their care with immigration needs at the earliest opportunity;
• engage all London local authorities to increase awareness about children and young people’s immigration and citizenship needs;
• map the immigration needs of all children in the care of the three participating local authorities as an exemplar of best practice to inform other local authorities’ approach;
• support children and young people in care to access their citizenship and settlement rights;
• support local authorities to embed processes to fulfil their duties towards children and young people in their care; and
• evaluate the project and ensure that learnings help to inform the legacy of this project and how it is scaled up beyond the lifeline of the project, as well as informing the Mayor’s wider work on Londoners with immigration needs.

Young Londoners with insecure status

Context and Purpose

Thousands of young Londoners have grown up in this country but are prevented from fulfilling their potential because of their insecure immigration status. Despite London being their home, these young people find themselves blocked from progressing with their lives. They cannot work, access mainstream benefits, hold a driving licence or open a bank account, and are effectively barred from accessing university without access to student finance. Many who have made London their home and live here permanently face financial barriers to becoming British citizens because citizenship and settlement fees have increased drastically over the last decade, in tandem with government cuts to legal aid.

The Mayor is committed to supporting young Londoners to access settlement and secure their futures in the city.[3] In 2020, the Mayor published research which estimates that roughly 107,000 children and 26,000 young people are undocumented in London.[4] These are often children and young people who have been born in the UK, or brought up here for the majority of their lives and may be able to make a citizenship claim. The Mayor has been a champion of the Windrush generation and their families, who were prevented from accessing their entitlements in the country through a combination of Home Office errors, the Government’s hostile environment policies and increasingly inaccessible routes to settlement. Some young Londoners who are undocumented now are the children and grandchildren of those affected by the Windrush injustice. As the EUSS deadline looms for European Londoners, children and young people still need to apply to the scheme. Offering children and young people easily accessible resources on their rights and entitlements regarding citizenship and settlement, with support to access specialist advice, will help to secure their futures.

Delivery Method

This expenditure will contribute towards establishing and improving online resources for children and young people on their citizenship and settlement rights and entitlements. These include the following:

• building an online immigration advice tool on London.gov, built by immigration experts to reflect the changing immigration system;
• updating the current London.gov advice pages on citizenship and settlement to be in line with the new immigrations system;
• funding user testing to ensure that the London.gov website is accessible and useable for its intended audience;
• updating a map of advice services based in London; and
• a contribution towards promoting the resources through trusted partners working with young people.

Impact and Deliverables

This project aims to:

• create of an accessible and easy to navigate resource for young Londoners and their parents, carers, social workers and others to raise awareness of their rights and how to access them;
• enable user testing that ensures the resource is fully adapted to the needs of its audience; and
• work through trusted partners to ensure that the resource is promoted to reach its audience.

European Londoners

Context and Purpose

Accurate and up-to-date information and guidance for European Londoners will become increasingly important as we approach the end of the Brexit transition period and free movement (31st December 2020) and beyond. The most recent Home Office statistics show that over 45% of the 1.23 million London applications concluded so far were granted pre-settled status or other outcomes (consisting of refused, invalid, withdrawn or void applications). These applicants will be required to apply again to secure their future in the UK. The European Londoners Hub has so far had over 900,000 unique visitors with 23,000 of them accessing translated content. It is vital that the European Londoners Hub continues to provide accessible information and address the needs of its users.

Over the last two years, the GLA has run an extensive programme of outreach in partnership with small community groups and civil society organisations to provide free legal advice and support. Over 5,000 European Londoners and their families have received one-to-one free advice on the EU Settlement Scheme, more than half of them from marginalised groups such as rough sleepers, the elderly, people with disabilities and people from Roma communities.

