Scottish Refugee Integration Forum draft action...

Scottish Refugee Integration Forumdraft action plan

Scottish Refugee Integration Forumdraft supporting document


TABLE OF CONTENTS

SECTION 1 INTRODUCTION 2BACKGROUND TO THE SCOTTISH REFUGEE INTEGRATION FORUM 2WIDER CONTEXT 5THE DRAFT ACTION PLAN 7ASYLUM SEEKERS 8NEXT STEPS 8

SECTION 2 CROSS-CUTTING ISSUES 9GENERAL CROSS-CUTTING ISSUES 9TRANSLATION AND INTERPRETATION 15INFORMATION AND ADVICE PROVISION FOR REFUGEES 18COMMUNITY PREPARATION 20THE NEED FOR DEBATE 22

SECTION 3 POSITIVE IMAGES, COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT 24AND THE MEDIA ISSUESIMAGES OF ASYLUM SEEKERS AND REFUGEES 24COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT 31THE IMPACT OF DISPERSAL ON VOLUNTARY ORGANISATIONS 38

SECTION 4 HOUSING ISSUES 39LEGISLATIVE ISSUES AND HOUSING ALLOCATION 39THE HOUSING WHICH IS OFFERED 43REGULATION AND MONITORING 46ADVICE, INFORMATION AND SUPPORT SERVICES 49ACCESS TO THE WIDER HOUSING MARKET 53GOOD PRACTICE 55

SECTION 5 JUSTICE, COMMUNITY SAFETY AND ACCESS 57TO JUSTICE ISSUESPROTECTION 57SUPPORT 57COMMUNITY SAFETY 58ACCESS TO JUSTICE 58JUSTICE 73

SECTION 6 CHILDREN’S SERVICES ISSUES 75OVERALL CONTEXT 76THE IMPACT OF RACISM ON CHILDREN’S SERVICES 77THE IMPACT OF PAST EXPERIENCES AND CURRENT FAMILY

CIRCUMSTANCES 79TRANSITION POINTS 83INFORMATION FOR PARENTS/YOUNG PEOPLE 84STAFF DEVELOPMENT 86FUNDING ISSUES 86

STATISTICAL INFORMATION 88UNACCOMPANIED AND LOOKED-AFTER CHILDREN 88EARLY YEARS SERVICES 89SPECIFIC ISSUES IN RELATION TO PRIMARY AND SECONDARY

EDUCATION 91CONTINUING (POST 16) EDUCATION 98PROVISION WITHIN THE COMMUNITY 98

SECTION 7 HEALTH AND SOCIAL CARE ISSUES 102OVERARCHING ISSUES 102SERVICE PLANNING AND RESOURCES 105BARRIERS TO ACCESSING SERVICES 114HEALTH AND SOCIAL CARE PROFESSIONALS AMONG

ASYLUM SEEKERS AND REFUGEES 126

SECTION 8 ENTERPRISE, LIFELONG LEARNING, EMPLOYMENTAND TRAINING ISSUES 127

SUPPORT AND INFORMATION 127ENGLISH LANGUAGE PROVISION 133LIFELONG LEARNING 137BENEFITS AND GOVERNMENT TRAINING PROGRAMMES 140EMPLOYMENT 142SELF EMPLOYMENT 145

APPENDIX 1 SATELLITE GROUP MEMBERS 147ENTERPRISE, LIFELONG LEARNING, EMPLOYMENT AND TRAINING 147HOUSING 147JUSTICE, COMMUNITY SAFETY AND ACCESS TO JUSTICE 147CHILDREN’S SERVICES 147POSITIVE IMAGES, COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT AND THE MEDIA 148HEALTH AND SOCIAL CARE 148

APPENDIX 2 EVIDENCE PROVIDERS 149ENTERPRISE, LIFELONG LEARNING, EMPLOYMENT AND TRAINING 149HOUSING 149JUSTICE, COMMUNITY SAFETY AND ACCESS TO JUSTICE 149CHILDREN’S SERVICES 149POSITIVE IMAGES, COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT AND THE MEDIA 150HEALTH AND SOCIAL CARE 150TRANSLATION AND INTERPRETATION FOCUS GROUP 150COMMUNITY PREPARATION FOCUS GROUP 151ADVICE AND INFORMATION FOCUS GROUP 151

APPENDIX 3 REFERENCES 152


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SECTION 1 INTRODUCTION

This document is designed to be a supplement to the Draft Action Plan ofthe Scottish Refugee Integration Forum (published by the ScottishExecutive in October 2002). The purpose of the Draft Action Plan is togather together the key actions identified by the Scottish RefugeeIntegration Forum and its Satellite Groups. The specific key actions inthat document, however, represent only a small proportion of the fullrange of actions, focusing on those which can be achieved quickly tomake a real difference to the integration of refugees in Scotland. Thissupporting document sets out all of the actions (as well as restating thekey actions) identified by the Forum and its Satellite Groups. Thedocument also contains a full account of the context within which theseactions have been identified.

The document is divided into nine sections. The first section provides contextualinformation about the Scottish Refugee Integration Forum, its remit, membershipand way of working. Section 2 provides an overview of issues which are cross-cutting in nature. Sections 3 to 8 represent the work of six subject-specificSatellite Groups set up by SRIF in April 2002. These groups considered issues inthe following areas:

• Positive Images, Community Development and the Media;• Housing;• Children’s Services; • Justice, Community Safety and Access to Justice;• Health and Social Care; and • Enterprise, Lifelong Learning, Employment and Training.

These sections contain fuller accounts of the issues which underpin the keyactions, as well as a summary of all of the actions (both short and long term)which the Satellite Groups consider necessary to achieve the integration ofrefugees in Scotland. Some examples of emerging good practice have also beenidentified.

BACKGROUND TO THE SCOTTISH REFUGEEINTEGRATION FORUM

The Scottish Refugee Integration Forum was established in January 2002. Thisintroductory section sets out its terms of reference, its membership anddescribes the way in which it has worked.

Terms of reference

Ministers agreed that the Forum would meet over a period of about 18 monthsfrom the first meeting which took place in January 2002. The remit of the Forumwas agreed by the members at its first meeting, and is:

• in partnership with the Scottish Executive, and in consultation with thewider public and voluntary sector interests, to develop action plans toenable the successful integration of refugees1 in Scotland and theprovision of more accessible, co-ordinated and good quality services.

The Forum is also expected to:

• consider all matters necessary to assist refugees to integrate into lifein Scotland;

• collect and disseminate examples of good practice from around thecountry; and

• play a key role in promoting positive images of refugees as membersof society.

The publication of the draft action plan and supporting document, therefore,comes about half way through the expected lifespan of the Forum. A consultationexercise focusing on the Draft Action Plan will take place during the autumn, witha final Action Plan (reflecting the feedback from the consultation process)expected to be approved by the Forum in January 2003.

Membership

The Scottish Refugee Integration Forum is chaired by Margaret Curran, Ministerfor Social Justice.2 The membership of the Forum is as follows:

Professor Alastair Ager Director of Centre for International Health StudiesRobert Aldridge Director of Scottish Housing for Single HomelessKathleen Bolt Principal Legal Officer for the Commission for

Racial EqualityPhilippa Bonella Scottish Council for Voluntary OrganisationsFather Chris Boles SJ Action of Churches Together in ScotlandEric Byiers Strategy Manager, Fife Council (CoSLA representative)

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1 In this context “refugee” means those found to be refugees under the terms of the 1951 UN convention and also thosegiven exceptional leave to remain as persons in need of protection under the European Convention of Human Rights orother humanitarian grounds such as exceptional leave to remain.

2 The Forum was chaired for its first two meetings by Iain Gray, then Minister for Social Justice.


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David Comley Director of Housing, Glasgow City Council andChair of the Scottish Asylum Seekers Consortium

Ken Corsar Director of Education Service, Glasgow City CouncilSally Daghlian Chief Executive of the Scottish Refugee CouncilBrian Dempsey Board Member of Scottish Business in the CommunityKaliani Lyle Chief Executive of Citizens Advice ScotlandLinda McTavish Principal of Anniesland CollegeSister Isabel Smyth Scottish Interfaith CouncilMark Batho Head of Social Justice Group, SEDDRachael Reynolds Home Office Refugee Integration Team

Way of working

The Forum has met four times since January 2002, but the bulk of its work hasbeen carried out through six Satellite Groups. These groups were established bythe Forum following its meeting in March 2002, and were charged with thedevelopment of the component strands of the Draft Action Plan in each of sixareas, broadly corresponding to Scottish Executive departments.

Satellite Group Forum Co-chair SE Co-chairEnterprise, Lifelong Learning, Linda McTavish, George Reid

Brian DempseyHousing Robert Aldridge Geoff HugginsJustice, Community Safety and Kathleen Bolt Alisdair McIntosh,Access to Justice David Henderson,

John RowellPositive Images, Community Sally Daghlian Colin McGowanDevelopment and the Media Thekla PetrieChildren’s Services Ken Corsar Joan FraserHealth and Social Care Alastair Ager Hector Mackenzie

The Satellite Groups brought together a wide range of those with a direct interestin working with asylum seekers and refugees. Membership of the Satellite Groupswas drawn from faith groups and organisations in the public, private and voluntarysectors. The full membership of the Satellite Groups is set out in Appendix A.

Although there were slight differences in approach and in focus, each Satellite Groupfollowed broadly the same process in developing its strand of the Draft Action Plan.

• An outline of the key issues was prepared by the relevant ScottishExecutive division.

• Using existing written evidence, this was expanded into an “emergingissues and actions” paper (which was continually updated throughoutthe process).

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• Evidence was taken from a wide range of those with direct experienceof working with asylum seekers and refugees (and in a small numberof cases, asylum seekers and refugees themselves, but see below).3

• A series of 6–8 key actions was developed by each Satellite Group.

It became clear that the Satellite Group structure could not provide effectivecoverage of a small number of key cross-cutting issues, and three groups drawnfrom experienced practitioners4 were convened specifically to discuss:

• translation and interpretation;• advice and information; and • community preparation.

Each group identified three key actions which have been included in the DraftAction Plan (and which are set out for reference in this document at the end ofSection 2).

The “Building Dialogue” process

The focus of the evidence gathering by the Satellite Groups was largely (but notexclusively) on the views and experiences of agencies and organisations workingin the community, rather than on those of asylum seekers and refugees per se.The Scottish Executive has commissioned the Scottish Refugee Council toundertake work to gather views directly from asylum seekers and refugees. Thiswork is on-going, and it is expected that this “Building Dialogue” process willcontribute to the development of the Final Action Plan.

WIDER CONTEXT

The Forum is aware that its work is not taking place in isolation. The Forumrecognises the significant role which the public and voluntary sector is alreadyplaying in supporting refugees and asylum seekers in Scotland. At a national UKlevel, the Home Office is coordinating the development of a similar action plandealing with refugee integration. The Forum has remained in close contact withthe Home Office throughout the production of its Draft Action Plan.

More generally, the Race Relations (Amendment) Act is likely to bring about anumber of changes in the ways in which public authorities approach their workwith minority ethnic communities generally, and with asylum seekers andrefugees. The Act places a new duty on public authorities – including health

3 A full list of those who gave evidence is provided at Appendix 2.4 A list of those who contributed to these meetings is set out at Appendix 2.


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boards and trusts, local authorities and police forces – to ensure that in arrangingits functions they pay due regard to the need to:

• eliminate unlawful racial discrimination; and• promote equality of opportunity and good race relations.

The Act also enables Scottish Ministers to place specific duties on Scottishpublic authorities. Ministers have now placed duties on most Scottish publicauthorities which will require:

(a) Each relevant body to publish a Race Equality Scheme by30 November 2002 which sets out:

• which functions it has assessed as having relevance to raceequality and the Authority’s arrangements for assessing andconsulting on its policies;

• how it will monitor its policies and functions for adverse impacton race equality;

• arrangements for publishing the results of such assessmentsand consultations;

• arrangements for ensuring public access to information andservices; and

• how it will train staff in the new duties.

(b) Public Authorities to have published by 30 November 2002 theirarrangements for how the Authority will monitor its staff functionsby ethnic origin and publish the results of the monitoring on anannual basis.

(c) Educational bodies to carry out similar actions designed to meetthe specific circumstances of the sector.

Although these new duties do not cover the voluntary sector directly, publicauthorities who contract with voluntary, and with private sector, bodies to fulfilrelevant functions will be expected to ensure that these contractors adhere to theprinciples of the Act.

In evidence provided to the Forum, the Commission for Racial Equality set out itsexpectations in relation to the ways in which a public authority should be able todemonstrate that it is complying with its general and specific duties in relation torefugees:

• it has assessed how many refugees are resident in its area ofbenefit;

• it has carried out a needs assessment of the social or health careneeds of the refugee population;

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• information about services, rights and entitlements is available inaccessible formats;

• it has carried out an access audit of services to evaluate if barriersexist;

• it has set out a plan of action to address these barriers;• it has considered positive action to commission specific services

which meet refugees specific social or health needs;• it has consulted refugee groups about the proposals and given the

opportunity to actively participate in community affairs;• it has actively promoted the integration of refugee communities into

that of the mainstream civic society; and• it has taken any action necessary to ensure that refugees are

welcomed into the community and that their rights are protected.

Wherever possible, the Forum has sought to frame its Draft Action Plan within theoverall context of the legislation, particularly in seeking to avoid making specificrecommendations in areas (for example in relation to the overall policy approachtaken by public authorities) in which it is expected the legislation will have itsmost significant impact.

Much of the evidence (and many of the proposed actions) relate to Glasgow. Thisconcentration on one area is inevitable, given the focus of the current dispersalprogramme. The Forum is aware, however, that asylum seekers and refugees areresident in around 20 local authority areas, and the on-going negotiationsbetween NASS and a number of Scottish local authorities. Throughout its work,the Forum and its Satellite Groups have considered the issues facing areasoutside Glasgow, and a number of proposed key actions are designed to ensurethat lessons learned in the first phase of the dispersal programme (and fromprevious experiences) are available to others, and similarly, that service providers,and service users, can benefit from the considerable expertise and concentrationof specialist services which now exists in Glasgow.

THE DRAFT ACTION PLAN

The Draft Action Plan contains specific key actions identified by the Forum. Theprocess, however, identified that there are many more areas in which action isrequired if full and effective integration is to be achieved. The Forum has takenthe view that it is important that all of the issues and actions which it hasidentified are made available to policy makers and practitioners in order that notonly the key actions, but also many other actions, can be implemented quicklyand can be used to inform the development of policy.


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The remaining sections of this document set out in more detail the issues whichunderpin the key actions within the Draft Action Plan. The format of each of thesections is similar, with a discussion of each of the key issues followed by theentire range of actions the Forum has identified to address that issue. In eachcase, the key actions (taken from the Draft Action Plan) are highlighted in bold.

ASYLUM SEEKERS

The Forum recognises that immigration and asylum are reserved issues. Thereare, however, a wide range of ways in which asylum seekers come into contactwith services which are devolved, such as education, social work and health.Many of these services make no practical distinction between asylum seekersand refugees in terms of delivery. The Forum has, therefore, taken a clear viewfrom the outset that it is appropriate for it to consider issues relating to theinteraction of asylum seekers with devolved services. Many of the actions set outboth in the Draft Action Plan, and in this supporting document, relate to bothrefugees and asylum seekers, while some are specific to one or other group (andin some cases to sub groups, such as those with exceptional leave to remain).

NEXT STEPS

The Draft Action Plan will be the subject of consultation over a period of twomonths until early December 2002. Paralleling this, the Scottish Executive intendsto work with a range of agencies to ensure that the views of asylum seekers andrefugees are properly reflected in the final version of the Action Plan.

Following the period of consultation, it is envisaged that a Final Action Plan,together with a supporting document, will be considered by the Forum in January2003 and published thereafter.

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SECTION 2 CROSS-CUTTING ISSUES

Although the Forum established Satellite Groups to consider issues and actionsin six service specific areas, it was clear from the outset that there were a rangeof issues which were of a cross-cutting nature and which impacted directly orindirectly on the assimilation of asylum seekers and refugees.

Among the general cross-cutting issues identified by the Forum were:

• developing Scotland’s cultural ethos;• challenging racism and harassment;• changing public perceptions about asylum seekers and refugees;• the need for policy mainstreaming and proofing in relation to asylum

seekers and refugees;• the development of “joined-up” services;• the development of effective services;• the need for advocacy for asylum seekers and refugees;• the need for language support for asylum seekers and refugees;• the current lack of, and consequent need for, statistical information,

monitoring and evaluation; and• the need for a serious debate about asylum – related issues.

In addition, three issues were identified by the Forum as being of particularconcern and, as noted in Section 1, in each case, a specific group ofexperienced practitioners was brought together to consider both issues andpotential actions. These issues were:

• translation and interpretation;• information and advice services; and• community preparation.

Each of these areas will be considered separately (and relatively briefly) below. Ineach case, the emerging issue(s) and proposed actions will be identified.

GENERAL CROSS-CUTTING ISSUES

Only the broadest high level issues and actions are identified in this section and itis recognised that each implies a wide range of additional actions, some of whichhave been identified as key actions, and some which are set out in the remainingsections of this document.


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Scotland’s cultural ethos

The nature of Scottish society in 2002 is multi-cultural and diverse, with manydifferent ethnic groups with a range of needs, skills and experiences. There is apolitical commitment to social justice which is shared by government, publicagencies and the voluntary sector. Within this overall context, however, a numberof groups continue to experience social exclusion for a range of reasons, andwork is continuing to be undertaken to address these problems. Currently,however, some members of Scottish society still experience poverty, differentialaccess to services and discrimination, as well as racial harassment and racism.These issues affect many asylum seekers and refugees.

Action

• There is a need to emphasise Scotland’s role as a multi-cultural andadvanced nation, built on diversity, change and immigration, withsocial responsibility and proven record in welcoming newcomers andproviding a safe haven for those seeking asylum.

• There is a need for the development of an overall ethos and structureof services in Scotland which will make this a reality.

Challenging racism and racial harassment

All of the Satellite Groups identified the experience of racism and the racialharassment of asylum seekers and refugees in Scotland. This has beenexacerbated by the extent and nature of negative media coverage. The existenceof racism has been denied in many aspects of service provision in the past, andhas not been accorded a high priority by many organisations. This situation is amajor barrier to refugees’ full participation in economic and social life in Scotland.

Action5

• There is a need to recognise and address racism in Scotland inall its forms. It is recognised that the Race Relations(Amendment) Act will be implemented from November 2002,and that this will lead to an increased focus on racism, butthere will be an on-going need to ensure that the work which isbeing undertaken is effective.

5 Key actions, as set out in the Draft Action Plan, are highlighted in bold throughout this document.

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Changing public perceptions

As set out in some detail in the Positive Images, Community Development andthe, Media section of this document, there are considerable issues with thepublic perception of asylum seekers and refugees at both a national and a locallevel. To some extent, this is also likely to be true of those working within manyorganisations in the public, private and voluntary sectors. This is manifest in manyways, including negative media coverage, discrimination and racism. The factthat refugees make a significant and valuable contribution to Scotland’seconomic, social and political life must be recognised. Detailed actions toaddress this issue are set out in Section 3 of this document.

Policy mainstreaming and proofing

Equality “proofing” is now increasingly becoming standard practice across thepublic sector. Asylum seekers and refugees are specific equalities groups, facinga range of issues which are, in some respects, similar to those faced by otherminority ethnic groups (and other groups facing discrimination such as the gayand lesbian community), but in other respects the issues faced are different. Asthe issues set out later in this document demonstrate, asylum seekers andrefugees face a wide range of issues which require to be identified andaddressed in the development and implementation of public policy acrosssubject areas. Recent examples of policy developments which may have specificimplications for asylum seekers and refugees include the housing stock transferin Glasgow, the development of a national policy on translation and interpretation,and the Scottish Executive’s proposals to extend the range of witnesses eligiblefor protective measures in courts.

Action

• There is a need for all public agencies to ensure that the requirementsof refugees as a specific group are recognised when considering allpolicy and practice developments.

The development of “joined-up” services

One of the key issues identified by the Satellite Groups has been the need forpublic and voluntary sector organisations to work in partnership to deliverservices to asylum seekers and refugees. The potential benefits of this areconsiderable, not only in terms of the effectiveness of the service which can bedelivered, but also in terms of its efficiency. In simple terms, one refugee familymay have had to deal with a considerable number of separate organisations (inthe public and voluntary sectors) over the course of seeking asylum, being


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dispersed and integrating into their local community. There is a need, therefore,to recognise the links between actions needed from different services, in order toprovide a coherent and holistic response to the needs of refugees.

In a number of areas, joint working has been undertaken on a bilateral basis, butincreasingly, multi-agency partnerships are formalising this approach. This is,however, not always easy in practice for a range of professional, practical andlegal reasons (such as the confidentiality of information), but this remains thepreferred approach. As part of this approach, there is a need to facilitate anddevelop information sharing between service providers and relevantorganisations.

There is also a need to recognise the links between different policy areas(including areas of specific service provision and provision through, for example,Community Safety Partnerships, Social Inclusion Partnerships and other similarinitiatives) to ensure a coherent and co-ordinated response.

