About the Asylum Welcome Toolkit

As a result of protracted and emerging global conflicts, we are observing a continued increase in the number of people who are forcibly displaced. London is consequently now home to a growing number of people who are seeking asylum.

This toolkit aims to support local authorities around the city with their work to settle and aid the social integration of people seeking asylum.

The toolkit offers evidenced guidance, case studies and resources based on the work of eleven London boroughs that participated in the GLA Asylum Welcome Design Lab. The Design Lab brought together local authorities from around the city to share good practice and to develop a series of innovative pilot initiatives that aimed to improve social integration outcomes for people seeking asylum. Full details on the Design Lab and its participants can be found in the summary report.

Local authorities continue to face sudden shifts and churn in their asylum-seeking populations, whilst also navigated a fast-changing national policy context. Drawing on the lessons from the Design Lab, the toolkit aims to provide boroughs with resources toward developing a more proactive, strategic and holistic system of service delivery that responds to population needs and can adapt to rapid changes in demand.

The toolkit is aimed at local authorities across all stages in their journey in supporting asylum seeking residents.

Those who are starting out on or scaling up their asylum response may benefit from the ‘Getting Started’ sections and from exemplars, templates and briefing documents linked throughout the document.

The toolkit also includes suggestions and case studies for boroughs with a longer track record of integrating people seeking asylum, with examples on how to expand their support offer and more closely engage with the voices and needs of service users.

The Mayor of London works to support the social integration of all Londoners. The Toolkit was commissioned as part of his Asylum Welcome Programme, which aims to equip partners to support the social integration of people seeking asylum.

The Toolkit was developed with input from the Greater London Authority and the 11 London boroughs who participated in the Asylum Welcome Design Lab. It should be noted that policy positions reflected in the Toolkit may not reflect those of the Greater London Authority or the boroughs who inputted into its development.

Local authorities in London will also have very different asylum-seeking populations to one another: in terms of size, the numbers in contingency or dispersal accommodation, the diversity of nationalities, and the numbers of individuals, families and asylum-seeking children.

As such, this toolkit does not look to prescribe any one form of ‘best practice’ and recognises the plurality of approaches needed to engage local authorities based on factors such as funding and team capacity. Rather, the report details guiding principles and potential models that can be adapted to suit the unique context of a given borough.

The examples and guidance offered throughout the toolkit reflect policy and practice at the time of writing (November 2023).

The toolkit is authored by British Future, an independent and non-partisan thinktank specialised in social integration and Refugees in Effective and Active Partnership (REAP), a West-London based refugee-led charity. REAP and British Future led and facilitated the Asylum Welcome Design Lab.

Examples of good practice were gathered over a series of five workshops with eleven boroughs, along with a series of in-depth interviews, specialist topic-based webinars and a call for evidence among the Design Lab participants.