In addition to ensuring that European Londoners can access correct guidance and advice about their rights, it is more important than ever to address the political and social climate which risks becoming more divisive as we approach the end of the transition period in December 2020. The mayor has expressed concern that there will be another spike in hate crime after Brexit, particularly in the event of a No Deal Brexit. Home Office figures show that the number of hate crimes have more than doubled since 2013, with particular spikes following certain events such as the EU Referendum in 2016.[5]

It will also be increasingly important to encourage and support European Londoners in being active residents and citizens, by facilitating democratic participation and education. This next year will focus not only on ensuring all European Londoners and their families can stay in the UK, but how we ensure that they are represented in wider conversations around social integration and community cohesion.

Delivery Method

We will commission a video production company through a competitive tendering process that will work closely with the organisation/s maintaining the European Londoners Hub, to produce accessible videos in community languages. These videos will cover topics relevant to European Londoners such as aftercare guidance for those who have already applied under the EU Settlement Scheme, information on the new immigration system and how it affects European Londoners arriving after the end of the transition period as well as specific advice on what government support and services are available, complementing existing resources including the Employment Hub.

We will run a small grants programme, building on three previous micro-grant funding rounds, awarding up to six civil society and community organisations funds to reach and engage European Londoners with information about their rights in the UK post-Brexit. The fund will address emerging needs of those most in need identified through our work with the sector including increasingly complex immigration cases, the potential increase in hate crime as we approach the end of the transition period and issues arising from the hostile environment.

Impact and Deliverables

This project seeks to:

• support European Londoners to obtain and keep their immigration status post-Brexit through awareness raising and outreach activities;
• provide accessible material such as videos and print in multiple languages with a target of reaching 10,000 European Londoners with important information relating to their rights;
• reach European Londoners disproportionally under-represented and at risk of marginalisation through partnership working and small grants to civil society and community organisations

Expenditure approvals already in place

The Mayor approved expenditure of £50k to update, maintain and translate the European Londoners Hub under cover of MD2680. Therefore, including the below, in 2020/21 there is a total budget of £100k, plus £65k of approved carry forward. Expenditure on work to support European Londoners in previous financial years was approved under cover of MD2461, DD2239, DD2277 and ADD2385.

Migrant Rough Sleepers

Context and Purpose

This project aims to support Londoners sleeping rough to prove or obtain secure immigration status and enable a positive move-on from the streets or from emergency accommodation such as the covid-19 hotels for rough sleepers by increasing the immigration advice and support available to migrant rough sleepers and more effectively using the resources that currently exist within the system.

The Covid-19 emergency accommodation for rough sleepers organised in London has highlighted the high numbers of homeless migrants with insecure immigration status and the limited free immigration advice currently available. Moreover, it has also shown the importance of specialist workers within homelessness charities to do the wraparound support and facilitate the referrals and liaison between the immigration advisers and clients with complex needs.

We estimate that 68% of the non-UK nationals accommodated in GLA Covid-19 procured hotels have unclear immigration status and need immigration advice. These numbers are also high in hotels procured by local authorities. Moreover, rough sleeping data for April to June 2020 shows not only an increase in rough sleeping, but also a sharp increase in the percentage of non-EU nationals seen on the streets. While the need is likely to increase, most partners offering immigration specialist support to these individuals only have short term funding, especially as other government funding for advice services is due to end in September 2020 or March 2021. Long-term funding is key to do the in-depth case work resolution needed to ensure positive move-on and prevent a return to the streets. The GLA needs to step in to cover this gap at an exceptional time of need.

Delivery method

We are seeking a decision to spend £264k for this financial year to provide grant funding to projects focusing on improving access to immigration advice for rough sleepers for an initial 6-month period and to fund an organisation to manage the grant programme. We will initially fund projects for 6 months with 2020/2021 funding, but with an intention to extend for another 12 months, subject to financial approval for 2021/2022 funding in order to meet the long-term funding needs of the sector and to allow for complex case resolution. We will be seeking further funding for 2021/22 for an amount of £356k in order to extend the projects and the organisation managing the fund and the financial risks are outlined in further detail in the risk register under Section 4.

We will procure an organisation with grant funding experience in the homelessness and/or migrant sector to manage the grants, including evaluating proposals, monitoring delivery, coordinating a network of grantees to share learning and supporting a possible extension of the grants. Procurement will only cover the management of 6 months projects, with reference to the intention of extending it to cover the whole 18 months projects subject to further funding in 2021/2022 being agreed.