There are a range of issues which face service providers in areas with lowconcentrations of refugees. Some examples of this are set out in the followingsections, but the Forum considers it essential that the Scottish Executive take thelead in ensuring that asylum seekers and refugees (and those providing services)can gain access to appropriate specialist advice and support wherever they arelocated.

Actions

• The Scottish Executive should prepare guidance on the need toimplement structures which will facilitate multi-agency workingin each area.

• The Scottish Executive should take the lead in ensuring thatservices providers, asylum seekers and refugees in all areascan gain access to specialist services.

The development of effective services

A further cross-cutting issue identified by all of the Satellite Groups has been theneed to develop services which are responsive and appropriate to the needs ofrefugees. A range of issues have emerged in relation to this, including the needto work from an anti-racist perspective, the need for an organisation-wideresponse, and the need to provide awareness and specific training to all staff.

There is also a need to monitor and evaluate the delivery of service to asylumseekers and refugees and to develop information in relation to their experiences.

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Much of the information gathered by this process will be of substantial benefit topractitioners throughout Scotland, and, therefore, it is essential that these goodpractice lessons are disseminated widely.

The lack of a representative voice for both asylum seekers and refugees hasbeen noted by Satellite Groups. This has an impact on the extent to whichservices consult with both asylum seekers and refugees, and consequently, theextent to which services can be made responsive to the needs of these groups.A range of recommendations in relation to the provision of information and adviceare set out later in this section.

Actions

• The Scottish Executive should ensure the wide disseminationof work which is currently being undertaken in Glasgow toidentify experiences and best practice in the integration ofasylum seekers and refugees.

• There is a need for all service providers to develop staff awareness ofthe issues and the requirements of refugees, along with information,training and support to all staff to enable the provision of relevantservices.

• There is a need for all service providers to identify appropriate meansof assessing refugees’ requirements (including those of subgroupssuch as women or children), whatever the policy issue.

• There is a need to continue to evaluate and assess the nature andrelevance of services, in the light of reported experiences of thosereceiving provision.

Advocacy

There is a lack of independent advocacy for refugees, which is separate from theissue of provision of information and advice (and which is discussed in moredetail later in this section). Refugees may not be aware, for example, of what theycan reasonably expect, what they can do if the provision which they can expectis not forthcoming, how to appeal or make complaints and when/whether it isappropriate to do so. It has been recognised that sometimes the most obviousadvocate (e.g. a solicitor) is not necessarily the most appropriate person toprovide this support. Some, for example, do not address issues such as housingand welfare benefits. Where issues have been identified, there is also currently alack of advocacy support to assist refugees to pursue these. A specific proposalin relation to the development of a community advocacy project related to legaladvice is contained in Section 5. The actions set out below are more general.


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Actions

• In planning service provision for asylum seekers and refugees, there isa need for public agencies to ensure that they take account of theneed for the provision of independent advocacy support.

Language support

The issue of language support was raised in evidence to a number of the SatelliteGroups. The importance of learning English as a means of facilitating social andeconomic integration has been recognised by the Forum. There have also,however, been a wide range of issues identified in terms of providing thissupport, including the considerable cost, excessively large class sizes, eligibilityissues, a shortage of qualified and experienced teachers and practical issuessuch as a shortage of childcare workers and suitable buildings. A range ofactions to address this issue are set out in Section 8 of this document.

Statistical information, monitoring and evaluation

Relatively little is known about asylum seekers and refugees in Scotland (in termsof their backgrounds, their current circumstances and their use of services) withthe limited exception of those involved in the NASS dispersal programme. It isestimated that there are asylum seekers in around 20 local authority areas, but,as yet, little information about them is gathered on a routine and systematicbasis. Information about refugees, is even more scarce.

This issue is not specific to asylum seekers and refugees, as there is a generallack of information about minority ethnic groups in Scotland. Many of thosedispersed to Scotland arrived after the Census in April 2001, and, therefore,further steps will require to be taken if appropriate information is to be madeavailable to public and private sector organisations to allow the development ofadequate and properly targeted service provision.

Action

• The Scottish Executive should take the lead in ensuring thatstatistical and tracking information about the asylum seekerand refugee communities in Scotland is gathered at a nationaland local level.

In addition to these “general” cross-cutting issues, the Forum convened threegroups of specialists to consider issues relation to translation and interpretation,advice and information, and community preparation. The remainder of this

section sets out a summary of the issues raised in these discussions, andsummarises the actions which were proposed.

TRANSLATION AND INTERPRETATION

It was suggested to the Forum in evidence that there is a lack of an overall policyon translation and interpretation in Scotland, and similarly, that the resources fortranslation and interpretation are not seen to be adequate. At a policy level, thereappears to be little evidence of mainstreaming of communication issues(including translation and interpretation) in work with minority ethnic groups (andwith asylum seekers and refugees). This is evident in two main areas – serviceproviders do not routinely include the costs of translation and interpretation inbudgets, and generally, the use of translation and interpretation within servicedelivery and policy settings is poor.

Translation and interpretation is expensive, and smaller agencies cannot generallyafford to pay in many cases, and, as noted above, there is no mainstreaming ofthese costs within core budgets. This leads to difficulties in terms of the qualityand range of the services that can be provided. There is a also need forcommunity groups and individuals in the community to have access tointerpretation or translation not only to enable their access to services, but also tofacilitate communication between and within communities.

It was suggested to the Forum that there could be substantial benefits fromhaving a national agency to oversee translation and interpretation (as well as thesetting of standards, the monitoring of quality control, the registration ofinterpreters or translators, and the development of guidance to public agencies).

Quality control was identified as a key concern for both providers andcommissioners of services. At present, there is no national approach to training(either initial or continuing training) for interpreters, although it was reported thatboth private and public sector organisations are developing in-houseprogrammes, with a focus on induction. Some concerns were expressed aboutcurrent college and university qualifications and the extent to which these aremeeting the needs of the profession. There remain, however, many unqualifiedinterpreters, but this is viewed as necessary by service providers as, withoutthem, there would be no way of meeting demand in some language areas.

There are also issues evident in the way in which service providers work withinterpreters and translators. Often minor changes to the way in which a service isdelivered could lead to considerable improvements to the efficiency of using interpreters.There is similarly a poor level of understanding of the difference between translators andinterpreters and the different levels of skill required to undertake each task.

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The demand for interpretation particularly has increased considerably in the pasttwo years, and is likely to continue to do so, although there is currently no overallpicture of demand in Scotland. There has also been a change in the pattern oflanguages requested and in the balance of demand between, for example, legal,medical and other services.

There is currently an overall shortage of translators and interpreters, withparticular issues being faced in some languages (particularly Somali). The supplyof interpreters is very localised, with costs prohibiting the use of, for example,Edinburgh-based professionals in Glasgow, except in rare cases, for example,major trials. The supply of interpreters to outlying areas is very expensive, andwhile there have been experiments using new technology, the view provided tothe Forum is that these have been inconclusive, with many technical difficulties.

The practitioners’ group identified that some organisations appear to have aknee-jerk reaction to translation – using standard languages and giving littlethought to the actual target audience for the information. A view was developedthat there is a need for some re-thinking (and perhaps guidance) oncommunicating effectively using the range of means available, including the useof face to face “interpretation”, partial translation, the use of tapes and the use ofcascading briefing information.

Concerns were also expressed to the Forum that the current market fortranslation and interpretation is closed, with relatively little competition to drivedown prices and raise standards (given the current lack of supply, and inability tomeet core demand).

Actions

• There is a need for clear guidance from the Scottish Executiveto public sector organisations to ensure that they can haveaccess to translation and interpretation where this is anecessary part of their work.

• Steps should also be taken to identify whether additionalresources could be made available nationally or locally to allowindividuals and community groups to obtain interpretationservices where these are required as part of the process offacilitating community development and integration.

• A national certification body for interpreters and translatorsshould be established. •• This body should take the lead in the development and

monitoring of standards and play a part in developing abetter understanding of the professional standing ofinterpreters and translators.

•• A Scottish register of interpreters and translators accessibleto commissioning organisations should be developed.

•• A list of “stand-by” interpreters (who are qualified andexperienced, but who work in other areas, and for employerswho may be prepared to release them in emergencysituations) should be developed.

•• One of the key functions of such a national body would be toincrease standards. There is a need, however, to ensure thatthe contribution which interpreting and translating work ismaking to the social and economic integration of refugees isnot lost, and that any approach to, for example, certification,is inclusive.

• There is an urgent need for the development of guidance topublic sector organisations on the use of interpreters(particularly) and for the training of staff specifically in workingwith interpreters (in mainstream and emergency settings).

• Good practice guidance should be developed on the mosteffective means for public agencies to communicate withtarget audiences, including the use of oral and writtentranslation, partial and summary translations, telephonehelplines, the use of tapes, and the use of cascading briefingsas well as the use of new technology.

• Universities (and colleges) should identify vocational areas where it islikely that graduates will have to work with interpreters and ensure thattraining is provided in this as part of degree courses.

• The current blockages in terms of recruiting interpreters to publicsector providers should be investigated, and where possible,addressed.

• There is a need for a clearer picture of demand for languages to beestablished for areas outside Glasgow and Edinburgh. Paralleling this,there is a need to identify the languages spoken across Scotland, inpart to help identify potential pools of interpreters to meet futuredemand. One approach to this would be to support a language surveywithin local areas.

• Currently, the perception of commissioning organisations is that thereis a closed market for translation and interpretation, and that pricesare high. It is suggested that any means possible be identified tostimulate the development of a more open market for these services.

• An online resource should be developed for translators andinterpreters. Allied to this, it was also suggested that this work couldinclude resources which could be helpful to public and voluntarysector organisations, such as a standard format to allow those comingto premises to identify their own language easily, and common signsin various languages (e.g. for tenants’ associations). 17


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• There is a need to identify how interpretation services can be providedcost effectively in areas where there is currently little or no service.

• The Scottish Executive should coordinate a small piece of work toidentify whether (and how, where and when) there will be an impact onservice delivery from the ending of the right to work concession forasylum seekers.

INFORMATION AND ADVICE PROVISION FOR REFUGEES

A number of Satellite Groups identified that the provision of information andadvice was central to the effective integration of asylum seekers and refugees.This issue was considered by a practitioners group. The group suggested wasthat there was a need to distinguish between acute and longer-term advice andinformation needs. Acute needs are those which are urgent, and which relate toissues which are short term. A range of examples were provided, including allaspects of asylum claims including appeals and the withdrawal of NASS benefits,family reunions, racism, harassment and domestic abuse, and money and debtadvice. Inevitably, many of these needs relate to asylum seekers, or to refugeeswhose leave to remain has newly been granted.

Among the less acute needs identified were labour market information,information on college and university access, and information about less urgentpersonal matters such as driving licences and travel documents (althoughdocumentation to attend hearings would be an acute need).

Advice and information on rights is not always seen to be “acute” in the senseset out here, but may be urgent, and cannot be delivered passively. There arealso likely to be issues in terms of the perception of what is, and what is not,acute. For example, form NASS 35 gives a period of notice during which actionneeds to be taken – the notice is considered to be long enough to do what isnecessary without any need being acute (in the sense set out here), but thecritical factor is that the refugee concerned will consider their need for adviceand information (as well as other support) to be acute.

It was noted in evidence to the Group that much information is time sensitive,and needs to be delivered “just in time”. The need for information will vary withthe point which the asylum seeker or refugee has reached in the claim/integration process. The overall balance of advice and information needs willchange over time, as the balance of asylum seekers and refugees changes.

Within the current dispersal programme, most asylum seekers have beenlocated, and most refugees have settled, in areas which face some level ofeconomic and social exclusion. This means that many neighbourhood servicesare already in place, although this is not the case in all areas. Most asylum

seekers and refugees live within areas covered by SIPs. This is not the case forall, and will become less so over time, both as asylum seekers and refugeesresettle elsewhere in Glasgow and in Scotland, and if the new contracts takeeffect in Edinburgh, West Dunbartonshire and Fife (where, for example, none ofthe planned housing stock is within an existing SIP).

The view of the Group was that there was a need for neighbourhood-basedmodel of delivery for advice and information services as a means of helping toensure accessibility. The financial difficulties facing many asylum seekers andrefugees were noted in terms of the cost of transport to central locations. Part ofthe operation of this model requires the co-location of complementary serviceswithin a single point of access. This model also assumes that different serviceswill be (or may be) led by different agencies.

The presumption is that basic advice and information services would be deliveredlocally (first tier services), but that there would also be need for more specialisedservices, which would be more cost effectively delivered on a city- or area-widebasis. The Group was clear in the view that the critical factor is that advice andinformation services should be sufficiently integrated so that any asylum seeker orrefugee can approach any agency with a reasonable confidence that they willreceive appropriate basic information, supplemented by an informed andaccurate onward referral. For this approach to work, this will be likely to requiresome level of area-wide strategy development and coordination, with agreementon what can be delivered by each provider.

The Group identified that there are considerable issues with access to advice andinformation about immigration law – both within advice agencies and within legalpractitioners. This issue is discussed in more detail in Section 5 of this document,where a number of actions to address this problem are proposed.

Overall, it was identified that there would also need to be a large and on-goinginvestment in staff development (training and awareness raising), and in protocolsto ensure that an uninterrupted service can be provided at time of holidays,sickness, etc. The development of peer-to-peer support for advisors was alsosuggested, perhaps through the development of a network.

Actions

• A team should be created within a specific organisation orspecific posts and budgets identified within a number oforganisations charged with:•• Delivering appropriate training on legal, rights and support

issues to organisations delivering advice, information andsignposting services. 19


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•• Developing networking activity between such organisations. •• Facilitating the dissemination of information on current legal,

support and rights issues, and changes to relevantlegislation, as well as the sharing of best practice.

•• Supporting the development of sufficiently funded local, city-wide and council-wide strategies to meet advice, informationand signposting needs, ensuring the provision of seamlessservices, with access to expert services where required.

•• Supporting the development of resources which assistasylum seekers and refugees to self refer to services.

•• Developing the capacity of organisations outwith majordispersal and settlement areas to meet the advice andinformation needs of asylum seekers and refugees.

• Government agencies and departments working with asylumseekers and refugees must audit the quality andappropriateness of their work with the service user group.Particular attention should be paid to assessing the skills,knowledge and awareness of frontline staff. Training andawareness raising should be undertaken based on needsidentified in the audit.

• Coordinating bodies (such as local authorities) must ensure that thedelivery of services is not exclusive only to specific areas, in order toensure that asylum seekers and refugees who may have settled inother areas are not disadvantaged by postcode-based servicedelivery.

• The Home Office should be encouraged by the Scottish Executive tohave the NASS Compact translated.

• Work should be commissioned (perhaps by the Scottish Executive) todevelop a guide to frequently asked questions, both for asylumseekers and refugees and for those working with them.

COMMUNITY PREPARATIONAs with translation and interpretation, and information and advice, a practitionersgroup met to discuss the issue of community preparation (which had beenidentified by several of the Satellite Groups as a key factor in promoting effectiveintegration). Overall, a range of key issues were identified in evidence to theGroup:

• The lack of information provided in advance of dispersal.• The need to build skills in local areas.• The need to continue to share information.• The need for support to be accessible.

A range of positive experiences were identified, including the development of goodmulti-agency networking, the development of information for asylum seekers andrefugees and for local community members, and the willingness of many workersto be involved in a voluntary capacity. Evidence was also provided to the Group ofsome positive musical, cultural and sporting events which have taken place.

Balancing this, there have been a range of less positive issues identified. Theseincluded the apparent lack of planning throughout the dispersal process to ensurethat asylum seekers from the same communities are located together (in groupswhich could, therefore, be more self-supporting) and the lack of information beingprovided by NASS to local organisations about who will be living in a community(in terms of the numbers of people and other statistical data required for fundingapplications and service planning). There have also been a range of consequencesfor both asylum seekers and refugees and for local communities from theexistence of racism and the extent of negative coverage in the media.

A range of policy issues were also identified as having had an impact, for example,a perceived lack of information sharing between organisations, as well as anoverall lack of resources. There have also been issues identified with the decisionto disburse resources to SIP areas (rather than non-geographically-defined areas),which was seen by some of those who provided evidence (both to this and othergroups) to be unfair. An action to address this was identified earlier in this section.

The need for public agencies to recognise the importance of communitypreparation was stressed by the Group, as was the need to acknowledge thatsuccessful integration requires considerable work, and is not simply about theuse of vacant housing. The Group also stressed the need for effective partnershipworking. A range of actions in relation to the development of effective partnershipworking were set out earlier in this section.

Actions

• The Home Office and NASS should provide information tocommunities in advance of dispersal, and ongoing planninginformation should be maintained and shared by serviceproviders.

• There should be a comprehensive consideration of the issues in alocal area, which should be value-driven. Consultation should beundertaken about implementation. This should be based on anapproach of information sharing between agencies, and be flexible.There is also a need to identify and consider how of other aspects ofpublic policy (e.g. housing stock transfer) which will impact uponasylum seekers/refugees and the integration process.

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• More generally, there is a need to improve the overall provision ofinformation for short-and longer-term planning, recognising the DataProtection Act and the requirements of contracts (neither of whichwere seen to impact upon the opportunity for provision of basicinformation). Members suggested that the following information wouldbe useful for planning purposes:■ Overall numbers and breakdown by age, gender, disability.■ Nationalities involved.■ Where people will be located (with some opportunity for local

discussion about the suitability of accommodation, but not aboutwhether dispersal should take place).

■ First and second languages.■ Family composition.■ The split between asylum seekers, those with exceptional leave to

remain and those with indefinite leave to remain.• Public and voluntary sector organisations and local networks

should undertake proactive work to stimulate and support arange of types of activities to promote integration in the localcommunity, including the development of services and, forexample, social, cultural and sporting activities.

• Partnerships, which are properly funded and involve allstakeholders, should take a strategic approach to supportingfront line staff and volunteers from the start of the process ofpreparation for integration.

• All organisations and individuals in the community should take stepsto combat racism. Within the framework of anti-racist work with thecommunity generally, there is a need to develop work with youngpeople to address their perceptions and attitudes. Awareness raisingshould be undertaken in the whole community (and not only theimmediate area in which asylum seekers/refugees have been, or willbe, housed).

• There is a need for comprehensive anti-racist training for staff and astrategic approach to supporting front line staff from the outset of thedispersal process and ongoing in terms of work with asylum seekersand refugees.

THE NEED FOR DEBATE

It is widely acknowledged that there is a need for an informed public debateabout asylum and immigration issues, reflecting the fact that there are a widerange of diverging views. The Forum considers that this debate should beinformed by good quality research and supported by development of accurate

factual information about the circumstances and needs of those seeking asylum,and those granted refugee status. The tone of the debate and the language usedhave, however, the potential to seriously undermine effective integration at a locallevel, and to impact on the lives of individual asylum seekers and refugees.

Action

• On-going debate on asylum and immigration issues should befostered, but must be conducted in a manner which does notundermine integration at a local level.

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SECTION 3 POSITIVE IMAGES, COMMUNITYDEVELOPMENT AND THE MEDIA ISSUES

A number of key issues and actions have been identified in relation to positiveimages, community development and the media.

The impact of the tone of the debate on asylum and immigration issues (identifiedas a cross-cutting issue in Section 2) is also important, both in the context ofcommunity perceptions, but also in terms of the extent to which communitydevelopment work can be successful.

IMAGES OF ASYLUM SEEKERS AND REFUGEES

The images which are presented of people who are asylum seekers and refugeesclearly have an impact on community perceptions both of the issues, and thepeople involved. These images will, in turn, affect the experiences of asylumseekers and refugees in many ways, and will impact upon their interaction withthe community.

Negative coverage

One of the main issues which arises in this area of work relates to the actualimages which are presented of asylum seekers and refugees. Much of thecoverage of asylum and refugee issues by the press has been in the form ofnews stories. In terms of media cuttings analysed during January and February2002 by NewsDirect on behalf of the Scottish Refugee Council (commissioned bythe Refugee Media Forum), as many as 69% were news stories, 9% were lettersand 9% were arts stories (this period coincided with the Club Asylum theatreproduction). There were very few items that included any analysis, and there werefew editorials or features. In terms of subject matter, only two items consideredwhy asylum seekers leave their home country, 10% covered a story about a boatcarrying asylum seekers being refused access to Australia, while 10% covereddetention centres and 10% covered Sangatte.

A study carried out by Oxfam in 2000, entitled “Asylum : The Truth Behind theHeadlines” also identified that:

“much of the press coverage monitored was negative to the point of beinghostile and in order to sustain this level of negativity the reporting had to bepartial, based on false assumptions (myths) and on the exaggeration ofspecific incidents”.

The Scottish Asylum Seekers Consortium has also noted that tabloidnewspapers present the issues in a particularly negative way. There is also atendency for images in the media to be very polarised. Asylum seekers are ofteneither given a high degree of sympathy and shown as “victims”, or portrayednegatively and described in pejorative terms.

Research carried out by Readers Digest in the late 1990s studied attitudes toasylum seekers. Two-thirds of those questioned felt the UK Government wasdoing “too much” for asylum seekers and refugees, and there was evidence ofthe existence of widespread inaccurate and inflammatory myths. The findingssuggested that there was an “appalling” lack of knowledge of the facts aboutasylum seekers and refugees (for example, people had no idea about whatasylum seekers were entitled to / were actually getting or where they were from).A recent BBC Online survey suggested that there was a high level of racism inBritain, with as many as 47% of those questioned identifying that immigrationhad “harmed British society”.

