Refugee children arriving in the UK need warm support – not cold bureaucracy
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Version 0 of 1. Finally, after years and months of waiting, the UK government has conceded it has an obligation to meet the needs of a small number of the rootless, homeless and stateless children as the Calais Jungle camp closes. We have a week to make arrangements for the care of children where there is no family reunion. How are we going to ensure each decision is in the child’s best interest and meets our obligations under the international treaties and conventions our government has signed? We know, from what happens to children in public care in the UK, that decision-making is often compromised by the bureaucratic needs of the organisation. Social workers are well aware that decision-making is often done out of expediency rather than a careful matching of need and resource. Unaccompanied children rarely arrive in the UK with identity papers. This statelessness exacerbates their vulnerability. They are vulnerable to trafficking, child labour and sexual exploitation. Their statelessless also makes the process of accessing social protection systems almost impossible at times, and they become invisible in the shadows of our society. Simply placing two children in each local authority throughout England and Wales is a bureaucratic decision that fails the test of meeting needs, managing risk, and balancing competing human rights. In this sense, it fails to assess children’s need for relationships or take into account the relationships they may have already built. There is a significant amount of research from around the world, and solutions from other countries, which demonstrate what works and what adds to the harm they’ve already experienced. The children do not come from one homogeneous group but from different cultures and traditions and speak different languages. They are without their families, and isolation is a huge emotional and psychological part of their recent experience. They may, or may not have, made peer relationships that have substituted for family relationships. They have been living in unhealthy, dangerous, unhygienic camps and have survived. They will have encountered some trustworthy adults but may have been abused or harmed by others. Many countries have been significantly more active in meeting the needs of these children than has the UK. For example, Germany, Greece and Thailand have set up reception centres for six to eight young people at a time to provide safety, security and stability for a period to help with their adjustment to a different culture, climate and language. This provides them some space for recovery. Other counties have also done research into what works, much of which points to combating isolation and the importance of peer relationships. Peer relationships are formed more often before relationships with adults – mixed messages from adults seen as “in control” perpetuate confusion and mistrust. We know that relationships are key to recovery and achieving positive change. So why are we not focusing on providing a solution based on the continuity of some of the positive relationships these children may have developed on their journey? We need complete focus on providing an environment that allows young people to feel safe and secure before any other recovery can be started. Instead we, too, get caught up in the nightmare faced by every displaced person – bureaucracy. At a seminar last week at the University of Eastern Finland, 10 research papers were presented on “refugee resettlement and integration” from countries including China, Morocco, Australia, US, India, Ghana and some European countries. They all shared two broad conclusions: social and cultural relationships are key to positive change, and bureaucracy is a hurdle to change, if not a barrier. As social work practitioners and researchers we have a duty to each of the young people arriving into the UK to get it right – not only in the next few weeks, but in our response to a continuing humanitarian crisis. Engaging with and accepting each person is key to any social work process. Are we as a profession making our skills, knowledge and expertise available to managers and politicians faced with this task? We can help in planning and in providing services that will work for these very vulnerable, traumatised young people coming into our country. We now need to join others to find positive journeys through change, so that we can provide for the best interest of each and every child. Join the Social Care Network to read more pieces like this. Follow us on Twitter (@GdnSocialCare) and like us on Facebook to keep up with the latest social care news and views. |