Grants will be awarded through a competitive process and they will be available to frontline organisations to cover costs including immigration advisors or solicitors’ costs, interpreting costs, pro-bono barrister or volunteer expenses, client expenses as well as support for link workers in homelessness organisations to advocate and navigate advice for homeless migrants. Grant funding will be provided for 6 months with the intention of a 12-month extension subject to further funding in 2021/22 being agreed.

Impact and Deliverables

This project will seek to:

• increase free immigration advice available to non-UK national rough sleepers to access their rights and entitlements;
• increase the specialist support available to non-UK national rough sleepers within homelessness support providers to facilitate a positive move-on from rough sleeping;
• improve integration or collaboration of migration and homelessness work; and
• embed specialist immigration advice in support services for rough sleepers.

The project will aim to reach migrant rough sleepers to reduce their vulnerability to rough sleeping again or becoming entrenched rough sleepers, as well as reducing their risk of falling victim to exploitation or crimes such as modern slavery.

Under Section 149 of the Equality Act 2010, as a public authority, the GLA must have ‘due regard’ of the Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED), that is the need to:

• eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation;
• advance equality of opportunity; and
• foster good relations between people who have a protected characteristic and those who do not.

Equality, integration and inclusion are the drivers behind these programmes. The work to improve access to immigration advice and support services, and to improve accessibility of information and on immigration rights will reduce uncertainty and discrimination facing vulnerable migrant groups. This includes challenges such as 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 all of which was highlighted in an impact assessment report.

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 are produced in accordance with best practice for accessible communications. The production of videos and printed materials in multiple languages will support Londoners with limited English and improve access to this information for digitally excluded groups, for users with low reading comprehension, and grant programmes will provide direct outreach to vulnerable and excluded groups.

Key risks and issues

Conflicts of Interest

There are no conflicts of interest to note for any of the officers involved in the drafting or clearance of this decision form. The team who will be administering these projects include secondees and trustees of a number of relevant organisations, appropriate mitigations will be put in place throughout all tendering and grant programmes to remove relevant officials from a decision-making role regarding funding where any conflict does arise.

Links to Mayoral strategies and priorities

This work links to the Mayor’s Strategy for Social Integration All of Us, described in further detail in section 1 of this DD. This work also link’s the Rough Sleeping Plan of Action and the Mayor’s work to support children and young people including children in care and care leavers.

Approval is sought for expenditure of up to £689,000 on the 2020/21 Social Integration workstream. A detailed breakdown is as follows:

This expenditure of £689,000 will be funded by the CSP Social Integration budget as approved via MD2680.

The Migrant Rough Sleepers programme budget of £264,000 will be transferred to the Rough Sleeping team within the Housing & Land Directorate.

The foregoing sections of this report indicate that the decisions requested of the Director concern the GLA’s exercise of its general powers to do such things considered to further or which are facilitative of, conducive or incidental to the promotion of social development in 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:

- pay due regard to the principle that there should be equality of opportunity for all people;

- 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

- consult with appropriate bodies.

In taking the decisions requested, 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 and foster good relations 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 (section 149 of the Equality Act 2010). To this end, the Director should have particular regard to section 3 (above) of this report.

Should the Director be minded to make the decisions sought officers must ensure that, to the extent that the expenditure proposed concerns the:

- purchase of works, goods or services, they are procured in accordance with the GLA Contracts & Funding Code, engaging with TfL Procurement to develop and follow an agreed procurement strategy and appropriate contracts are entered into and executed by the GLA and contractors before the commencement of the works, goods or services required; and

- provision of grant funding and not payment for works, goods or services, the funding is distributed fairly, transparently, in accordance with the GLA’s equality policy, State Aid rules and in manner which affords value for money in accordance with the GLA Contracts and Funding Code. And appropriate funding agreements are entered in to and executed by the GLA and the recipient before any commitment to funding is made.