News stories are generally assumed to be non biased and factual (although theymay be neither), and it is unlikely that many people will consider the issuesindependently. A connection is seldom made between high-profile news storiesabout international problems (for example, Afghanistan and Somalia) and theissues facing asylum seekers in Scotland. More generally, positive stories aboutindividual asylum seekers do not appear to have been translated into moregeneral positive images (that is, they are not projected onto the larger asylumseeker population, and may be regarded as isolated, unusual or in some wayunique).

Finally, in the context of negative coverage, it is clear that Glasgow has itselfreceived a considerable volume of negative coverage, in relation not only to racistattacks, but also in terms of the integration process generally.

Lack of involvement of refugees

The Scottish Refugee Council Annual Report 2001 noted that the voice ofrefugees (which would present positive images) has largely been absent frommedia coverage. The aims of the Refugee Media Forum include trying to developthe involvement of refugees, although there is also concern about refugee familiesnot being provided with good advice prior to agreeing to be featured in themedia. The potentially negative impact on asylum seekers and refugees beingused in a media setting (albeit in a well-meaning way) by organisations must alsobe recognised (for example in terms of the impact of comments made onindividual cases). It has been identified that the development of guidelines forpress officers may be helpful in this regard.

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Asylum seekers and refugees are potentially vulnerable in their dealings with themedia. There are a range of reasons for this, including a lack of understanding ofthe process, risks posed to them by appearing in print or on newspapers’websites and although rare, the risk that they will be exploited. Some evidencehas emerged of asylum seekers being interviewed, with their stories later beingedited, leaving them feeling that the subsequent article did not fully reflect whatthey said. It is also likely that many asylum seekers will be concerned about theimpact of speaking to media organisations on both community relations and ontheir own applications. This has had a wider impact in terms of, now, somethingof an unwillingness among asylum seekers and refugees to talk to the media atall. There also needs to be a clearer recognition that many refugees wish simplyto be left alone and to “disappear”.

Impact of negative reporting

There is a current perception among many that refugees need to be “punished”,which is also reinforced by the emphasis upon “get tough” policies and thelanguage used both by politicians and the media. This can contribute to racismand foster the view in some sections of the community that racism andharassment are acceptable. Negative images of asylum seekers beggingaggressively or being subjected to racial harassment are damaging to the imageand perceptions of asylum seekers in Scotland. All of these images clearly affectthe behaviour of the community and the experiences of asylum seekers andrefugees.

Such reporting is not received into a vacuum, and it is now accepted that thereis a considerable amount of racism in Scotland. To some extent, this may bebeing heightened, or perhaps focused, by the coverage of asylum seekers andrefugee issues. SASC has suggested that the current media approach, and lackof information, may encourage racist attitudes and intensify public concernabout the long-term effect of resettlement in Scotland on the communitiesaffected.

Related to the nature of the images presented, and the lack of inclusion ofrefugees, is the effect of the media upon the level of public understanding of theissues. Although the SASC has suggested that many people in Scotlandunderstand the reasons for the arrival of asylum seekers, many others do not.Issues such as the nature of the communities, the issues which they have facedand the support which is required and provided (and the ways in which theimpact on local services is offset) are often poorly understood. There is seen tobe limited appropriate information made available to ensure that suchunderstanding is developed.

Relationships with the media

There is a clear view that, thus far, organisations in Scotland working with asylumseekers and refugees (in both the voluntary and statutory sectors) have notworked entirely effectively with the media. There has been, for example, criticismof Glasgow City Council in terms of the fact that it did not take a proactiveapproach to the media management of the dispersal process. There is perceivedto be a need to develop a mutual understanding between media organisationsand those working with asylum seekers and refugees, including a betterunderstanding of how each functions.

There is a danger of demonising the media. Newspapers (for example) arecommercial organisations and seek to reflect the views of their readership.Although the media does shape views, it is not solely responsible for formingopinions or creating images. It has been suggested, therefore, that thepreponderance of negative stories is not entirely the fault of the media (if there isa fault), with organisations perhaps failing to present sufficiently strong stories,particularly of a human interest nature. The success of some agencies in usingthe local press in Glasgow suggests that, properly targeted, stories can have animpact. (One advantage of the local press is that stories are rarely edited beforepublication, thus lessening the risk of a story being distorted.)

It has also been suggested that there is need for more effective contactbetween organisations and both editors and proprietors of newspapers, giventhat they have overall control over the direction of stories. More generally, theopportunity exists for more briefings to be undertaken with journalists across allmedia, and particularly covering a range of functions (beyond news and politicaljournalists).

At present, the focus has been on the news media, but it has also beenrecognised that, in order to develop more effective positive images, there will alsobe a need to develop closer links with other media interests.

Work to promote positive images

It is important to recognise that there is much work, both taking place (and whichcould be undertaken), to promote positive images, which does not involve newsand other media. Much of this has taken the form of campaigning and awarenessraising work by organisations working with asylum seekers and refugees. At anational level, the Commission for Racial Equality and the Scottish Executive alsohave a role in anti-racism work, which has wider benefits in terms of asylumseekers and refugees.

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In addition, there have been for example, theatre productions, club nights andexhibitions, as well as, at a more general level, a Refugee Week and other localprogrammes of events. At a local level, much of the work undertaken in terms ofcommunity preparation (for example that undertaken by the Scottish RefugeeCouncil and by Save the Children in terms of school children) is also helpful inpromoting a wider positive image. This work is, however, resource intensive, andit has been identified by a number of Satellite Groups that insufficient resourcesare currently available for this to be fully effective.

Current work/recent developments

• Although negative media coverage remains a serious issue, overall,there are some signs of improvement.

• There are examples of effective media coverage being generated at alocal level by agencies working directly with asylum seekers and refugees.

• A considerable amount of awareness raising and other campaigningwork has been undertaken by agencies in Scotland.

Actions

Actions in this section have been grouped into a number of areas for ease ofreading – these do not correspond directly to the subsections above.

• The Media Sub-Group of the Scottish Asylum Seekers’Consortium should be developed, enhanced and resourced,with participation and support from the Scottish Executive totake forward the media strategy set out in this section.

The overall need to promote positive images

• National and local politicians should take a key role inpromoting refugee integration, targeting key opinion formers inthe media and giving a coherent and appropriate messagewhich is based on the content of the SRIF Action Plan.

• Overall, there is a need for a consistent and over-arching mediastrategy for organisations working with asylum seekers and refugees,on the basis of pro-active media management and the development ofconsistent, shared and accurate information.

• The Scottish Executive should commission follow-up andfurther attitudinal research (building upon research undertakento support the anti-racism campaign), including exploration ofissues affecting refugees. This research should involve ongoingmedia monitoring of refugee issues.

• There is a need to change perceptions of refugees amongst thosewho hold racist and inaccurate/inappropriate views. There is a need toaddress these directly through the use of positive media coverage.

There are a range of suggested action points that relate specifically to the mediafalling loosely into following categories:

Strategic issues

• The Press Complaints Commission should establish guidelines toencourage editors not to present myths nor to undertake negativereporting of refugee issues. Editors should also be encouraged toobtain accurate information and to develop expertise amongst staff.

• The Scottish Executive and Parliament should develop and implementa “Communications and Media Strategy” to provide accurateinformation and counter the negative reporting.

• Links should be developed between the Refugee Media Forum, theAsylum Seekers’ Consortium Media Group and service providers, witha partnership approach. There is a need to develop expertise to takethese issues forward, along with a media strategy and supportingprocesses.

Relationship building

• Attitudes and approaches of newspaper editors should be addressedthrough dialogue and relationship building with them.

• There is a need for a closer relationship between organisationsworking with asylum seekers and refugees in order to develop closerlinks with media organisations, on the basis of a shared interest. Thetendency to demonise the media among certain organisations isunhelpful and should be addressed.

• There is also a need to establish good relationships with local andcommunity newspapers as they are a very important source of localinformation and less prone to negative bias.

Coordinated response

• There is a need for organisations working with asylum seekers andrefugees to identify a common line on policy issues, and to ensurethat this is followed consistently. It will also be important to ensure thatstaff of individual organisations receive up to date information whichwill allow them to promote consistent messages within and from theirown service/organisation.

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• There is a need to identify a single contact for issues relating toasylum seekers and refugees within an area. Where there is more thanone local authority in the overall area, each authority should identify alink person who can liaise with one central media contact.

• Each authority should identify a key individual in each specific servicewho has overall responsibility for issues affecting asylum seekers andrefugees, who can provide media information (and briefing to otherorganisations) on specialist issues relating to that service (such aseducation, social work, police, etc.) Media training should be providedto the key contact.

Developing resources and building capacity

• A media pack should be developed, with accurate and up-to-datestatistics and information to develop understanding, as well as contactdetails to allow further information to be obtained. Briefing informationrelating to legal and service provision issues and accommodationplans should be developed.

• There is a need to promote, through the media, positive experiencesof former asylum seekers who have integrated well. This will requireseeking out and promoting examples of good practice. As part of this,organisations working with asylum seekers and refugees shoulddevelop a “bank” of human interest, positive stories.

• The need to include refugees in work with the media should berecognised, although there is a need for caution to ensure thatrefugees are not exploited. In addition, confidentiality and safety issuesmust be addressed.

• There is also a need to ensure that refugees can have access to themedia in the same way as others in Scotland, and this will require theprovision of additional support, such as advice, and potentiallytranslation and interpretation.

• There is also potential for events (such as welcome events) withinareas which can be used to generate positive media coverage.

• There is a need to learn from other initiatives that have taken place(e.g. Zero Tolerance) in changing public perceptions, and to makeconnections with anti-racist work.

Other ways of working

• Face-to-face work in local areas is very important and should beencouraged, both as a means of challenging negative perceptions andto generate positive images.

• Work through the Arts and other media has been very effective andshould be built upon – e.g. Club Asylum, Fortress Europe Exhibition.

• There is a need to promote cultural understanding. This must be atwo-way process – with steps to enhance local understanding ofasylum seekers’ and refugees’ cultures, and vice versa.

• There is also a need to involve the established ethnic minoritypopulation in supporting asylum seekers.

COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

As well as issues relating to perceptions of refugees, it has been suggested thatthere are specific issues which are raised in local communities, which require tobe tackled through community development work. This encompasses the needfor the development of community organisations of refugees, and work within thewider community such as anti-racist work, equality awareness, inter faith andmore general awareness-raising.

There is currently a general lack of community development resources inScotland and a lack of knowledge and skills in relation to work with minorityethnic and refugee communities.

Absence of refugee organisations

There is a lack of a representative structure at a national level, through which theParliament and others can enter into a dialogue with groups. It has been identifiedthat there is a lack of community organisations of refugees, through which they canprovide mutual support and develop a voice (and that even where organisations doexist, they may not always be fully “representative”). This situation is improvingslowly with, for example, the recent formation of a Somali group. There will be anon-going need to support these groups as they emerge. It is acknowledged thatthe Scottish Executive has recently provided support to the Scottish RefugeeCouncil to develop a “Building Dialogue” process with community organisations.

There are many different ways of consulting with refugees, but the current demandsof funding bodies often mean that a particular approach to organisation and processhas to be taken to satisfy these demands. There are ways, however, of reaching anaccommodation with communities and supporting them in appropriate ways.

Involvement of refugees in consultation

With the absence of refugee community organisations, there is also an absenceof consultation with refugees on a range of issues affecting them. There is a lackof effective means for direct communication with asylum seekers and refugees,

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with no coherent voice. In some areas, there are no facilities from which todevelop consultation work. Refugees are often not invited to long-establishedgroups and meetings to discuss provision and local issues, as the meetings arenot currently arranged in an appropriate way, and often lack translation andother support. The issues facing interpreting and translation services set out inSection 2 are a potential limitation to this work.

Groups requiring specific support

Women who are refugees have been identified as a group of refugees who maybe particularly vulnerable and require practical and emotional support. There mayalso be gaps in provision to other marginalised groups (such as young people,people with disabilities and older people) which will require specific action toengage them in issues affecting them.

An example of such support for young people in Fife, “Equal Voices”, wasprovided to the Forum. This project (being run with support from the HomeOffice) is, among other things, supporting the development of a multi-racialyouth group “Equal Futures”, and providing an interactive programme withinsecondary schools focusing on citizenship, patterns of migration and conceptsof belonging.

Longer-term community development

The Scottish Refugee Council has identified that there has been little long-termcommunity development work with refugees, and that this should be developedalongside individual casework taking place.

Work with communities and local groups

There has also been limited community development work undertaken withexisting local organisations and individuals. Existing groups often do not knowhow to address refugee issues and avoid doing so.

Although there are relatively few racist incidents reported, there is anecdotalevidence of a considerable amount of “low level” harassment which is notreported. This is a point also noted by other Satellite Groups. Communityresponses to refugees can vary on a day-to-day basis, and support can quicklybecome racism both amongst children and adults. There are many influencesupon people and it cannot be assumed that individuals will necessarily display aconsistent response to refugees. There is anecdotal evidence of continuingresentment of refugees in some areas. People who work with refugees in avoluntary capacity may also be subjected to harassment.

Existing local groups also face a range of barriers to becoming inclusive, forexample in relation to the need to provide translation and interpretation (and thecosts of this).

Service providers

There is a lack of involvement of refugees with organisations providing services.Statutory service providers have not always recognised their role in meeting theneeds of refugees, with a lack of corporate responsibility for the range ofprovision. They are also often ill-equipped to deal with issues which are raisedwith them, and have a lack of knowledge of other support which is required oravailable.

There has also been a lack of forward planning and the recognition of futurepolicy developments which will impact upon refugees.

There are a range of ways in which local voluntary sector organisations could befacilitated to become involved in community development, including:

• Sharing issues of good practice and lessons with other communitiesand making links with the Councils for Voluntary Service and SocialInclusion Partnerships.

• Training for local agencies and local activists, linked to work (forexample by SCVO) to develop racial equality and to supportcommunity representatives on the boards of social inclusionpartnerships. Support can be provided to community developmentworkers to enhance their skills.

• Assisting in the process of developing mechanisms for local networksto hear the views of asylum seekers and refugees.

• Providing some support to independent refugee communityorganisations and linking these groups to other established communitygroups.

• Supporting their member organisations to provide opportunities forrefugees to participate.

• Using the existing voluntary sector network to link communityorganisations and encourage existing bodies to consider issuesaffecting refugees.

Networking

There is some evidence of networking developing in Glasgow, for examplethrough the Refugee Policy Forum, with the potential to develop this further.There is an emerging community development network working with refugees,

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and plans for the development of a new federation of networks, which canidentify issues and provide one route for consultation. There is a need forcontinuing work in this area.


• In the last few months, a small number of refugee communityorganisations have been established with support from national andlocal agencies.

Actions

As with the actions relating to media issues (earlier in this section), the proposedactions have been grouped by broad issues. Again, these do not corresponddirectly to the subsections above.

A range of actions with particular relevance to community development were setout in Section 2, including the need for mainstreaming, the need for joint workingand the need for the identification and dissemination of good practice.

Overall policy issues

• A longer-term strategy for integration should be developed. There isalso a need to recognise that integration is not only about integratingwith the local white community, but is also relevant to local minorityethnic groups and within refugee communities.

• Community planning partnerships in areas of resettlementmust make refugee issues an integral part of their work. Theyshould:■ Take action to promote the integration of a range of groups

(including faith communities).■ Develop and build the capacity of existing/emerging

groups.■ Develop and examine the resources required for integration

at a local level.■ Strengthen local networks.■ Improve consultation and planning at a local level. ■ Develop the capacity of existing services and enable people

to access these services.■ Emphasise the importance of the whole community enjoying

life together through music, culture and sport, as well asrecognising the importance of developing services.

Development of refugee community organisations

• There is a need for the development of refugee communityorganisations, both for the provision of mutual support and thedevelopment of a voice for refugees.

• It is important to recognise that some communities will want toorganise themselves, and refugee networks should be viewed asproviding an opportunity for people to regroup, consider what theywant to integrate to and how they want to do so, then facilitate theprocess. There will be a need for flexible timescales, which recognisethat refugees have other needs and priorities.

• There will be a need for the development of specific organisations forsome groups, such as women, young people, people with disabilitiesand older people who are likely to experience particular barriers andissues.

• Access to appropriate levels of funding and support with capacitybuilding for new and existing groups will be required.

Coordination of activity

• There should be a flexible approach to development. It will not alwaysbe appropriate to impose existing methods of organisation andcommunity development upon refugee organisations.

• It is important to consider links between refugee communities and toensure that, for example, allocation policies recognise and do notexacerbate tensions.

• There will be a need for networking between services. Training for staffand improved communication will be essential components of this.

• Work should be undertaken with existing local networks of communityorganisations which do not include refugees, to raise awareness ofissues facing refugees and to undertake preparatory and continuingwork in the community.

Delivery of support

• There is a need for continuing development of refugee-specificservices and for mainstreaming of the requirements of refugees inservice provision.

• There is a need for the provision of information to refugees and toservice providers. Information should also be provided to refugees inthe form of orientation information, alongside the development ofbefriending and groupwork projects.

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• A range of service providers need to ensure that their services meetthe needs of refugees in the provision which they make at a nationaland local level. There is a need for corporate responsibility by statutoryservice providers in order to ensure the appropriate range of servicesare put in place, and that these reflect the requirements of refugees.

• There is a need for service providers to be aware of other supportwhich is available and to refer refugees on to other organisations, asrequired. Individual services should act as a point of access to otherservices.

• A short piece of research should be commissioned by theScottish Executive to identify the information which is currentlygathered by different services. The indicative informationgathered should then be used to inform communitydevelopment and service planning (generally), as well as toproject the likely need for particular services.

• There is a need to establish a means of referral to communityorganisations for additional support and the development ofappropriate partnerships, as well as the recognition of the needs ofrefugees in funding and policy development.

• There should also be opportunities for the development ofvolunteering by refugees to enhance the services provided.

• There is a need for the implementation of community developmentwork to be monitored and reviewed.

Developing dialogue

• The Framework for Dialogue process should be continued toenable sustainable input from refugees. Organisations should:■ Develop structures and mechanisms to allow continuing

dialogue to take place.■ Build the capacity of new and existing groups and services

to engage in dialogue.■ Develop citizenship education and work with the existing

community.■ Ensure that refugees are aware of their rights and have

appropriate information. ■ Allocate appropriate resources (financial and other) to

enable this community development work to take place. • There is a need to develop representative structures at a

neighbourhood level to encourage dialogue with existing and newresidents and to develop enhanced capacity in communities.

• Multi-agency groups should be used as a first point of contact wherethese are available.

• In areas where there are small numbers of people from a particularcommunity, there may be a need for the development of city centrebased rather than local work, with support to particular families toenable integration.

• The development of effective dialogue will require the provision ofenhanced and appropriate language and communication support,recognising the need for provision at all levels.

• There will also be a need to remove other barriers to participation,such as transport and child care. Cultural and religious issues shouldalso be recognised and addressed, without these being used as areason for inaction.

• Where there are community groups which have already beenestablished, these groups should be enabled to have a role in raisingawareness of issues affecting refugees. Links can be made, in the firstinstance, with community leaders who can communicate further withmembers of the community. Links can also be made betweenresources that already exist in working with minority ethnic andrefugee communities, to develop their capacity.

• Service providers should consider, through a process of dialogue,future developments in policy and practice, and their potential impactupon refugees.

Capacity-building issues

• There is a need to recognise the importance of carrying outcommunity development work in accordance with good practice inrelation to equalities issues and to ensure that principles andmessages are clear. There is a consequential need for organisationsworking with refugee community groups to share emerging goodpractice information.

• There is a need for anti-racist work to be undertaken with serviceproviders and with the wider community (through, for example, youthgroups, other community groups, outreach work and other means). Itshould be recognised, however, that this will not be successful wheregroups are unwilling to recognise that their behaviour is racist. (Thisissue has also been raised in the paper focusing upon children, youngpeople and education.)

• There is a specific need to encourage reporting of racist incidentsand a general need to avoid complacency about communityrelations.

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THE IMPACT OF DISPERSAL ON VOLUNTARYORGANISATIONS

Overall, the dispersal process has placed considerable strain on the voluntarysector in particular, which is being expected to develop and undertake much ofthe work in relation both to media and community development issues. Relativelyfew additional resources have been made available to the voluntary sector toundertake this work.

Action

• The contribution of voluntary organisations to work with asylumseekers and refugees must be recognised, and the sector should beprovided with adequate resources for the tasks it is expected to carryout.

SECTION 4 HOUSING ISSUES

There are a number of key housing issues which affect the experience ofrefugees in Scotland, which have been identified as requiring to be addressed.The issues and suggested actions are listed below.

LEGISLATIVE ISSUES AND HOUSING ALLOCATION

There are a number of legislative and housing allocation issues which affecthousing for refugees.

The Housing (Scotland) Act (2001)

The Housing (Scotland) Act (2001) extended the rights of all homeless people. Italso gave local authorities a duty to devise homelessness strategies. The Act alsoplaced a duty on local authorities and Registered Social Landlords to promoteequality. All of these issues are relevant to the experiences of refugees, and theirrecognition and inclusion in these provisions is essential.

