Training for foster carers and support workers of unaccompanied asylum seeking children

The Department for Education will soon be inviting organisations to tender for the provision of training for foster carers and support workers of unaccompanied asylum seeking children.

The contractor will: • Deliver a programme of training that will build expertise and capacity for foster carers and support workers who care for unaccompanied asylum seeking children. • Ensure that the programme of training has flexibility to respond to the particular needs and vulnerabilities of this group of children and to the varying training needs of foster carers and support workers; • Ensure that training equips foster carers and support workers to be able to develop trusting relationships with children and understand the experiences and risks they face, such as modern slavery (including trafficking, going missing, and radicalisation). • Demonstrate a clear understanding of the strategic and practical links between the National Transfer Scheme for asylum seeking children and Government's drive to increase fostering capacity through upskilling existing foster carers and support workers in the immediate term.

The National Transfer Scheme The rapid increase in the number of unaccompanied children arriving in the UK has placed some local authorities, who have traditionally supported a large number of these children under increased pressure.

In response, the Government introduced the National Transfer Scheme (NTS): a voluntary transfer arrangement between local authorities, to create a more even distribution of caring responsibilities across the country for unaccompanied children.

The NTS was launched in July 2016 and has successfully transferred a large number of unaccompanied asylum seeking children away from "entry" local authorities in England that are caring for disproportionate numbers, to local authorities across other regions.

The successful contractor will work with DfE, Home Office and regional Strategic Migration Partnerships that manage the movement and transfer of unaccompanied asylum seeking children through the NTS.

The right training for foster carers and support workers will increase their capacity to care for and better protect these vulnerable children The right calibre and targeting of training will build capacity in the fostering system by supporting local areas to recruit and retain foster carers with both the motivation and the skills to look after unaccompanied children.

For example, one of the risk factors associated with unaccompanied children going missing is having carers who are not adequately trained to understand the experiences and risks they face, including these children's vulnerability to exploitation and radicalisation. http://adcs.org.uk/safeguarding/article/national-uasc-transfer-protocol