Priority need

A key issue has arisen in relation to the definition of priority need. There is someconfusion about the status of refugees once a positive decision has beenreached. Although, for example, Glasgow City Council takes the view that, unlessrefugees have settled accommodation, they are homeless and in priority need asrefugees, this view is not always shared.

The Homelessness Task Force recommended the extension of the definition ofgroups in priority need. Proposed homelessness legislation in Autumn 2002 willenable the changes, with all of the groups identified in the current Code ofGuidance as in priority need being identified by statute.

There is a debate, however, as to whether it will be possible to identify people asbeing in priority need solely on the basis of being a refugee. If refugees are notidentified as being in priority need, the barriers/problems which they face as aresult of their refugee status will not be recognised, and service providers canonly give them priority where they fall into another group determined to be inpriority need. As other groups are identified as being in priority need, localauthorities will be placed under pressure. The view of the Group6 is that refugeesshould also be identified as in priority need as they are equally vulnerable.

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6 Throughout the document, Satellite Groups are referred to as “the Group”.


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Homelessness

The alternative to accepting unsuitable accommodation may be to riskhomelessness, as asylum seekers granted refugee status may become homelessif they fail to access housing sufficiently quickly.

An asylum seeker who has been granted refugee status will only receive NASSprovision for 28 days from the date of the determination. If they do not obtain atenancy within this period, they may become homeless. In most local authorities,only one choice of housing is given. Where this is refused, refugees are assumedto be intentionally homeless.

Local connection

Specific difficulties have been experienced where refugees wish to relocate, andmany will not wish to stay in the area to which they are dispersed.

Conflicting legal advice has been provided about whether or not they haveestablished a local connection during the period in which they have been inNASS accommodation. Glasgow City Council takes the view that they have notestablished a local connection (welcomed by the Scottish Refugee Council), butthis is contested by other local authorities (particularly outside Scotland), whichpoint to the legislation (rather than individual authorities’ policies) as guiding theiractions. The legislation is currently unclear, and exceptions in the legislation inrelation to local connection do not mention refugees as a group.

There is clearly confusion in the UK legislation. This, in turn, makes advice-givingdifficult, as refugees have to be advised, for example, that they may or may notfind that the authority which they approach may or may not try to send themback to the area in which they were in NASS accommodation. In thesecircumstances, many families do not take the risk of relocating and reportinghomeless.

Although legislation in the autumn may lead to the suspension of the requirementfor local connection, there remain cross-border issues. Additionally, in the unlikelyevent that the local connection is not suspended, or is reintroduced, it isimportant that this is not applied to refugees.


• The Housing Act 2001 brought about a range of changes whichshould impact on the housing experiences of asylum seekers andrefugees.

• Homelessness legislation expected in Autumn 2002 should help toclarify the position of refugees in relation to priority need.

Actions required – legislative issues and housing allocation:

The actions set out in Section 2 in relation to cross-cutting issues such as theneed for mainstreaming, and the need to ensure the policy and legislation areproperly proofed are also relevant to housing and are noted. There are, however,a range of specific issues relating to housing legislation, and the action belowshould be seen as supplemental to the action set out in Section 2.

• All housing legislation and guidance should be proofed in linewith the action proposed in Section 2 of this document to takeaccount of the barriers which refugees face, and housingservices should ensure that issues relating to refugees aremainstreamed. To facilitate this, a checklist of potentialevidence of mainstreaming and proofing should be prepared,which might include examples such as:■ The new Code of Guidance should refer specifically to

refugees and should identify them as a vulnerable group inpriority need.

■ The Code of Guidance should reflect that refugees shouldnot be deemed to have a local connection with theirdispersal area.

■ Homelessness and housing strategies should includereference to refugees and should be assessed by theScottish Executive on the degree to which they do so.

■ Refugees should be given more than one offer of housingand the offers made should be reasonable and appropriate,with, as the Homelessness Task Force suggests, allreasonable efforts made to meet the preferences of theperson concerned. The Scottish Executive should take stepsto identify that this is being implemented.

■ Temporary housing should not be used for permanentrehousing unless, following assessment and information, arefugee has expressed a preference for this. The ScottishExecutive should take steps to identify that this is beingimplemented.

■ Communities Scotland should seek the views of expertgroups about the relevance of refugee issues in localauthority areas identified for inspection.

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Policy

• The extended rights of homeless people under the Housing (Scotland)Act 2001 should be applied to refugees*.7

• Refugees should be identified as a group in priority need*.• Allocations policies should take account of the needs of refugees*.• The new Code of Guidance should refer specifically to refugees*.• The Code of Guidance should reflect that refugees should not be

deemed to have a “local connection” with their dispersal area*.

Management

• Ongoing work should be undertaken to ensure that servicesare provided to meet refugees’ needs in all relevant parts ofScotland, and that these are fully funded, comprehensive andappropriate.

• All local authorities and housing associations should ensurethat their housing advice, information and allocation policies,procedures and practices take account fully of the rights andneeds of refugees. These services must be fully accessible torefugees, and staff should be provided with appropriate trainingand guidance to ensure that provision is based on a thoroughunderstanding of the issues.

• The Scottish Executive should commission a third party todevelop a report which will outline a basic service specificationof what should be expected in the provision of housing supportand services to refugees. (This should include the identificationof practice points and issues.) This should be followed by anassessment of current provision, with a 12-month follow-upstudy being undertaken to highlight developments undertakenand further actions required.

• Homelessness and housing strategies should include reference torefugees*.

• When NASS support is terminated on receipt of a positive decision,refugees should never be considered as intentionally homeless.

• Refugees should not be deemed to have a local connection with theirdispersal area. It should be impossible for a local authority to reject anapplication on the grounds that a local connection was established byliving in NASS accommodation*.

7 Actions marked with an asterisk are, in addition to those identified as key actions, those considered by the Group to beurgent.

• Where a local authority sends a refugee back to the area in which theywere housed as an asylum seeker, this should be challenged by theauthority to which they are returned, and temporary accommodationprovided pending the resolution of the issue.

• Once an asylum seeker is granted refugee status, they should beoffered a comprehensive homelessness assessment and given fullhousing advice.

• Follow-up assessments should be offered to refugees after threemonths, to determine whether they are still appropriately housed.

• Applications for resources to provide follow up assessments andsupport should be developed and encouraged*.

• Refugees should be enabled, wherever possible, to move to areas inwhich there are existing social networks and suitable support to meettheir needs. While there is insufficient high demand stock, there shouldbe flexibility in moving on where problems are experienced.

• Temporary accommodation should not be used for permanentrehousing unless, following assessment and information, a refugee hasexpressed a preference for this.

THE HOUSING WHICH IS OFFERED

Refugees who have been offered housing have also been found to haveexperienced a range of problems.

NASS accommodation

Refugees are offered a homelessness assessment, which considers whether theirhousing needs can be met “reasonably”. This, in practice, involves considerationof whether they are happy and settled in their NASS accommodation andwhether this meets their needs. Refugees are often still being offered thisaccommodation as a matter of course following a homelessness assessment,and are not being given choice in their housing. Where a reasonable offer (e.g. ofNASS accommodation) is refused, then action is required and 40 days’ notice isgiven (although there is nothing to prevent a further offer being made at thatpoint).

In Glasgow, although there is now a resettlement team, and fewer people arebeing offered NASS accommodation, this remains the case for a high proportion.This limits the opportunity to move to housing which may be more appropriate,or to areas which may be more suitable, with refusal of this offer being seen toconstitute becoming intentionally homeless.

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The Housing Satellite Group endorsed the following view of the HomelessnessTask Force:

“in some instances a person granted leave to remain in the UK may beoffered a permanent tenancy in the house which they have been occupyingunder the NASS arrangements. In some cases this may be acceptable tothe person concerned but in other cases there may be concerns aboutpersonal safety or the person concerned may wish to move closer tofriends or relatives in another area. Where this is the case all reasonableefforts should be made to meet the preferences of the person concerned.We recommend, consistent with our comments at para 47, that thosegranted leave to remain in the UK following an asylum application should infuture be offered alternative accommodation if they do not wish to remainin the accommodation funded under the NASS arrangements”.

Although it is inappropriate to impose a forced move from NASSaccommodation, where a family is settled, it is also important to ensure thatchoice is provided.

The standard of housing

For many refugees, the provision of housing in Scotland will be their firstexperience of tenancy, and it has been suggested that the standard of theaccommodation provided has not always been of an appropriate standard(although, for a range of reasons, has generally been accepted by the refugee). Ithas also been suggested that the quality of accommodation has not always beenmonitored closely in order to identify where it fails to meet appropriate standards.

Meeting housing needs

The accommodation which has been offered does not always meet the particularneeds of those being housed. In addition, once housing has been provided, it isdifficult for refugees to move, particularly in the absence of review of their needs.

Safety

While it has been recognised that the housing which has been made available torefugees and asylum seekers has offered some advantages, such as conciergeservices and co-location with language communities, it has also been suggestedthat the nature and location of the housing sometimes presents problems interms of refugees’ confidence, perceptions and experiences of personal safety(including racial harassment).

Children and young people

There may be difficulties in funding services to children who are refugees. It hasalso been noted that there may be specific difficulties in finding suitableaccommodation for young people who are granted refugee status. Young peopleaged 16 or 17 who are unaccompanied may also have particular housing needswhich will require consideration.

Other specific groups

Other individuals (such as those who have been tortured or women who havebeen raped) may have specific needs which are not always recognised oraddressed by housing providers.


• A resettlement team has been established in Glasgow.

Actions required – the housing which is offered:

Principles

• Refugees should have choice and access to alternative tenures inrelation to their housing.

• Move on accommodation should be provided in accordance with theneeds of the individual and SASC good practice guidance, and shouldbe: permanent, secure and affordable, in a suitable location, givingconsideration to religious, cultural and dietary support needs, isolation,vulnerability to racial harassment and furniture needs.

• Housing providers should provide a clear understanding of thestandards of housing and management that refugees can expect.

• The specific housing needs of young people should be taken intoaccount in the housing which is provided.

• Housing providers should work closely with other agencies, to ensurethat health, education, support and other services are available.

• Agencies should be aware of the need to respond, if required, to theparticular needs of, for example, women who have been abused andraped, people who are otherwise traumatised or those who have beentortured.

Management

• Local authorities should ensure that housing which is provided torefugees is of an adequate standard and meets their identified needs.

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• There must be an appropriate means of identifying needs and thereview of these needs, in order to ensure that the housing which isprovided is relevant and suitable.

• Refugees should be given more than one offer of housing, and theoffers made should be reasonable and appropriate with, as theHomelessness Task Force suggests, all reasonable efforts made tomeet the preferences of the person concerned.

• The practice of offering NASS accommodation should be reviewedand NASS housing should not be offered routinely to refugees as theonly option.

• There should be complaints procedures and advocacy support inplace which are available and accessible to refugees.

REGULATION AND MONITORING

In terms of more general monitoring of housing issues, the Housing (Scotland)Act (2001) gave a regulatory role to Communities Scotland. This role will becrucial in monitoring and regulating how local authorities and other sociallandlords implement policies taking account of the needs of refugees.

The new single regulatory framework is a means of developing continuousimprovement in housing provision. It sets performance standards which areintended to assist landlords who are not performing to these standards toimprove, giving them a means of identifying any gap between their performanceand the standards.

Within the framework, there are guiding standards and activity standards, both ofwhich are closely linked. The guiding standards are generic standards coveringissues such as the type of organisation, style of management, customerfeedback, etc. and include, for example, standards relating to equalopportunities, information and advice, complaints and appeals, etc. The activitystandards relate to the actual practices of being a landlord. Most apply to localauthorities and Registered Social Landlords.

One of the key elements of the process will be visits and assessments, but self-assessment will also be encouraged, both in advance of the inspection and as aresource to landlords. Guidance will be provided about the inspection processand detailed guidelines will be prepared for each of the standards.

Reports of inspections will be publicly available and, after inspection, aPerformance Improvement Plan will detail what is required of landlords. This willbe monitored over time, with support provided to enable landlords to close gapsbetween their actions and the performance standards.

Where there is a deficiency in actions, the nature of support required will beassessed and either (a) progress will be tracked through the Plan or (b) there maybe closer involvement through the support team. If landlords do not undertakethe work required, however, there are a number of potential actions which can betaken as a “last resort”. An intervention strategy is being developed byCommunities Scotland which will outline the measures which can be taken andthe circumstances in which this can take place.

The standards and guidance material was recently published, in order to start thefirst inspections in September 2002. There has also been a consultative process,although there can be input to the guidance on an ongoing basis.

Use of standards to ensure good practice in work with refugees

There are 53 performance standards, all of which it was noted would be relevantto refugee issues, within the overall framework of mainstreaming this work. Thereare a number of concerns, however, about how far the framework and processwill ensure good practice in work with refugees.

First, issues relating to refugees will not be explored routinely in all of theinspections, as one of the operating principles for the framework isproportionality. Prior to an inspection, information will be gathered from the localauthority or a Registered Social Landlord in relation to the overall context, and itmay not always be apparent that refugee issues will be relevant, and these issuesmay not be picked up in the framework. In addition, it will take a long period todevelop a national picture, as issues affecting refugees will not be explored inevery case.

Secondly, there is not a specific standard for work with refugees, and noindividual client group is profiled through the framework (with the exception ofGypsy Travellers). The means of considering these issues will be through otherstandards and considering casework. A particular standard (e.g. information/advice) could be tested for particular groups, and the impact of policies onspecific cohorts could be explored, but these would require specific decisions.Although the guidance will provide a clear tool for assessment and will highlightthe need for such considerations, the specific issues will not necessarily emerge.

Similarly, although the structure of reports will be standardised in terms of thethemes and headings, issues relating to specific groups are unlikely to be“instantly extractable” from inspection reports. Some comparison (with caution)may be possible, and some issues will have “gradings”, but a good package ofinformation in relation to national trends affecting a group is unlikely to be

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provided through this mechanism. For this, a thematic study would be required,considering one theme across different providers (e.g. a study is currently underway on services to Gypsy Travellers).

The primary function of the inspections is to improve the performance of theinspected body. They will not provide a “baseline study”.


• A single regulatory framework has been established by the HousingScotland Act. This sets out a range of standards for landlords, all ofwhich are relevant to housing for asylum seekers and refugees.

Actions required – regulation and monitoring

Principles

• Communities Scotland should ensure that the performance standardsmake it explicit that they apply to refugees, and the inspection andassessment guidance should be “proofed” in relation to refugeeissues*.

• There should be input to the identification of good practice from thosewith expertise in work with refugees, either through the developmentof commissioned work or through the identification of existingmaterials.

Policy

• The regulatory framework for local authorities and housingassociations must identify means of monitoring the implementation ofaspects of the legislation which impact upon refugees and overseeingthe promotion of equality*.

Management

• The standard of housing provided to refugees should be monitored.• Communities Scotland should seek the views of expert groups

(existing, or new where required) about the relevance of refugee issuesin local authority areas identified for inspection.

• A thematic study of issues relating to refugees should be encouragedand carried out by the regulator and should explore issues such asfairness and transparency in meeting refugees’ needs.

Consideration should be given to commissioning a baseline study which identifiescurrent practice, highlights good practice and identifies how work with refugeescould be improved, rather than relying on the regulatory process.

ADVICE, INFORMATION AND SUPPORT SERVICES

In this context, the availability of appropriate information about the housingoptions available is clearly a key issue. The provision of advice, information andsupport to refugees has been identified as an area in which there are currentlyproblems. Refugees have a general lack of awareness of the housing system inScotland. This is compounded by language and cultural barriers (discussedearlier). There are also issues in terms of the restrictions placed on some aspectsof support which cannot be provided until after a positive decision has beenmade.Availability of specialist advice

The majority of information which most refugees receive is from their localauthority. This information is generally not comprehensive, as local authoritieshave an interest in letting void properties. Many people may also be unawareof their housing options and their entitlements in terms of Housing Benefit.The Scottish Refugee Council has also noted that people have been giveninappropriate housing advice (in relation, for example, to their acceptance ofunsuitable hostel accommodation whilst trying to establish a localconnection).

Refugees are often unaware of expert organisations such as Positive Action inHousing which can provided specialist support. Organisations which can offerexpert advice cannot always cope with the demand for information. Forexample, although there has been provision through some voluntary agencies(and, for example, the Scottish Refugee Council has been involved in providingsupport and advice through “one stop shops” and surgeries in local areas)there have been problems in addressing the high level of demand. Theshortage of these services may present a number of difficulties for refugees.Specialist services are also concentrated in city areas (particularly Glasgow),and there are, therefore, difficulties in providing a full service to refugeeselsewhere in Scotland.

It has been suggested that, given these issues, refugees sometimes lack theinformation and advocacy which they require to make appropriate housingchoices. This has implications for work with both asylum seekers (in terms of theprovision of information prior to change of status) and refugees (when thechoices which they make will impact upon their subsequent experiences).

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Information at the point of transfer and prior to allocation

The housing options which are offered to refugees will determine the housingwhich is available to them, and it has been suggested that refugees need to beaware of issues such as the consequences of refusal of an offer, as well as theirentitlements.

Detailed advice, however, does not tend to be given until people have a positivedecision. They then make decisions at a point of crisis, in a short time, and areconsidered less likely to make informed choices. Once people have achievedrefugee status, they move quickly from financial dependence on NASS toindependence, with many unprepared for this, in terms of issues relating toaccommodation, council tax and Housing Benefit.

A current lack of support provision may make preparation for the change ofstatus inadequate. As noted, they may not be aware of all of the options availableto them through local authorities, registered social landlords (RSLs) and theprivate rented sector.

NASS support

Although support from NASS continues to be provided to refugees for a shortperiod following change of status, it has been suggested that, in practice, thisdoes not continue to be provided during the 28-day period after settlement.

It has also been suggested that the period of time is not long enough to allowrefugees to access housing which is appropriate to their needs and aspirations.This, in turn, leads to many refugees accepting areas, or accommodation, orboth, which are undesirable to them. The period has also been identified asbeing too short for refugees to make appropriate practical arrangements, as, forexample, it generally takes 32 days to process a claim for Housing Benefit andthe Home Office paperwork causes delays.

Ongoing support

In addition, following the change in status, there may still be insufficient supportfrom statutory agencies, thus limiting the options available to those who havebeen granted refugee status. It has been noted that there has been a generallack of provision of support services alongside housing, where a tenancy isoffered. Support has not always been available from statutory service providers,and the capacity of voluntary agencies to meet the support needs is not alwayssufficient to meet demand. (This overlaps with issues which have been raised inrelation to other forms of support from other services in the community.)

All of these stresses often coincide with other issues, such as arranging benefitclaims, access to work, identifying health services, etc.

There will also be some refugees who require continuing longer-term supportwhen awarded a tenancy.

It has been noted that the policies and practices of organisations may not alwaysrecognise the needs of refugees who have been settled for a period of time, butwho are seeking housing.


• Organisations such as the Scottish Refugee Council and PositiveAction in Housing are undertaking community outreach work inrelation to housing information and advice.

Actions required – advice, information and support:

Principles

• Proactive and independent information and advice support should beprovided at all stages. There is a need for ongoing advice at all stagesin relation to housing options.

• Independent advocacy support should be provided at all stages.• Every refugee, on being granted refugee status, should have

sufficient information provided to them to enable them tounderstand the housing and welfare benefits systems. Suchinformation should be an integral part of provision within any“Welcome Pack”. Information should be made available inappropriate languages and in a range of formats (includingverbal, written and internet-based information).

• Information and advice should cover issues such as the options whichare available (including local authority, RSL and private rentedprovision), the housing system in Scotland and Housing Benefitissues, in appropriate languages.

• The Scottish dimension of the need for early intervention should behighlighted.

• Support provided at the time of change and immediately afterwardsshould cover issues such as refugees’ right to choose, theassessment and allocation processes, size of housing, consequencesof refusal, timescales, resettlement issues, appeals/complaints,moving on.

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• Specific information should be provided to particular groups (such asyoung people).

• Ways of providing support to children should be considered.• A pathfinder project should be designed and developed in

Glasgow to ensure that all people have access to independentsupport, advice and advocacy, to enable them to accessappropriate housing. The project should provide “floating”support in the form of a proactive outreach service to peoplewho receive positive decisions. This should be funded through“Supporting People” in this year’s programme, and should beevaluated.

Policy

• The potential to work with housing support services as a means ofenabling the Scottish Executive commitment to a single-sharedassessment should be explored, along with the preparation ofguidance on offering housing support services.

• There is a need for the policies of organisations to reflect that somepeople who have been settled for some time seek housing.

• Organisations should ensure that the needs of refugees are taken intoaccount in their mainstream policies and that mainstream services areaccessible to refugees.

• Guidance on advice and assistance should include reference tomainstreaming.

• Local authorities should identify the need for support to refugees inthe strategies which they develop, which will be completed in October2002*.

Management

Pre-decision:

• Appropriate information and advice should be provided to asylumseekers prior to achievement of refugee status and prior to allocationof housing, in advance of being given notice to leave NASSaccommodation, in order that they can make informed choices and beaware of the consequences of their decisions.

• More comprehensive, multi-lingual welcome packs should beprepared and distributed prior to achievement of status, in allareas.

Post-decision

• Prior to leaving NASS accommodation, refugees should be given aneeds assessment/information briefing and an orientationprogramme.

• One to one support should be provided at the time of change ofstatus and immediately following this, which should be sustained for aperiod to allow refugees to address their needs.

• There may be a need for provision of ongoing support to somerefugees who are granted a tenancy. This may include, for example,the use of support workers and supported accommodation/services.

• Follow-on information and support should be provided to refugeeswho experience problems at a later stage.

• Evidence should be gathered in relation to the issues which refugeesmay wish to consider in their housing choice, which can form thebasis of advice provided.

• Trained resettlement officers should be provided to assistintegration.

• A model for the provision of advice services should be developed andmeans identified of ensuring that refugees are aware of specialistadvice providers.

• The 28-day support period should be extended for a period sufficientto allow practical arrangements to be made, but people should not beleft for long periods following the decision relating to their status.

• A means should be found of improving the flow of information fromthe Home Office.

ACCESS TO THE WIDER HOUSING MARKET

It has also been suggested that the availability of access to the wider housingmarket may be constrained for refugees, as a consequence both of a lack ofinformation about their wider housing options and specific barriers to access todifferent types of housing.

Private rented accommodation

It has been noted that refugees may face difficulties in access to private rentedaccommodation, as they may be unable to provide a deposit. This iscompounded by delays in the provision of NASS paperwork, which mean thatmany people continue to be “in limbo” and in receipt of the voucher amount (nowprovided in cash) for a long period.

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Registered Social Landlords

Shelter Scotland suggests that many Registered Social Landlords have littleinvolvement with refugees. Many are unsure of how to do so and there is a lackof guidance in relation to this. Some face additional constraints in terms of thelow turnover and high demand for stock.

Furniture

Refugees face difficulties in obtaining furniture. Where they accept NASSaccommodation which is furnished, an extra charge of £150.00 per month ismade for a period of six years. The effect of this additional cost may lead tofinancial difficulties for refugees who seek to work. Although refugees can applyfor community care grants, the allocation of these is budget-driven.


• The ending of vouchers has eased some of the problems for asylumseekers.

Actions required – access to the wider housing market:

Principles

• More RSLs in Scotland should be encouraged to accommodaterefugees and should consider their allocations policies in terms ofprovision to refugees.

• The use of the Supporting People regime should be explored as ameans of funding additional initiatives.

Policy

• Potential developments in access to other forms of housing should beexplored.

• Specific support to refugees seeking private rented accommodationshould be considered. The Homelessness Task Forcerecommended that all local authorities should introduce rentguarantee/deposit schemes, with the Scottish Executive providingnational guidance on these and local authorities receiving funding toestablish schemes.

• Consideration should be given to developing appropriate furniturepackages which avoid the poverty trap.

Management

Refugees should be given information about access to the wider housing market. Information and guidance should be provided to RSLs to allow them to play alarger part in the overall pattern of provision.

There will be a need to monitor issues relating to the quality of accommodationand the management of tenancies in the private sector.

GOOD PRACTICE

In addition to these specific actions, there is a need for service providers to beaware of developments in practice and to reflect recognised good practice in theway in which housing is provided.

The Scottish Asylum Seeker Consortium Executive Group has developed aguidance note for accommodation providers in Scotland, to encourageconsistent standards of practice. This covers issues such as the need forminimum standards of housing provision, and the importance of addressingadditional issues (such as, for example, ensuring that cultural and social needsare addressed).

Actions required – good practice:

Principles

• In all aspects of housing provision, housing services should be awareof, and follow, the good practice guidance which has been preparedby the Scottish Asylum Seekers’ Consortium and the guidance fromthe Scottish Federation of Housing Associations (SFHA), which is inproduction.

• Organisations in an area need to be informed of proposals, in order tomake plans and provisions.

• Any new guidance which is prepared should be linked to existingguidance and to the Code of Guidance on Homelessness, as well asto any other guidance produced and local homelessness strategies.

• Future legislation should also be anticipated, and structures developedwhich can address existing problems and respond to additional issueswhich may arise.

Policy

• Consideration should be given to undertaking a comprehensive reviewof current provision.

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• A national move-on strategy should be developed to guide the actionsof all of those involved in relation to refugee integration andresettlement.

Management

• Training should be provided to those who are likely to be the first pointof contact for a refugee.

SECTION 5 JUSTICE, COMMUNITY SAFETY ANDACCESS TO JUSTICE ISSUES

A number of key issues have been identified in relation to justice, communitysafety and access to justice. The Scottish Refugee Council has highlightedprotection and support as two major overall issues which require to beaddressed for refugees, making justice, community safety and access to justice akey area of provision. This has been endorsed by the Satellite Group, which hasidentified that the key issues are as follows:

PROTECTION

• The limited number of immigration specialists, burnout rates amongpractitioners, practical difficulties with funding through legal aidschemes, lack of practitioners beyond the central belt, the lottery ofaccess to legal assistance, the quality of advice and representation, andthe impact of this upon refugees’ experience of access to legal advice.

• The need for provision of appropriate and quality assured legal andadvisory services to asylum seekers and refugees throughoutScotland, particularly those who have been dispersed outsideGlasgow, and at Dungavel removal centre.

• The need for the integration of legal and advisory services with thedeveloping Community Legal Service, including mapping need againstprovision.

SUPPORT

• The need for access to appropriate and quality assured legal advice andrepresentation, and assistance with social welfare law. Barriers to accessinclude the lack of interpreting facilities, lack of accessible information,aspects of Legal Aid, training, the asylum process, the needs ofvulnerable groups (women/children) and the capacity of organisations toprovide appropriate services to asylum seekers and refugees.

• Personal safety and the need to develop confidence in key institutions,understanding of the legal system and appropriate responses toharassment, and to address increased harassment after reporting andpromote the benefits of reporting.

Particular gaps in provision have been identified as:

• The lack of legal practitioners both with specialist skills and the abilityto meet other legal needs.

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• The lack of advice agencies with skills and capacity to meet needs.• The lack of accessible information.• Issues relating to community safety and the response of the Children’s

Reporter.• The lack of coordination of services and sharing of best practice.• The lack of preventive work.

In this context, group members have agreed that the work in this area shouldhave the following strategic aims:

• Refugees should receive an equitable, but appropriate service.• Key agencies/institutions within the Group’s remit should have in

place the mechanisms to identify refugees’ needs and to respond tothese.

• Such services should be able to meet the needs of increasinglydiverse communities arising out of the settlement of refugees.

• Women and children may have particular needs which should berecognised.

• Community preparation should be undertaken to enable integration totake place.

• Planning and service delivery should be informed by the experience ofrefugees, with mechanisms in place to ensure refugees’ participationand to ensure that delivery and experiences are monitored.

The importance of building upon work already conducted has been stressed bygroup members from the start. It has also been recognised that the RaceRelations (Amendment) Act and the community planning/community budgetingprocess provide useful contextual tools for the development of actions.

The central importance of translation and interpretation has also been recognisedby the Group. A range of issues and actions in relation to this were set out inSection 2 and will not be restated here.

In order to address the strategic aims which have been highlighted, the mainissues and some of the potential actions suggested are detailed below.

COMMUNITY SAFETY

A number of issues and potential actions have been identified in relation torefugees’ experiences of community safety.

At a basic level, it has been identified that the areas in which asylum seekers (andsubsequently refugees) have been housed are often poor areas, with housing

which has not been modernised and a lack of safe and accessible public openspaces. This has an impact on the extent to which basic crime preventionmeasures are likely to be successful.

The levels of financial support available to asylum seekers, and to refugees in theearly stages following a positive decision, are also very low. This is exacerbatedby delays in the processing of, for example, NASS 35, which unlocks benefits,and national insurance numbers, the lack of which is a significant barrier torefugees in being able to access work. These factors will, inevitably, have somelevel of impact on community safety.

Range of organisations involved

A wide range of organisations is involved in community safety work, as is thecase in relation to the provision of legal support and services. There are, forexample, implications for health, social care, housing, transport, home safety andother services. Although these organisations should be considering communitysafety issues relating to refugees, this may not always be undertaken as a highpriority.

There is also perceived to be a lack of inter-agency working. For example, someorganisations appear reluctant to become involved with others, because of theirfunding and perceived remit. Some mainstream agencies appear to have nointerest in addressing the needs of refugees and will pass them on to others,making it difficult for them to obtain information.

There is a generally low level of knowledge amongst service providers in relationto issues for minority ethnic groups in general in relation to community safety.Levels of staff awareness are thought to be low, and this has an impact both onthe quality of service provided, and on the staff themselves, in terms of, forexample, stress levels and a lack of job satisfaction. This has sometimes led toan over reliance, in some areas, upon Racial Equality Councils to carry out workwith refugees, leading to their involvement in some areas (such as victim supportwork), which should be undertaken by other organisations.

Finally, it has been noted in this and other Satellite Groups that there is a lack ofparticipation of asylum seekers and refugees in the management and advisorystructures of many organisations involved in community safety.

Images of refugees

The process of dispersal of asylum seekers and the settlement of refugees hasled to the emergence of some community tensions and disorder. The media

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presentation of refugee issues is crucial. Section 3 of this document has identifiedboth a wide range of issues in relation to the impact of negative images andactions to address this.

Community tensions and disorder

Experience in Glasgow and elsewhere has been that ill-informed adversecoverage contributes to heightened local tensions and resentment. There hasbeen a high level of racist incidents in Glasgow which have been directed atasylum seekers and refugees. Many of these incidents go unreported and there isa lack of detailed information about the experiences of refugees in relation to theextent and nature of racism and harassment. Anecdotally, racist harassment isnow considered to be the norm, rather than the exception, by many asylumseekers and refugees.

In many areas there is not a fully developed infrastructure for recording, collatingand sharing information between organisations, and a lack of baselineinformation.

The Children’s Reporter, for example, cannot follow up many referrals (of youngpeople suspected of racist harassment) due to the volume of work both affectingthe Reporter and the social work service. This is a particularly significant issue asservice providers are identifying harassment by children as young as eight ornine, often with the encouragement (tacit or active) of their parents, andinfluenced by media coverage.

The net effect of the lack of apparent action is that some asylum seekers andrefugees are identifying a lack of confidence in the criminal justice system, andare not, therefore, reporting incidents. This is compounded by a fear of retributionfrom those accused.

Past experiences

A further constraint to the availability of information is that many refugees faceparticular issues arising out of their experiences prior to coming to Scotland.Some have fled from areas of conflict and others have been involved as soldiersin conflicts in, for example, the Balkans, Central Europe, and Asia. Theinformation which is available to service providers in relation to these backgroundissues is often incomplete and sometimes inaccurate, making it difficult todevelop a profile of an area, and leading to a response which is often reactive.

Evidence provided to other Satellite Groups suggests that the mechanisms forsharing information of this kind between (and even within) agencies are often ill-

developed (although they are thought to be better in Glasgow than elsewhere).This is considered to be founded, to some extent, in organisational factors, butalso a lack of awareness among staff about the issues involved in sharinginformation. It is important, however, in the development of information-sharing,to ensure that the information which is shared is only that which is required forappropriate planning. Human rights issues in relation to information must alwaysbe recognised.

Evaluation and monitoring

There has been a lack of evaluation and monitoring of community safetyinitiatives which have been undertaken, and a lack of feedback from, andconsultation with, refugees who are service users about their experiences.

Current work/relevant developments

Some of the relevant work which is taking place in relation to these issues hasbeen identified by the Group as follows:

• Local authorities require to consider the needs of minority ethnicgroups under the Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000, and this willinclude refugees.

• Some community safety partnerships (e.g. Edinburgh and Fife) havealready developed local public awareness campaigns to highlight theproblems of racism and racist violence, and to reassure minority ethniccommunities that racism will not be tolerated.

• Joint systems for recording and monitoring racist incidents have beendeveloped in many areas (for example, Central Scotland, Edinburghand Fife).

• There are now systems in place in most areas for third-party reportingof racist incidents.

• Strathclyde Police has prepared a document entitled Asylum Seekers:Best Practice.

• Police in Glasgow have been involved in drop-in surgery work, whereindividual community officers (who are well known to local people,good communicators and committed to the work) have developedaccessible provision.

• A pilot project aiming for integration with 12-16 year olds has beendeveloped by Glasgow Campaign to Welcome Refugees. The projectis funded by Children in Need and will cover all of the holiday periodsin the year. Participation will be 70% asylum seekers and 30% originalresidents.

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• There are many other examples in Glasgow of positive communitysafety work, with details of good practice provided in the StrathclydePolice document.

Actions

• The needs of asylum seekers and refugees must be recognisedand considered by all institutions engaged in the civil andcriminal justice system and involved in the provision of legaladvice and representation. The Forum expects that allinstitutions will assess the relevance of all functions, servicesand policies in relation to ethnic minority communities andrefugees in particular where appropriate within the frameworkof the Race Relations (Amendment) Act. We expect thisprocess to be demonstrated in community planning andreflected in minutes, reports and action plans.

• The protection of refugees and the promotion of community safetymust be part of service providers’ responses to the emergent issuesand to the needs of black and minority ethnic groups more generally.

• It should be recognised that refugees are entitled to the sameprotection to live free from crime, harassment and intimidation as anyother member of society in Scotland, with a range of organisationssharing responsibility for their safety.

• The safety of refugee communities should be mainstreamedinto community safety partnerships across Scotland and builtin to the community planning process. It is recommended thatall local authorities should be required to produce joint multi-agency strategies for dealing with racially motivated crimethrough their community safety partnerships. Multi-agencyforums should be set up, where not already in place, to takethis strategy forward. The strategy should includearrangements for the joint monitoring of racist incidents. Itshould also take account of the Guidance on the Reporting andRecording of Racist Incidents which the Scottish Executiveplans to issue before the end of 2002 (although in the interimthe Scottish guidance provided on RaceActionNet may behelpful). Incidents reported to any of the participating services,including housing and schools should be considered. It isexpected that all local authorities in Scotland will have in placethe above arrangements by 30 September 2003 and will put inplace an evaluation system which monitors outcomes,including the victim’s perspective, and reports on an annualbasis through the Community Safety Partnership.

• There is a need to identify and build upon the experiences in Glasgow,and other geographical areas, of successful community safety work.

• The police need to have access to the information which isrequired to enable appropriate planning to take place, whilstrecognising the importance of human rights issues which affectinformation-sharing.

• The police should be asked to be involved in the appropriateplacement of refugees within communities, in order to minimise thelikelihood of community tensions and problems.

• Initiatives to improve the quality of information in relation to theexperiences of refugees should be developed.

• In recognition of the need to address the behaviour of theperpetrators of race-related offending, it is recommended that,in the first instance, the Scottish Executive commission work toidentify potential pilot projects which tackle racially-motivatedbehaviour among young people. (This work should considerprojects which are already underway in Glasgow and elsewhereworking with adult offenders who have committed raciallymotivated crimes, as well as the extent to which measuresfocused on young people could be incorporated withinelements of the 10-point Youth Crime Action Plan whichMinisters announced in July 2002.) This preparatory workshould be completed by early 2003, with pilot projects beingdeveloped for implementation from June 2003.

• There is a need for the Children’s Reporter to address issues relatingto harassment by young people and to gather information which willsupport the development of work in this area.

• Good practice guidance should be developed in relation to addressingharassment.

• In areas of dispersal, police liaison officers should be identified to workwith all agencies involved with refugees, with individual divisionshaving responsibility for this issue at a local level.

• In areas of dispersal, the needs of refugees should be taken intoaccount when developing problem-solving policing to prevent crimeand to tackle fear of crime.

• The Strathclyde Police good practice guidance in policing work withasylum seekers should be adopted and endorsed as a means offorging good relations with the community, with a view to integrationand mainstreaming.

• Awareness-raising should be carried out amongst the wholecommunity in Scotland about issues affecting refugees and issuesrelating to their entitlements.

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• Feedback must be obtained about how people actually experienceinitiatives which are implemented, alongside the development ofsystematic evaluation.

ACCESS TO JUSTICE

A number of issues and potential actions have been identified in relation torefugees’ access to justice. A number of issues in relation to the provision ofadvice and information were discussed in Section 2. The actions set out inSection 2 are also relevant to access to justice issues, but it is important torecognise that there are specific issues which also require to be addressed. Theactions set out later in this section are supplemental to those set out in Section 2.

Legal and advisory services

There is limited information currently available in relation to those organisationswhich provide legal services to refugees, the nature of their provision andpotential gaps in services. The Scottish Refugee Council Annual Report (2001)noted the shortage of provision of adequate legal services to refugees. This wasreiterated in a report entitled “Safe in Scotland” prepared for the Cross-PartyGroup on Refugees and Asylum Seekers, which found limited availability of legalsupport and translation facilities in Glasgow. Overall, evidence provided to theSatellite Group suggests that there is a shortage of firms both able to, andprepared to take on immigration cases. Anecdotal evidence suggests that clientsare now finding it increasingly difficult to find firms to represent them, due to thevolume of work. Refugees’ experiences of access to legal advice and informationand the barriers to their use of the civil and criminal justice processes have notyet been identified systematically.

The Scottish Legal Aid Board has identified that it expects the overall volume ofwork relating to asylum seekers and refugees to continue to increase for theforeseeable future. Given that there is currently a shortage of practitioners, stepshave been identified by the Scottish Executive to make it easier for legalpractitioners to access the necessary training to allow them to take onimmigration cases. At present, this is not readily available in Scotland, and thereis no support available to practitioners to help offset the costs of accessingtraining. There is also a current shortage of support for immigration practitioners.

A specific concern of legal firms and asylum seekers is that much of the day-to-day business of immigration takes place in England, with process taking place in,for example, Liverpool, Leeds and Croydon. This is a considerable strain for

asylum seekers themselves, and makes the task of legal representation verydifficult, with solicitors in Scotland often being forced to hire local solicitors inEngland due to the time and costs involved in travelling to hearings.

A particular concern is that there are no legal firms in Fife which currently have theappropriate specialist expertise to carry out immigration work. This is likely to be thecase in other areas of Scotland as the dispersal programme is expanded. Advisoryservices such as Citizen’s Advice Bureaux (CABx) are also facing increasedworkloads, although asylum seekers and refugees still represent a small proportionof overall workloads. All CABx are accredited by the Office of the ImmigrationServices Commissioner (OISC) to provide advice up to Level 1. CARF in Fife iscurrently prevented from providing advice due to the accreditation process.

This raises the issue for the Satellite Group as to whether it is appropriate at all todisperse asylum seekers to areas where basic legal and advice services will notbe available to them, particularly given the problems already faced by asylumseekers and refugees in Glasgow. There have also been issues raised about theextent to which detainees in Dungavel have access to legal services.

Awareness of services

Refugees can also face specific issues in terms of understanding a new legal andjustice system. In addition, it has been suggested that refugees are not alwaysaware of the types of services which can provide support, nor where and how toaccess that support. The importance of formal and informal provision of informationto refugees in relation to the nature and means of accessing services has beenstressed. It has been suggested that there is a need to consider the nature of theinformation provided and to identify gaps in provision of details of specific services.

Anecdotal evidence suggests that there is a lack of formal information availableon legal firms which can undertake immigration cases. Word of mouth is likely toremain the most common means of identifying legal practitioners, although manyare being referred via, for example, the CAB. There are also issues with difficultiesin both accessing and understanding legal institutions and bodies. The Reporterto the Children’s Panel, for example, does not have written information in anylanguage other than English, and there is limited information available about boththe legal process and those involved.

Routes to access to services

The means of making contact with services (or identifying information aboutservices) can also affect refugees’ access to these, and it has been suggestedthat refugees access services through a range of routes.

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There is, for example, considerable informal networking amongst refugees, andsome groups may approach particular services as a means of accessing otherprovision. (Examples were provided in the Satellite Group of Asian women usingHealth Visitors as a source of more general information, and of a refugeeattempting to access formal training in their own specialist area throughparticipating first in Adult Basic Education.) There is evidence that asylum seekersand refugees do not always rely on obvious sources of information aboutservices. It is likely that social work or education staff, as well as Health Visitors,will each have a role to play in certain cases in making asylum seekers andrefugees aware of their right to access legal and advisory services.

This affects the way in which information about services should be provided.There is some evidence of joint working and awareness raising across services totry to address these issues. A proposed key action of the Group is that a pilotcommunity advocacy project is developed and implemented in an urban locationwithin Scotland with a sizeable refugee community. This project would trainrefugees in the housing and benefits system as well as providing a basicunderstanding of employment law, discrimination law and debt. These trainedadvocates would assist other refugees to access services and exercise their legalrights, increasing the knowledge base within the refugee communities of the civillaws of Scotland. This project would build upon the informal networks whichalready exist for assistance within the refugee communities, but ensure accuracyof advice and knowledge with a built-in cascading of advice and information.

Quality of services

Where refugees gain access to legal and advisory services, some receiveinappropriate services, such as inappropriate/poor translation and inappropriate/poor legal advice. There is currently a lack of quality assurance in the provision oflegal assistance (both generally and relating specifically to work with refugees).There is evidence of a significant turnover of staff, both in the legal profession,and among those providing advice of all kinds (welfare rights as well as legaladvice was noted). The impact of this is that such training as is available is notkeeping pace with those coming to this area of work, and the turnover is alsocontributing to a significant loss of acquired skills.

There are many issues which can impact on the quality of service received (anumber of which have been identified above). Immigration practitioners arecurrently very stretched, and there is a lack overall of specialist knowledge. Thereare issues with the administration of the legal aid system in Scotland which alsomilitate against effective service delivery. The current system in use was notdesigned for work of this kind, and is bureaucratic, although response times arethought generally to be fairly quick. There is, for example, a need to pre-authorise

expenditure above very low levels, making it less likely that solicitors would bewilling to, for example, hire expert witnesses. There are also a number ofdisparities between the situation applying in Scotland and that in England whichmean that, for example, in practice, asylum seekers are often un-represented bycounsel at a hearing.

A further point made in relation to the quality of services relates to currentproposals to make solicitors liable for costs (and for forfeiting their legal aidpayments) when a case is deemed to be “frivolous”. This is thought to be likely tolead to solicitors becoming much more cautious in accepting and pursuingcases. This is quite likely to be to the detriment of those pursing cases and toasylum seekers.

Overall, there is a lack of monitoring and evaluation of service delivery (mentionedin evidence, for example, by the CAB, legal practitioners and by the Reporter tothe Children’s Panel). It was identified that many organisations still do notroutinely monitor the delivery of their services by ethnicity, and there is also nomeans of identifying whether or not clients are asylum seekers or refugees. Thereis little evidence of evaluation of service delivery. For example, although the CABdoes evaluate its services, this is done infrequently, and with a sample size mostlikely too small to identify issues arising for minority groups generally, or forasylum seekers and refugees. The effect of this is that service providers cannotbe fully aware of their impact on, and effectiveness to their clients. They may,therefore, be delivering services which are not appropriate, or which may haveshortcomings of which they are unaware.

The quality of translation and interpretation also has a substantial impact on thequality of service which clients can receive. This is exacerbated by the fact thatmany smaller advice providers do not have any budget to fund translation orinterpretation, and this means that reliance has to be placed on friends or familymembers of the client, or else only a more limited service can be provided. Arange of suggested actions to address this are set out in Section 2.

There is a good level of evidence that both solicitors and asylum seekers find itvery hard to find adequate information about the progress of cases. To someextent, this is due to the fact of much of the day-to-day administration of caseshaving to take place in England, with the consequence that more than one legalfirm generally has to be involved. The consequences for asylum seekers whomove from England to Scotland can be problematic, due to delays inprogressing paperwork – examples were provided of critical information notbeing forwarded in good time, potentially undermining an asylum seeker’s rightto a fair hearing.

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Range of services

Refugees’ access to justice is also affected by actual practice in a range ofservices in the statutory and voluntary sectors. Justice issues are not, however,always considered as a high priority (for example, by local authorities) in thedevelopment of services to refugees.

In addition, working with asylum seekers and refugees has been identified ashaving a major impact upon services’ resources, but additional financial supportis not provided to the police, nor to health boards. This issue also impacts onCAB and other voluntary sector service providers, where there have not beenincreases in funding to meet the level of work generated by asylum seekers andrefugees. The overall lack of resources has also had an impact on the extent andnature of training which is being provided to staff.

Confidence in justice

It has also been suggested that many refugees do not always have a high level ofconfidence in the police and justice system, with a range of suggested reasonsfor this perception. Some refugees are reluctant to present themselves tostatutory organisations and service providers, as they are unsure of theconsequences. A further aspect of this is that some asylum seekers and refugeeslack confidence in the confidentiality of some interpreters. This is an issue aboutwhich translation services are aware and which is being monitored.

It is clearly important to build trust and confidence among refugees in the justicesystem in Scotland. Their perceptions will be influenced by early experiences ofcontact with the police and courts and all of these factors, too, can constrainrefugees’ access to justice.


Some of the relevant work which has been identified in relation to these issues isas follows:

• An Immigration Practitioners’ group has been formed in the West ofScotland, which provides some measure of peer-to-peer support,access to materials and some level of cross-referral of cases wherepractitioners are recognised as specialists.

• There has been a pilot project operating in relation to asylum seekers’substantive interviews, during which these were carried out inGlasgow. The teams are now back in Liverpool, however, and it isunlikely this will be rolled out in the future.

• Work is currently being undertaken within the Scottish Executive tomap the supply and need for legal advice and representation (althoughnot relating specifically to refugees), in the context of developing aCommunity Legal Service for Scotland. There is potential for theinclusion of issues relating to refugees in that research.

• Welcome packs have been given to asylum seekers and refugees inGlasgow, which can provide one means of giving service informationand other information. A welcome message from Strathclyde Policehas been included in the Glasgow City Council Welcome Pack, whichis available in 22 languages.

• The Law Society of Scotland is undertaking work to develop the skillsneeded relating to immigration law expertise and wider relevantexpertise.

• The Scottish Executive, in the context of forthcoming proposals fromthe Law Society for an increase in payment for Civil Legal Aid work,will be looking for robust quality assurance mechanisms. This providesone mechanism through which to influence the quality of work withrefugees. There are also steps being taken by advice-providingorganisations to source effective training.

• Work has been undertaken in Glasgow to review advice andinformation services, which may provide a useful model for other areasand may provide an opportunity to take account of refugees’ needs.The review report has suggested a means of rationalising provision,which has led to the establishment of implementation groups to takethe findings forward.

• It is intended to establish some pilot partnerships betweenrepresentatives of advice service providers and user groups in specificlocations, and this provides an opportunity for the mapping of localneeds.

• The Immigration Law Practitioners’ Association has been involved inrecent discussions of training, and a training course may be offered inScotland in October/November 2002, focusing on basic immigrationlaw, which is seen to be a vital precursor to developing furtherexpertise amongst legal practitioners.

• A meeting was held between SLAB and the IPG on 30 July, in orderto consider whether there was a need for changes to the regulations,to enable practitioners to access legal aid more effectively.

• A three-year pilot project has been established by the Scottish LegalAid Board, where two solicitors in Glasgow provide specialist support.The project is operated by a partnership of the Ethnic Minorities LawCentre and Castlemilk Law Centre, with most services provided on anoutreach basis.

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• Part V pilot projects may, in the future, provide some support topractitioners, and it is hoped that the second phase will focus on“non-casework” developments.

• The Legal Services Commission funded the ILPA to produce goodpractice guidance for solicitors in England and Wales.

• Some organisations (e.g. Glasgow North Victim Support Service) haveadapted and developed their service delivery practice, in order to buildthe trust of refugees. They have become involved in responding in anarea of service provision in which they have had no previous experience.

• There are examples from Glasgow of some new services which havebeen developed, as well as examples of improved practice within existingservices. For example, some service providers have recruited bilingualvolunteers and have encouraged volunteers who are asylum seekers/refugees to apply for permission to work and to apply for some posts.Some publicity material for services has been translated and some drop-in provision has developed. There has been a range of advocacy andcampaigning work and some services have participated in training.

• There have been some individual innovative projects, such as a “LocalExchange Trading System” (using non-cash means of allowingrefugees to share skills).

Actions

• The current need for legal advice and representation services forrefugees and the provision of legal services to refugees should bemapped.

• Suggestions should be made for the inclusion of issues relating torefugees, and black and minority ethnic groups generally, in thecurrent research to map legal needs and services and develop aCommunity Legal Service in Scotland.

• Mapping unmet need amongst refugees should include considerationof specialist issues, such as immigration and asylum law, and widerneeds, such as law on employment, housing, welfare, family and childprotection.

• The mapping work should identify the location of practitioners who areworking with refugees, who they are, whether the same practitionerswork on immigration issues and with refugees, whether they haveappropriate skills, whether they can use interpreting services andwhether there are gaps in provision.

• Sources of information for the mapping work should includeorganisations with specific experience of working with refugees, suchas the Scottish Court Service, the Office for the Immigration ServiceCommissioner and the Legal Aid Board.

• The mapping exercise needs to recognise refugees’ routes to accessto services.

• It is recommended that each local authority area withinScotland should, in the building and implementation of itsrace equality scheme, prioritise a review of mainstreamadvice agencies to ensure that those agencies can and doaccess training in relation to translation and interpretation,specialist areas of the law and responding to diversity, andensure that these agencies can access and fund interpretingand translation facilities. This, with the local authority’sassistance, should/may become a condition of funding infurtherance of the authority’s duties under the RaceRelations (Amendment) Act. The review should alsorecognise the vulnerability of particular groups seekingadvice, such as women and young people, and the benefitsof accessing a comprehensive service within one setting.Promotion of such services should be developed to increaseaccessibility of all ethnic minority communities, includingrefugees.

• There is a need to establish a standard of legal advice for thoseproviding services to refugees, within the overall context of developingthe quality of legal advice in Scotland and in the context of thecontinuing debate on wider quality issues.

• The Accreditation Committee of the Law Society of Scotland shouldconsider the potential development of some form of peer certificationfor practitioners.

• The operation of the regulations governing advice andassistance should be reviewed by the Scottish Executive, inconsultation with the Scottish Legal Aid Board, the Law Societyand specialist practitioners, to ensure that they adequatereflect the work involved in dealing with asylum applications.Such a review should be completed within four months; and ifchanges to the regulations are considered necessary, theyshould be drawn up and put before Parliament as soon aspossible thereafter.

• Briefings should be provided to solicitors on dispersal and standardsof representation.

• Dialogue must be continued and developed with the legal professionin relation to developing relevant expertise.

• The Scottish Refugee Council legal strategy should be implemented,including the provision of training courses, conferences andseminars.

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• The Scottish Executive, the Law Society and the ScottishRefugee Council should work together to identify funding,through the Scottish Executive, if necessary, to deliver thisexpert training in asylum and immigration law in Scotland foras long as those seeking refugee status continue to bedispersed to Scotland. This training should commence as soonas possible and certainly no later than March 2003.

• Information relating to key aspects of justice and the justice process inScotland (for example, information relating to key legal institutions andtheir functions) should be prepared and made available in appropriateformats to refugees.

• Services should be promoted and “marketed” to communities andindividuals in appropriate languages, in order that people are aware ofthe services which are available and the support which can beprovided, and to increase knowledge of services and the informalspread of information.

• Specific and appropriate means of developing services to groups suchas women and children should be identified and implemented.

• Consideration should be given to the type of information to beincluded in Welcome Packs (with, for example, information aboutsupport and services, as well as ongoing sources of support and howto access legal advice).

• There is a need for early good practice advice to be provided toorganisations in areas in which refugees will be housed and for theidentification of responsibilities and actions by a range of serviceproviders in the area.

• In parallel, there is a need for awareness raising among non-legal oradvice service providers about the desirability of accessing legaladvice from suitable providers, and about the identity and contactdetails of providers.

• A pilot community advocacy project should be developed andimplemented in an urban location with a sizeable refugeecommunity. This pilot should be developed and funded by theScottish Executive with a view to implementation in January2004. It should be monitored and evaluated with an view torolling it out to other areas.

• Means of funding services to address gaps in provision should beidentified.

• There is an urgent need for service providers to address theshortcomings in information systems to allow the effective monitoringof services provided to asylum seekers and refugees. Paralleling this,there is a need for systematic evaluation of services, in order to ensurethat services provided are appropriate and effective.

• Dialogue should continue between SLAB and the IPG in order toidentify ways of improving access to legal aid.

• Training should be provided to practitioners in relation to the provisionsunder the legal aid scheme.

• At a policy level, the Scottish Executive with the Home Office shouldconsider urgently measures to provide appropriate and quality assuredlegal and advisory services to asylum seekers dispersed to areas ofScotland outside Glasgow.

JUSTICE

A number of issues and potential actions have been identified in relation torefugees’ wider experiences of justice.

Understanding the law in Scotland

Refugees are not always clear about aspects of the legal system and the law inScotland (which will differ from their previous experiences). This, in turn, canaffect their actions. It was noted in the Satellite Group, for example, that somerefugees had been prosecuted for leaving children under 16 alone in the house,although this may be legal and acceptable in the country which they camefrom.

The law demands a high standard of understanding, and refugees requireappropriate information about the legal system and the law in Scotland.

Treatment of refugees by organisations in the justice system

Refugees experience the justice system in Scotland as victims of crimes and aswitnesses and offenders. The ways in which they are treated in all of thesecircumstances, and the ways in which organisations recognise and address theirneeds will be central to their overall experiences of justice.

There is evidence that there is, for example, a lack of information provided aboutthe roles of agencies involved in the administration of justice. The role of theReporter to the Children’s Panel, for example, is difficult to grasp, yet the servicedoes not currently have access to any translated material.

Publications offering written guidance in relation to race equality issues do notgenerally refer directly to asylum seekers and refugees, and there may be gaps inrecognition and actions to address refugees’ particular requirements andexperiences in these circumstances.

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The outcomes of justice

As noted earlier in the context of reporting crimes, anecdotal evidence suggeststhat levels of confidence among asylum seekers and refugees in the criminaljustice system may not be high. Although police forces are undertaking a greatdeal of proactive work with asylum seekers and refugees, much of theharassment faced by asylum seekers and refugees, and by minority ethnicgroups generally, is not being addressed, either within a criminal justice setting,or through action by others (such as housing providers). It is suggested thatsome police officers lack experience in dealing with incidents of this kind, andmay lack confidence in dealing with both non-English speakers and people fromminority ethnic communities generally.


Some of the relevant work which has been identified in relation to these widerissues is as follows:

• These issues are being addressed by some services through ActionPlans prepared in response to the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry, and inother publications offering written guidance in relation to race equalityissues.

• The Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000 requires all publicauthorities to prepare and publish a race equality scheme whichshould provide a context in which much of this work can take place.

• The community planning and community budgeting processes providean opportunity to undertake joint working at a local level to addressthese issues.

• The Government is taking steps to speed up the administration ofimmigration cases (although the process is still very slow).

Actions

• There is a need for the continuing development of policy optionswhich provide a swift and appropriate response to the needs ofrefugees.

• Asylum seekers and refugees should be considered to be vulnerablewitnesses.

• Previous relevant work, action plans, and actions taken to date shouldbe examined, in order to identify whether there are any gaps in actionsto cover issues relating specifically to refugees.

• Other relevant publications should be examined in order to identifywhether they need to be supplemented/redistributed, taking accountof refugee issues.

• The Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000 should be identified as ameans of monitoring how public authorities address issues relating torefugees.

• Staff training should be promoted across the Scottish justice system. • A request should be made that NASS limit the number of language

groups in each area when dispersal is planned.

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SECTION 6 CHILDREN’S SERVICES ISSUES

For the purposes of this section, children’s services include education, socialwork, community education, leisure and play, childcare and health (althoughhealth issues are also covered in Section 7, and post-16 education issues inChapter 8).

The Satellite Group acknowledges the fact that the establishment ofAccommodation and Detention Centres is a reserved matter, and this issue isnot addressed here in any way. The Group, however, would wish the ScottishExecutive, via the Scotland Office, to raise with the Home Office the need toconsider carefully the education and welfare of children within these centres atall times, and to call upon support from Scottish-based agencies to assist inthis.

OVERALL CONTEXT

Scotland is a multi-cultural, pluralist society within which, however, there are arange of evident issues such as poverty, differential access to services andracism. These issues affect many people in Scotland, but, as will be set out laterin this section, there are specific issues affecting young people who arethemselves asylum seekers and refugees, or who are the children of asylumseekers and refugees. Some of these are additional issues, while some flowfrom the particular ways in which issues impact on asylum seekers andrefugees.

The current lack of information relating to asylum seekers and refugees wasnoted in Section 2. At present, with the exception of the NASS contract, little isknown about the numbers of children of asylum seekers and refugees inScotland, their locations, their circumstances and their needs. The lack of suchinformation impacts on the ability of service providers to plan and deliver fullyeffective services to children and families.

The issues and actions set out in this section have been developed within theoverall policy and legislative context of the Race Relations (Amendment) Act, aswell as, for example, the Standards In Scotland’s Schools etc Act and thedevelopment of community planning and integrated children’s services plans.Specific recommendations have not been made in areas where it is reasonable toassume that action will follow from the implementation of other measures. Thegroup is anxious, however, that this is kept under review and, if it is found thatthis legislation is not addressing the specific issues faced by children who areasylum seekers or refugees, or who are the children of asylum seekers or

refugees, that additional steps are taken to strengthen the approach beingtaken.

It is worth noting, however, that there are a range of legislative and policy issueswhich require urgent clarification, and the Group has identified a key action inrelation to this.

Action

• There is a need for the Scottish Executive (and Home Office) toidentify and address a number of urgent funding, legal andpolicy issues. (A range of issues were identified by the Group,including, for example, clarifying the relative provisions of theChildren (Scotland) Act and UK Immigration legislation,providing additional guidance on the duties of agencies underthe Children (Scotland) Act, ensuring parity between Scotlandand England and Wales in relation to the support available topublic agencies and the measurement of school performance.This is not a comprehensive list, and it is important to stressthat a comprehensive assessment, rather than a response tothese points, is required.)

THE IMPACT OF RACISM ON CHILDREN’S SERVICES

The existence of racism in Scotland is now acknowledged as an issue whichaffects all minority ethnic communities, not only asylum seekers and refugees(and has been identified as a cross-cutting issue in Section 2).

The existence of racism has been, in effect, denied in many aspects of serviceprovision over a long period, and it has, therefore, been accorded a low priority interms of the development of policy and practice. This is changing, but the paceof change is still slow and patchy. In terms of children’s services, there is a needfor some services to, in effect, catch up, in terms of, for example, thedevelopment of consistent policy and practice (for example the development ofanti-racist approaches and staff development). These are specific issues whichwill be returned to later in this section.

There is ample evidence of racist bullying and harassment in schools and thewider community affecting children and young people. Virtually all of the youngrefugees and asylum seekers interviewed by researchers from the University ofEdinburgh (Closs et al, 1999) had had some experience of racist bullying andharassment, both in school and in the community more generally. More recent

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evidence from Save the Children suggests that there is a virtually constant level ofracism evident in the lives of young refugees and asylum seekers in Scotland, asthis quote illustrates:

“Glasgow is nice, but when I feel like going out to play or just for walk Idon’t go because I can’t go, since people throw stones at us, swear at usand they harass us.” (girl, age 13)

It has also become clear from consultations undertaken by the Group that even veryyoung children are being subjected to racism. This racism impacts on the childrenand their parents, as well as on the ways in which services can be provided, forexample in terms of the need to provide transportation to out-of-school activities toaddress parents’ fears that their children may face attacks. There is also evidencethat the environment within which young people now live may also be a contributoryfactor both to racism, and to the fear of harassment and attack. The concentrationof young people in a confined play area around tower blocks was identified to theGroup as a potential problem in that, if an incident occurs, there is little option for theyoung asylum seeker or refugee but to return to their home (due to both lack ofmoney and fear of attack), effectively acting as a further deterrent both to integrationand to the development of, for example, play skills.

The ways in which schools and other service providers address these issues,along with the work which is carried out in relation to equality awareness andpromoting cultural diversity in the wider community, has a key impact on theexperiences of pupils who are asylum seekers and refugees. In many cases,schools are seen as a safe haven by parents and young people alike. Manyschools and teachers appear uncomfortable, however, in addressing issues ofracism, due to a lack of knowledge and understanding of the issues. There isevidence that schools which take an anti-racist approach (encompassing thewhole school) are more successful than those taking a softer, multi-culturaleducation approach. This, however, requires a high level of commitment from allstaff, with support being provided to enable them to address issues in a positiveand constructive way.

It is not clear that there are consistent policies in place across local authoritiesand other service providers working on their behalf (for example voluntaryorganisations working to deliver statutory services on a partnership basis) toallow, for example, the reporting of racist incidents, to investigate them and takeappropriate action, support the young person and their family and undertakeeffective monitoring of trends and issues. The Race Relations (Amendment) Actwill lead to considerable progress in this regard, but the Group believes that it willbe important to monitor the implementation of the act to ensure that theanticipated benefits are being achieved.

Actions

• All Children’s Services Plans should take account of thespecific issues facing asylum seekers and refugees,particularly in relation to addressing racism, and ensure thatthe needs of those in vulnerable groups (for example thosechildren that are unaccompanied or looked after, haveparticular support needs or physical or mental health issues)are properly identified and addressed.

• Asylum seekers and refugees must be properly consulted duringthe process of the development of Children’s Services Plan (andany other strategies or action plans which impact upon them).

• There is a need to develop effective anti-racism strategies, and toimplement these in all areas of children’s services, including schools,residential services, and community-based services. Means need tobe identified of ensuring that these are consistently applied by allservices in both the statutory and voluntary sectors.

• The Scottish Executive should prepare guidance for the range ofbodies which sponsor or accredit training in Scotland to ensurethat anti-racist approaches, and the specific needs of asylumseekers and refugees, are included in all basic training, inductiontraining and on-going staff development. It is essential that thisguidance is comprehensive in its distribution, covering all aspectsof children’s services, and all staff involved in their delivery.

THE IMPACT OF PAST EXPERIENCES AND CURRENTFAMILY CIRCUMSTANCES

Many young people will have faced considerable disruption during the periods inwhich they have been asylum seekers, and this often continues after being grantedrefugee status. This may bring with it many problems, including interruptions to theirschooling, and a poorly developed understanding of play and social interaction.Their experiences may have physical, psychological and other consequences.

The extent of this dislocation is evident from the following quote (from theScottish Refugee Council/Save the Children report “I didn’t come here for fun”):

“Leaving my country was the most awful thing which could happen to meand my family. We were forced to leave our country because there was thewar in that moment, so that we left everything behind ourselves, our land,our family, our memories and all the other things which belonged toourselves and which were devastated by the bombs.” (girl, age 15)

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Clearly, it is likely that these experiences, and those of their families, will havesome impact on the likelihood that children and young people will achieve theirfull educational potential. There is a clear need to provide support to youngpeople of all ages both within the context of education, and more widely throughhealth and social services, and more holistically for families including early yearssupport for families with children not yet at school.

It is also evident that many staff working with asylum seekers and refugeechildren across a range of services will have had little experience of dealing withthese issues, and there is a need to ensure that ongoing development support isprovided to them and other staff groups.

It is also important not to underestimate the impact of poverty and family livingcircumstances on children and young people. Many young people (both asylumseekers and refugees) are living in conditions of considerable financial hardship,and often in cramped and overcrowded housing. Section 74 of Schedule 14 ofthe Immigration and Asylum Act 1999 amended section 53 of the Education(Scotland) Act 1980 which covers the provision of school meals. As aconsequence of this amendment, entitlement to free school meals was extendedto pupils whose parents are in receipt of support provided under Part VI of theImmigration and Asylum Act 1999. Eligibility for milk or other refreshments issimilar. However, eligibility for financial assistance for school clothing and schooltrips is at the discretion of the education authorities. Support to young peopleaged 16 and over through bursaries (or education maintenance allowances inpilot areas) are, in effect, treated as additional family income and would bededucted from NASS benefit. There is some inconsistency in the overallapproach, as asylum seekers qualify of right for, for example, free prescriptionsand dental care. Although it is recognised that the overall state benefit system isa reserved issue, a number of these school-related benefits are controlled bylocal authorities and funded by the Scottish Executive.

At present, there is a lack of general awareness among service providers of therights and eligibilities of both asylum seekers and refugees, potentially leading tofamilies not receiving all the support they may be entitled to. The benefits system,and its interaction with NASS, is complex, and the implications of poor advice(both for the family and the service provider) can be serious. There are evenpotential implications for asylum seekers in terms of the provision of goods asgifts. In some cases, this can lead to the withdrawal of NASS benefits fromasylum seekers, as they are deemed to have received additional income (even ifthis had been unintentional). In these cases, the welfare of any dependentchildren then becomes the responsibility of the local authority under the Children(Scotland) Act 1995. The impact of this on the family unit, and on children inparticular, can be very serious and far-reaching. Taking all of these issuestogether, there is, therefore, a need to ensure that service providers, particularly

those involved in providing advice, are aware of the full range of issues andimplications, and that steps are taken to ensure that this awareness is maintained(as rules can, and do, change frequently).

There are other financial issues facing parents, for example in the ways in whichschools expect parents to contribute to trips, additional equipment and extra-curricular activities. A further issue is that some schools use eligibility for someextra-curricular activities as a “reward” for good conduct. Many asylum seekersand refugees who are parents, however, are unable to allow their children to takeadvantage of these activities (which may carry a charge) without significanthardship. The situation overall has improved somewhat since the ending ofvouchers (as parents have access to some, albeit very small amounts of cash),but remains very serious for many families and acts as a substantial barrier toeffective integration. Poverty also impacts on service providers, who have now, inmany cases, provided services free of charge.

There is very little understanding of the financial circumstances of asylum seekersand refugees among the wider population, with an evident perception that thisgroup receive “something for nothing”, and that, as a consequence, theindigenous population are being discriminated against. Again, this lack ofunderstanding has an impact on asylum seekers and refugees’ families bothdirectly and indirectly.

A range of general integration issues have been identified, and these, to someextent, run throughout the issues outlined in this section. These impact on eachstage of education, including pre-5, primary and secondary, as well as continuingeducation and more generally in terms of the extent to which young people canplay a part in the community.

Children may also face language and cultural barriers to social interaction withchildren in the wider community. There are also likely to be pressures arising fromthe expectations of children’s parents in terms of the sorts of friends which are seenas appropriate, and the sorts of play and other activities which are seen asacceptable – particularly given that many parents fear for their children’s basic safety.

Children and young people who are refugees will face a number of specific issueswhen they attend school. Among these will be, for many, encountering an entirelydifferent approach to education, for example in the context of the range ofsubjects studied, as the quote below (from Closs et al) demonstrates:

“Our education system is different, I would have up to 16 subjects a year… but here I just end up doing four subjects. It was great in the way I gotto do them in more depth, but at the same time I thought ‘Oops! I don’tknow anything about anything else!’”

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Among the issues facing children and young people are likely to be theexperience of attending a new school, the prospect of attending schools wherethe language spoken is not their first language, the attitudes of other children andstaff and the ways in which the education authority and schools have madepreparations to meet their needs. This was found clearly by researchers from theUniversity of Edinburgh who spoke to refugee children in 1997 and 1998:

“All those we spoke to recognised significant differences in schooling,curricular, ethos and many other aspects, here to where they had comefrom. Many of those interviewed had previously experienced being fearfulof teachers, corporal punishment, and learning by rote, yet this wasjuxtaposed with respect for education and an appreciation of discipline in aschool and the security this can provide.” (summary prepared by AlisonCloss from Closs et al, 1999)

Many children and young people will also face difficulties in having no space inwhich to study at home.

There are a range of issues both for young people and for support servicesthrough the fact that many asylum seekers and refugees lack documentation.This can be as basic as proof of age, and also includes issues such as evidenceof pre-existing medical or mental health issues, and proof of prior learning.Authorities face considerable difficulties in establishing basic information aboutyoung people (and other family members) and this is often magnified in caseswhere young people are unaccompanied.

There are additional complications caused by perceptions held by some asylumseekers and refugees about these issues. There is evidence that families are mis-representing the ages of children with learning disabilities due to amisperception that having a child with a learning disability will adversely affecttheir claim for asylum. These issues impact on the ability of service providers toprovided the most appropriate support for these children and young people (forexample in terms of access to specialist support, or even in ensuring that thechild is placed in the correct year at school).

There is some emerging good practice in terms of initial assessment, and onerecommendation of the Group is that this (together with other emerging practice)is captured through a Scottish Executive funded research project and shared aswidely as possible.

It is important to bear in mind, however, that the experience of integration is byno means entirely negative. There is, therefore, some need to ensure that positiveexperiences are also shared widely with asylum seeker and refugeescommunities and with service providers.

Actions

A number of actions set out in Sections 2 and 3 (relating to both the promotionof positive images and the provision of information) are relevant to children’sservices and are acknowledged here.

• There is a need to ensure that service providers (across the entirerange of services working with children) are aware of the issuesasylum seeker and refugee children face, and have faced, and canprovide appropriate support to them.

• There is a need to ensure that networks are developed to allowservice providers to share emerging good practice across the range ofsupport provision to young people.

• It was suggested that an interactive website spanning the variousareas of provision (such as education, health, social care, etc.) shouldbe set up by the Scottish Executive to enable public agencies to sharegood practice.

• There is a need to ensure that a lack of documentation does notdisadvantage asylum seekers and refugees in terms of accessingappropriate forms of support, and that good practice in initialassessment which is emerging in Glasgow and elsewhere isdisseminated throughout the country.

• As many of the difficulties for asylum seekers and refugees, as well asservice providers, arise due to the existence of misperceptions about,for example, the implications of mental health problems or learningdisabilities, there is a need to develop accessible materials for parents,in order to both provide reassurance and information about the rangeof support available.

TRANSITION POINTS

Many children (and by extension their families) face additional levels of stress atpoints of transition. The most obvious examples of this are the transition fromnursery to primary school and from primary to secondary school, but there aremany others, including leaving care, moving from children’s to adult healthservices and, in the context of asylum seekers and refugees, the transition instatus when a positive decision is made on their claim. (There are other issues forchildren and young people when an application is refused, and these areacknowledged, but are outwith the remit of this group). Children from asylumseeking and refugee families may face additional pressures during these periods,and there is a need to ensure that service providers are aware of, and addressthis. Examples of this may include the need for information about a different

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aspect of the education, social work or healthcare system (which may be takenfor granted for families settled in Scotland for many years), dislocation caused byhaving to leave a “safe” environment, or, at a basic level, ensuring that all eligibilityfor support (as a consequence of the new status) are made clear. There is a drivegenerally in Scotland to make children’s services more integrated in order toenable, for example, smoother transitions. Organisations need to ensure thattheir activity in this area also extends to addressing the needs of this group ofchildren.

Actions

• There is a need for all service providers to be aware of the potential foradditional stress for asylum seeker and refugee families at children’stransition points, and to provide support as required.

• It would be useful if emerging understanding and good practice inrelation to this specific issue was to be identified and compiled(perhaps under the auspices of the Scottish Executive) and madeavailable to all organisations working with asylum seekers andrefugees.

INFORMATION FOR PARENTS/YOUNG PEOPLE

The need to develop effective and accessible information for parents and youngpeople is a cross-cutting issue, with implications across the widest range ofservice provision. A further cross-cutting issue is the need to ensure that there isresponsive and affordable provision of interpretation and translation in allnecessary languages.

There are particular issues for children’s services in that, perhaps of all services,schools and residential care homes have the most intensive contact withspeakers of other languages. This raises a number of implications for serviceproviders, particularly in terms of the costs of interpretation and translation, butalso in terms of the use of, for example, parents and siblings as interpreters inday-to-day contacts. Parent volunteers are increasingly being used in someareas, and this group is of the view that there is a need to consider theimplications of this very carefully. It is suggested, therefore, that there is a need todevelop clear guidance for service providers in the use of unqualified interpretersin any setting. The fact that many refugees are becoming qualified ininterpretation is noted.

The provision of services within Scotland is complex, and is continually evolvingto meet identified and diverse needs. Within education, for example, it has been

identified that the system is not straightforward, and may be difficult enough forparents who themselves grew up within the system to understand fully. A numberof those providing evidence identified that, for asylum seekers and refugees, theeducation system is likely to be very confusing and potentially, as noted earlier,disempowering. These points could equally be made of health or social careservices.

For education authorities, one of the key issues is the need to ensure that there isan appropriate level of information provided to parents to allow them to makeinformed choices about their children’s education and to participate in school-based representative structures, as well as social and other events. A number ofinnovative approaches have been noted, for example the use of a video of atypical school day with voice-overs in different languages, and the inviting ofparents to observe teaching and attend specific school events.

At an individual school level (including childcare and nursery, as well as primaryand secondary levels), there may also be a need to ensure that class teachersand other staff receive appropriate support to allow them to communicate withparents effectively and to the same extent as other parents. There is also a needto ensure that school boards and management structures both communicateeffectively with the asylum seeker and refugee communities, and represent theirinterests accurately.

These issues apply, with appropriate adjustment for varying structures, to otherareas of children’s services, such as health and social care. The need for staff inthese services to communicate effectively with children and young people, andwith their parents, is also critical, as is the need to ensure that parents can beenabled to have a voice both in the support provided to their family, but also inthe overall development of the service as a whole.

Although not strictly within the remit of this group, it was noted that there is aneed for parents to be provided with language support to allow them toparticipate fully in their children’s education (as well as in wider social andeconomic life).

Actions

• Children’s services agencies should audit, and if necessary,revise, current provision to parents and children to ensure thatinformation is accessible, comprehensive, readily understoodand accurate, and that it is being received and used by asylumseekers and refugees. Local information on services shouldcomplement that produced nationally by the Scottish Executive.

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• There is perhaps a specific need for the Scottish Executive to providedevelopment funding to identify, research and develop innovativeapproaches to the delivery of information to parents and youngpeople.

• There is a need to develop clear guidelines on the use of unqualifiedinterpreters in school and other intensive contact settings.

• Assistance needs to be made available to staff and management(including non-teaching and auxiliary staff where appropriate) to helpthem to communicate effectively with, support and represent theinterests of asylum seeker and refugee families in their work. Thisneeds to extend to both policy guidance and training, and, wherenecessary, practical support.

STAFF DEVELOPMENT

A common strand running through all of the considerations of this group hasbeen staff development. Although, for example, there is currently a MinisterialGroup considering CPD (Continuing Professional Development) in the broad areaof inclusion, this relates only to school teachers. There has been a recognition bythe Group that, for a true anti-racist approach to succeed (and contribute toeffective integration, as well as wider objectives), there is a need to take a whole-school approach, embracing all staff, and ideally parents involved with the schoolin any capacity (including management where relevant). There is also a need toensure that these issues are part of initial teacher education, and form a part ofCPD, such as, for example, within the Scottish Qualification for Headship. Thisapproach will also be required in terms of all other settings in which services areprovided to children, including social work, health, community development, pre-school provision, childcare (including out of school care) and leisure and playactivities. This has been identified by the Group as a critical area, but one whichappears, as yet, not to have received much consideration.

Actions

• There is a need for all service providers to adopt a proactive approachto the delivery of staff development, within the framework of an anti-racist approach. This needs to encompass all staff, and not onlyteaching staff.

FUNDING ISSUES

A common strand running through many of the considerations of this group hasbeen, not surprisingly, funding. It has been noted by the Group that the Home

Office and DfES have provided a range of additional resources to variousagencies (including local authorities, but particularly to schools) in England toundertake both core and innovative work, and there is a perception of somedisparity in resources made available here and in England. The Department forEducation and Skills, for example, makes available a national fund of £1.5 milliona year against which schools can bid for up to £500 per pupil for additional costsof providing for asylum seekers’ children. The DfES scheme has not beenreplicated in Scotland. It is the view of the Group that any scheme proposed forScotland should allocate monies at the local authority, and not individual schoollevel. This is seen to be more equitable, and to allow for better control of, forexample, the movement of resources to reflect changes in the population ofasylum seekers’ children within individual schools.

The Home Office does not consider it to be its responsibility to contribute to, normeet additional costs of services such as education, police and health arisingfrom the arrival of asylum seekers in an area. It expects the relevant authorities tomeet additional costs arising, as they would be expected to meet the costs ofproviding services for other people moving into their area. The NASS contractdoes not, therefore, meet the costs of any statutory services, includingeducation. The contract price from NASS includes cost of rent, furnishing,council tax, utilities and a management fee.

In Scotland, local authorities receive general financial support for the education ofchildren, regardless of their status, through the annual local government financesettlement. However, the annual grant settlement is based on the number ofpupils at a census date in September of the previous year. Large numbers ofchildren arriving after the census date will not be included until the following year,leaving local authorities with a shortfall in the financial year during which thechildren arrive.

Work with asylum seekers and refugees is labour and resource intensive, andthere is a view that there has been, to date, relatively little recognition of this interms of additional resources being made available to enhance and protectmainstream services. It was noted by the Group that a head-count approachdoes not take account of the often intensive additional support needs of asylumseekers and refugees.

Actions

• There is an urgent need to ensure parity of treatment betweenScotland and England in terms of resources directed towardsaddressing the needs of asylum seekers and refugees.

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• Any scheme should direct support to local authorities, not to individualschools as happens with some funding in England and Wales.

STATISTICAL INFORMATION

It is noted that statistical information has been discussed in Section 2, but it isworth mentioning here that there is currently a lack of guidance available to localauthorities on the best means of monitoring their service. It is acknowledged thatthis will be provided in part as a consequence of the Race Relations(Amendment) Act, but that this may not be entirely adequate. Actions in relationto statistical information have been included in the cross-cutting issues section ofthis document.

UNACCOMPANIED AND LOOKED-AFTER CHILDREN

There are increasing numbers of unaccompanied minors coming to Glasgow, aswell as increasing numbers of looked-after children. Although the absolutenumbers are small, each case is legally complex and resource intensive. Thereare now also cases where children have been rejected by extended families andhave had to be taken into care.

There is evidence of some local authorities and police forces not taking seriouslytheir own responsibilities under the Children (Scotland) Act 1995, and simplyproviding travel warrants for young people to come to Glasgow.

The legal position relating to the relative priority of the Children (Scotland) Act1995 and the Immigration and Nationality Act 1999 is complicated, and there isan urgent need for the Scottish Executive/Home Office to provide clarification onthis and a range of other issues to social work departments. A key action wasidentified in relation to this earlier in this section.

The current immigration system is found to be inflexible and bureaucratic, with alack of resources in Scotland meaning that both asylum seekers and refugeesand social work staff have to travel to Liverpool for routine processing of cases.This is a source of considerable stress for the young people concerned, whoalmost invariably assume that they are about to be deported. Processing casestakes considerable time, and any issues arising (e.g. in relation to proof of age)can limit access to other services (such as being placed in appropriate care, orbeing given access to school).

One of the key difficulties is in establishing any credible information about theidentity, background and needs of young people. There are child protection

issues involved where young people coming into care homes may, in fact beolder than is claimed, or may have convictions in their home country which wouldlead to their posing a risk to other children. Many young people coming toScotland see that they have a vested interest in being untruthful about their age,although, in reality, their perceptions may be inaccurate and may lead tocomplications in their cases.

There are also issues about the funding provided under NASS being inadequateto meet rental levels in the public, let alone private rented sector for young peoplegiven tenancies.

A final point here, again relating to small numbers of young people, is the growingpattern of young women having been brought to Scotland to work as prostitutes,who then escape, and require both care and protection.

Actions

• There is a need for the Scottish Executive to provide guidance to localauthorities and police forces in Scotland on their responsibilities underthe Children (Scotland) Act 1995 in relation to unaccompaniedchildren.

• There is a need to ensure that adequate provision is made under theNASS contract to meet the needs of asylum seekers.

• There is a need to ensure that good practice which is emerging inGlasgow and elsewhere in terms of the assessment and provision ofsupport to unaccompanied and looked after young people isdisseminated widely.

EARLY YEARS SERVICES

Until 1 April 2002, pre-school-age children did not have a right to pre-schooleducation. However, local authorities had the power to secure pre-schooleducation for all eligible children aged 3 and 4 years, whose parents wished itand who were resident within an authority’s area. In 1998-99, the pre-schooleducation grant funding system was established to replace the nursery voucherscheme, with local authorities having the power to deliver pre-school educationon their own behalf and in partnership with pre-school centres in the private andvoluntary sectors. A scoping paper prepared for this group by the ScottishExecutive stated that:

“In February 1999, universal provision of a quality, part-time pre-schooleducation place for all children in their pre-school year was achieved.

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Additional funding was allocated to pre-school education, as part of theoutcome from the Comprehensive Spending Review, in order to extend thiscommitment to all children from the term following their third birthday. TheProgramme for Government goal was to achieve universal provision for 3 year olds by the end of school year 2001-02.”

There are, however, difficulties being faced by local authorities in meeting thisprovision. While at an overall local authority level, there may be adequate places tomeet demand, there are, however, evident capacity issues in terms of pre-5places, particularly in terms of the available places in local areas where there havebeen significant population changes. Pre-5 provision is very fluid, and difficult toplan, as children can register at any time in the year, and there is considerable in-and-out movement in most nurseries. It is also clear (and supported by evidenceprovided to the Health and Social Care Group) that the birth rate among asylumseekers and refugees is substantially higher than in the rest of Scotland, potentiallyleading to fairly rapid changes in overall demand patterns for pre-5’s services.

Currently, there is little scope for local authorities to develop additional provisionin specific local areas, particularly as this may be required on a temporary basis.There are also limitations to the extent to which parents can reasonably beexpected to transport children to attend, for example, nursery. In some areas, ithas proved to be very difficult to find suitable accommodation in which provisioncould be offered, again inhibiting the extent to which supply might meet demand.

Different local authorities are approaching the issue of asylum seekers’ andrefugees’ children in different ways, with examples both of a priority being givento bilingual speakers, and to maintaining a balance between this group and hostcommunity children.

All areas within Scotland are now supported by Childcare Partnerships, and thereis a range of providers within the state, voluntary and private sectors. There is aneed to ensure that issues relating to asylum seekers and refugees are on theagenda for Partnerships, and that providers (perhaps as a condition of funding)adopt an anti-racist approach to their work. There may be a role for the CareCommission to ensure that all registered providers adopt an anti-racist approachwithin the framework of the national care standards.

There are particular problems for parents wishing to work full time. The currentguarantee relates to half-day provision, and this is clearly inadequate for asylumseekers and refugees who wish to work or attend college (where legallypermitted). This issue is being addressed by the Enterprise, Lifelong Learning,Employment And Training Satellite Group in the context of different forms ofchildcare.

A final issue in relation to early years’ services relates to informal support, forexample through parent and toddler groups, or in gaining access to toy libraries.At present, this support is patchy, and requires to be addressed.

Actions

• There is a need for the Scottish Executive to identify means ofsupporting the development of additional pre-5 places in areas wherethere is a temporary (and often sudden) increase in demand.

• There is a need to ensure that Childcare Partnerships address theissues facing children of asylum seekers and refugees. Partnershipsshould ensure that, as part of any consultation on their draft plan, theviews of asylum seekers and refugees are included.

• There is a need to ensure that all publicly funded childcare providerssupport an anti-racist approach to their provision. The potential role ofthe national care standards and the Care Commission is noted here.

• There is a need for additional resources to support the development ofinformal support to parents and children through, for example thedevelopment of parent and toddler groups and improved access totoy libraries, as well as support with the development of play.

SPECIFIC ISSUES IN RELATION TO PRIMARY ANDSECONDARY EDUCATION

A number of specific issues have been raised in relation to primary andsecondary education which are worth reviewing here.

Multi-cultural and anti-racist education

There is (as with many aspects of work in this area) a great deal of work beingdone by CERES in association with education authorities, and there is a widerneed to ensure that this is shared widely. There is evidence that anti-racisteducation approaches are proving to be more effective than more basic multi-cultural education and there may be merit in stimulating a wider debate on this, inorder to promote the development of additional anti-racist work. It was noted inevidence that there is perhaps a need for additional CPD support for teachersand other staff, in order that they can become more familiar with anti-racistapproaches (perhaps through Learning and Teaching Scotland). Curricularmaterial which supports an anti-racist theme has recently been published, andwill require to be effectively disseminated to, and implemented within, individualeducation services.

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Language support/support for bilingualism

One of the key areas identified where teachers may require support is in terms ofboth supporting and valuing bilingualism. This presents issues for teachers, whohave, as their primary task, the delivery of the curriculum. There is also a widerneed to ensure that first languages are supported and encouraged. It has beennoted that this is not a situation which many teachers will have faced previously.The group was clear that a whole-school approach to bilingualism is necessary,and that attempting to address this simply through EAL provision will not beeffective (although it is acknowledged that EAL staff have responsibility for thedevelopment of provision of this kind).

More generally, children and young people whose first language is not Englishclearly face issues relating to potential difficulties with schoolwork and reachingtheir potential, with a need for the provision of language support during theirschooling. This is illustrated here:

“When we came to Glasgow we did not come across many Tamil speakingpeople. I can’t speak English. The situation seems to have improved a bitover the months. Few Tamil people have come to live here. Now we arevery happy in Scotland.” (boy, age 16)

There are, however, considerable pressures on the support available. Schools (aswell as nurseries and other forms of provision) need to be able to access Englishlanguage support, as well as considering means of enabling refugees to retaintheir own languages.

It is worth noting that the level and nature of the need for language support willvary. A number of the young people who were interviewed as part of theUniversity of Edinburgh research (Closs et al) identified that, while they had had abasic command of English, and had, therefore, received relatively little support,their integration might have been easier with additional support. It isacknowledged that this observation may reflect practice which is changing.

Preparation of teachers/pupils

A further key issue in relation to integration is the need to prepare both teachersand pupils for the arrival of refugees in school. This is a wider issue, and also hasimplications for community development work (in terms of preparation of thewider host community) and it is noted that actions have been proposed by thePositive Images, Community Development and the Media Satellite Group. Anumber of approaches are being developed in schools, including the use ofspecific lessons, and the identification of buddies/mentors (in effect, a young

person who will provide initial peer support to a young refugee). The ScottishRefugee Council has supported work which has brought asylum seekers andrefugees studying at colleges into schools, initially to make presentations, butmore recently to undertake performances of plays.

There have been a range of benefits identified through this work, both for theschools and for the asylum seekers and refugees themselves. However, onelesson to emerge from the work has been the need to provide support to asylumseekers and refugees to help them to address any issues which arise for themfrom participation. Save the Children have also undertaken a range of work in thisarea. Again, one of the key issues is to ensure than emerging lessons are sharedbetween schools and authorities.

Teachers have also identified that there is currently a lack of accessible materialsto allow them prepare both themselves and pupils for the arrival of asylumseekers and refugees. These could cover the issues faced by asylum seekersand refugees, as well as country- or conflict-specific materials. There arematerials available from the Foreign Office, but it was noted that these are far toocomplex for school use.

Staff understanding

The approach of education staff to the issues which are faced by children andyoung people who are asylum seekers and refugees will have a key impact upontheir school experiences. As in the wider population, however, there will bevariations in staff understanding and staff attitudes to these issues. There will besome staff with little or no race equality training, whose approach may be basedupon inappropriate assumptions. This will affect the service which they provideand the ways in which they interact with children and young people who arerefugees. The need for such understanding is equally important in schools withsmall, as well as large numbers of asylum seekers and refugees.

Current approaches to integration

A range of approaches are being taken by education authorities to integraterefugee children within mainstream education. The general approach beingfollowed is predicated on the assumption that refugees should spend as littletime as possible in a non-integrated setting. Thus, although small units are beingused in Glasgow as a means of developing initial awareness and providing basiclanguage skills, as much time as possible (including, for example, attendance atregistration and PE in secondary schools are spent with host communitychildren). In Edinburgh, small units are not being used, and children areintegrated from enrolment with support available from EAL teachers as required.

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Both approaches involve a considerable amount of initial and on-goingassessment of children’s needs. This is quite difficult in practice, as there are arange of issues (including parents’ perceptions) which impact on this. Educationauthorities have taken a flexible approach in terms of allocating children tostages, and to individual classes.

There are particular issues for older children in terms of successful integration.Although there is some flexibility evident in the system, in later school years theoverall approach is more rigid, is driven by the curriculum and the need toprepare for examinations. This means that it is not always easy for older youngpeople to access the curriculum at this stage. This can be a significant issue foryoung people who may be very able (and would otherwise have been expectedto do well in examinations), but whose English is, at that point, relatively poor.Some schools are understood to be making use of unit-based nationalqualifications to address this.

There is understood to be a good deal of emerging good practice beingdeveloped in schools, and one of the key issues for the future is to ensure thatthis is shared among other authorities.

The University of Edinburgh research (mentioned earlier) identified the valuablerole played by EAL teachers in assisting integration (whether within a unit ormainstream classroom setting). EAL teachers are often the first care-relatedprofessional with whom asylum seekers may have contact, and, in many cases,close bonds develop which continue after a child moves into a mainstreamsetting. There are, however, some dangers in this, in that EAL teachers canbecome, in effect, advisors, and may face pressures to continue contact withfamilies beyond the time when this would be strictly necessary. It is suggestedthat guidance be developed for EAL teachers, and for school management, inthe management of relationships with asylum seekers and refugees, and theeffective prioritisation of workloads.

Pupils with additional support needs

This is a particularly difficult issue for education and social work authorities. Somerefugee pupils will have additional support needs which require appropriateprovision to be made. In some cases, past experiences and related emotionalissues may contribute to behaviour and learning problems. There are a range ofissues evident among young people who have been dispersed, including childrenwith complex learning disabilities or mental health problems, and children who,by the age of 15 may not, for example, have received any formal schooling. Oneexample was noted of a child with a hearing impairment who had never had ahearing aid, and whose education had suffered considerably as a result. There

are also a number of children within the dispersal programme with severe low-incidence disabilities.

Under the current arrangements with the Home Office, very little, and often noinformation, is provided on the needs of children (and often no warning isprovided). In some cases, it is clear that no prior assessment has beenundertaken, and children are simply dispersed, with apparently no considerationbeing given to whether or not the receiving authority has provision to cope. Thishas been an issue in Glasgow, where schools for children with learning disabilitiesare often full and the education service has faced considerable difficulty (andcost) in identifying appropriate provision (in both England and Scotland). NASSarrangements make no provision for the additional costs incurred by localauthorities in terms of providing both assessment and on-going care.

There is, therefore, a clear and pressing need for a protocol to be agreed interms of the assessment and dispersal of young people with additional supportneeds. It is recognised that assessment is one strand of the current Bill, but thereis a need to address this urgently.

Parents of children with additional support needs face many concerns about thecare package to be provided to their children. They can also have concernsabout the impact of any assessment on the likelihood of their being allowed toremain in the UK, and a complete lack of knowledge of health, social work andeducation systems. There is a need to ensure that appropriate reassurance,information and advice is provided to parents in these circumstances.

The Scottish Executive has published proposals to reform the currentarrangements for recording and assessing pupils with special educational needs.The new arrangements refer to pupils with additional support needs and this termis taken to include refugees and asylum seekers. The proposals include animproved multi-disciplinary staged intervention process and provision ofinformation to parents and children in formats which are accessible to them.

The measurement of school performance

Issues have been raised by some schools about the impact of the presence ofchildren who are newly arrived and who are new to English may have on theachievement of school targets (although the level of the impact, and whether it ispositive or negative will vary by school and over time). It is suggested that noaccount has been taken of these children when school targets in relation toexamination results are set. The consequence of this is perceived to be thatsome schools are seen by parents and others to be failing to meet their targets.There is reported to be some evidence of parents removing children from schools

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with significant numbers of refugee children, citing a failure to meet targets as theirreason (although there may, in reality, be other factors at work). It was interesting tonote that this situation has been addressed in England through the discretionaryremoval of this group of children from school targets altogether for a period of twoyears. The view of the Group is that, while there is general support for integration,there is a need to ensure that neither the young people nor schools are notdisadvantaged here, and that an appropriate approach would be to allow headteachers discretion as to whether or not to include individual children. This is seen tobe more effective than the situation in England, where there is a two-year moratorium,but where schools can, when children have good language skills, gain credit for theirresults, even though these children do not appear in the total numbers presented.

Parental choice

Removing children from schools perceived to be under-performing is only oneaspect of parental choice. At present, there are seen to be some tensionsbetween the rights of refugee parents to choose their child’s school, and theproblems faced by education authorities in delivering adequate levels of support.The University of Edinburgh research identified that choice of school was a keyissue for refugee parents particularly, but by no means exclusively, in areas whereparents felt that housing allocation policies had left them what the reportdescribed as “socially mismatched”. Such parents have exactly the same rightsas other parents to make placing requests.

Actions

• There is a need for the development of a clear commitment to anti-racist education. To support this, it will also be necessary to ensurethat materials are disseminated widely (with appropriate support andtraining being given to all staff within an education setting to ensurethat the approach is effective.)

• The Scottish Executive should consider funding a pilot projectto allow the development of “children’s support plans”. Theseplans would build on the experience of individual educationplans, would be developed by young asylum seekers andrefugees themselves (supported by staff), and would cover in-and out-of-school services. One advantage of this approachwould be to assist children’s services providers to identifywhere their services are not meeting the demands of children.

• There is a clear need for national guidance on support for bilingualismin schools (within the context of a national language policy). This couldalso become a specific consideration of Her Majesty’s Inspectorate ofEducation.

• The Scottish Executive should consider ways to improve thesupply of EAL and bilingual teachers, and should giveconsideration to how best to develop and implement a qualityassurance framework and accreditation.

• Local authorities should assess whether they are making sufficientresources available to ensure adequate language support, and wherenecessary, remedy this.

• There is a need to ensure that emerging good practice in terms of thepreparation of children and staff are shared.

• There is also a need to ensure that general materials for teachers aremore widely available covering the main issues asylum seekers andrefugees face, together with background information about, forexample, individual conflicts.

• There is a need to ensure that all staff within an education setting havereceived awareness and anti-racist training.

• It is suggested that guidance be developed for EAL teachers, and forschool management, in the management of relationships with asylumseekers and refugees, and the effective prioritisation of workloads.

• In recognition of the central role of schools in the integration ofasylum seekers and refugees, the Scottish Executive shouldconsider commissioning research to identify and disseminategood practice in preparing School Boards, staff, children andparents for the arrival of asylum seekers and refugees.

• There is a need to ensure that emerging good practice in terms ofassessment and supporting initial classroom integration is captured(perhaps through a specific research project) and disseminated widely.

• There is, therefore, a clear and pressing need for a protocol to beagreed in terms of the assessment and dispersal of young people withadditional support needs. The current situation is unfair to the youngpeople concerned, as it takes no account of the best means ofaddressing their often complex needs.

• Local authorities welcome and provide a full service to children with arange of additional support needs under the dispersal programme, butfunding to support this provision must be provided within the NASSarrangements.

• There is a need to ensure that accessible information and support isprovided to parents of children with learning disabilities to addressconcerns they may have about their children’s care, and their legalstatus in the light of this.

• Head teachers should have the discretion whether or not to includechildren newly arrived and new to English in terms of 5-14 testing.Each case would be assessed on its merits.

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• It would be useful to schools if guidance were to be provided on thesetting of specific targets for this group of children in other areas oftheir education.

CONTINUING (POST 16) EDUCATION

In Glasgow, the City Council has allowed asylum seeker pupils to stay on atschool beyond 16 if they wish to do so, and if they can meaningfully benefit fromcontinued studies at school. Each case, however, has been decided on anindividual basis. There is a need to ensure that staying on at school isencouraged and barriers to this are removed. The current legal status of asylumseekers particularly makes staying at school in many cases the preferred optionat 16, as it is not currently possible to study full time, or to an advanced level atcollege. A specific issue (noted earlier) is that asylum seekers cannot currentlyaccess post-16 bursaries (or education maintenance allowance) placing themand their families at an additional disadvantage.

This raises issues relating to the general accessibility of continuing education andthe means of identification of needs and decision making. (This issue has alsobeen raised by the Enterprise, Lifelong Learning, Training and EmploymentSatellite Group, and is primarily the consideration of that group, but is mentionedhere in order to make this link clear.)

A final point in this regard is that education authorities and colleges have beenable to be fairly flexible in placing young people in school or college as isappropriate to their needs. This raises some issues for colleges in terms of theirfunding (in that it is the school, not the college, which continues to receive thefunding).

Actions

• The value of continuing education should be stressed, and accessissues should be monitored continuously to ensure that no barriersexist.

• There is a need to address the slight anomaly in the fundingarrangements for young people on a school roll who are currentlytaught in college.

PROVISION WITHIN THE COMMUNITY

Recognition must to be given to the time children spend outwith a school settingand as members of local communities. They do not, however, lead “parallel” lives

and there must be connections made between these settings. It is necessary toensure that asylum seeker and refugee children and their families are properlysupported in this, and in a manner which ensures that appropriate assistance isput in place. This support cannot be static, however, and must be responsive tochanging needs. It is critical that asylum seekers and refugees are provided witheffective personal choices, and are enabled to retain control over their own lives.

As with other aspects of provision to children, there is no doubt that theeffectiveness of this support will be enhanced through joint preparation andcoordinated delivery. To achieve this will also require the delivery of effectivetraining for all personnel responsible for providing services. This work must includeformal, informal, and voluntary education, as well as social and cultural providers.As has been noted throughout this section, awareness-raising for staff about thelife experiences of asylum seekers, their current circumstance and specific culturalissues will assist providers to ensure that they make appropriate provision.

Community Planning is an effective framework within which to place the provisionof services to support the integration of asylum seekers and refugees.Community Learning Strategies and Community Learning Plans need to reflectthe needs of asylum seekers and refugees. The methodology underpinning theirdevelopment is partnership-based and requires the active involvement ofcommunities and individuals. Again, it will be necessary to ensure that there is anon-going and effective dialogue with asylum seeker and refugee communities.Community Learning Strategies and Plans are subject to ongoing examination bythe Scottish Executive and by HMIE. Children’s Services Plans and YouthStrategies also provide a planning mechanism for integrating the needs of asylumseeker children with those of young people in general.

Children need to be supported to play a full and integrated part in the wide rangeof opportunities and experiences enjoyed by young people generally. Confidencebuilding, gaining a sense of identity and place, learning social and technical skillsand acquiring active citizenship skills are integral to this.

Traditionally, young people who are asylum seekers or refugees have notengaged to a significant extent with some community organisations andcommunity facilities. This has led Glasgow City Council and Save the Children toundertake a range of innovative work (some of which is within school) to makethese connections. Save the Children is engaged on a long-term programme inGlasgow involving a range of interventions, including play work, music therapy,drama and sport. This is, however, expensive and resources are stretched. Thereare also implications for families, in that much provision outwith schools is notfree, or where it is, trips tend to be an additional cost. The impact of this isillustrated by a quote from the SRC/Save the Children report:

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“There is so much I would like to do, and I have so many ambitions toachieve and fulfil. I do not want to stay at home and do nothing useful allday. I would like to take part in physical activities such as gymnastics,karate, etc. but they are very expensive and not affordable. I can go to theswimming pool only once a week. I would like to learn karate to be able todefend myself.” (teenage girl)

There is a need to ensure that sources of funding such as the New OpportunitiesFund (NOF) are aware of issues relating to asylum seekers and refugees and thattheir guidance reflects the issues and, for example, the higher costs which maybe involved. It was suggested that there is a need for funds in two areas (with apotential role identified for, for example, NOF or the Scottish Executive). The firstis in ensuring that additional resources are made available to reflect changingpatterns of demand in the light of the existence of large numbers of asylumseekers and refugees in an area. The second is in terms of the need to providesupport for innovation in terms of, for example, play work. This is also an area ofwork where the voluntary sector can make a considerable contribution, but thiswill require substantial additional resources (as well as the development ofguidance on both mounting effective provision, and doing so in an appropriate,culturally sensitive and anti-racist manner).

The needs of children will be relevant to considerations of services such ashousing and social work (for example, for unaccompanied children and thosepost-16), lifelong learning (for those post-16 and their parents), health and socialcare, justice and community safety and community development. These links arerecognised in the cross-cutting issues paper and will impact upon the work ofthe other groups in each of the specific areas identified.

Finally, there is also a need to recognise that many young people and theirparents have legitimate concerns about personal safety in relation to activitiesoutwith school, and service providers must be prepared to take appropriatesteps to meet these concerns.

Actions

• There is a need to recognise the effective contribution whichcommunity-based activities can make to the successful integration ofchildren and young people.

• There is a need for joint working, and for integrated service delivery.One means of ensuring this is to use the framework afforded byexisting community planning mechanisms, although there will be aneed to ensure that there is effective dialogue with asylum seekersand refugees as part of this.

• As with all other areas of service provision, there is a need to ensurethat staff are adequately prepared for the arrival of asylum seekers andrefugees, and receive on-going training within an anti-racistframework.

• Funders such as NOF need to reflect the issues facing both asylumseekers and refugees and the problems faced by authorities in makingnon-school-based provision available.

• There is a need for additional funding to support provision in areaswhere demand has increased, and to support innovation.

• There is a need for effective guidance on the provision of non-school-based activities.

• Finally, there is a need for a substantial increase in the resourcesavailable to support this work.

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SECTION 7 HEALTH AND SOCIAL CARE ISSUES

A number of key issues can be identified in relation to health and social care.

OVERARCHING ISSUES

The Health and Social Care Satellite Group identified a small number ofoverarching issues which will be considered here.

A “day 1 model of care”

Asylum seekers and refugees are entitled to care from all parts of the health andsocial services. There is seen by many providers to be a need to adopt a “day one”model of integration which is based on two assumptions; firstly, that asylum seekersrequire health and social care regardless of their status, and secondly, that, given thatthere is currently a high rate of positive decisions in Scotland, a large majority ofasylum seekers will, in a relatively short period, become refugees. This model alsorecognises the health-related benefits of, for example work and social interaction,which are effectively denied to asylum seekers in the first months of their claim period.The group notes, however, that the “day one” model is not universally accepted.

Other on-going work

In the context of health specifically, the Fair for All initiative is very timely. Anoverall health policy objective is to move towards a culturally competent NHSwhich will, in time, be likely to reduce inequalities in provision, and the need forspecialist services for minority groups. Similarly, in terms of social care, there maybe some benefits to some groups of asylum seekers and refugees arising fromthe shared assessment model, as well as making many of the practical issuesfacing individual services in terms of providing interpreting and translating forassessments slightly easier. There are also likely to be benefits arising from theduty on public authorities to publish, and work to, a race equality scheme fromNovember 30 2002. Many of the issues raised in this paper (and actionsidentified) have already been identified in the recent Race Equality AdvisoryForum (REAF) report. That report contains a Health and Social Care Action Planwith a range of relevant recommendations, but this document addresses theissues for asylum seekers and refugees in more detail. The two documents arecomplementary, and there is little which is inconsistent between them.

Refugees who have been in Scotland for many years

While there is little in the way of reliable statistics, it is worth bearing in mind atthe outset that refugees have been coming to Scotland for many years(particularly in the immediate post-war period). There are many, now older

refugees who face particular problems which impact on the health and socialcare services which they require, including isolation from their families and, inmany cases, a lack of English which has prevented them from engaging withmainstream services. Some reference will be made to the needs of this group inthis paper, along with the needs of current asylum seekers and refugees. Theirneeds are quite distinctive, however, as the current demographic pattern forasylum seekers and refugees favours younger age groups, who face quitedifferent health and social care problems.

Wider public policy issues

There are also a number of wider issues, largely driven by overall public policy,which impact on both the planning and delivery of social care services.

Changes in government policy, and uncertainty over the dispersal programmehave, for example, made it difficult to plan services. There was little notice givenof the start of the dispersal programme to Glasgow, making it very difficult todeliver adequate services in time. There is perceived to be an overall lack of trustof NASS among health professionals in Edinburgh, and there remain issues aboutthe allocation by NASS of asylum seekers to Glasgow who speak no languageavailable locally, with potentially serious impacts in terms of service delivery in ahealth and social care setting. Many health and social care workers haveexpressed concerns about the wisdom of allocating large (or even relatively small)numbers of asylum seekers to smaller, discrete areas where there are likely to bedifficulties in achieving a critical mass of both specialist and mainstream culturallysensitive and aware services. There are also likely to be relatively few minorityethnic workers in these areas. The ways in which this issue has been tackled inboth Edinburgh and Glasgow is described briefly later in this document.

Refugees have the right to move wherever they choose on receiving a positivedecision on their claim, and evidence suggests that many refugees wish todisappear, often as a consequence of bad publicity. There is now beginning to bemovement within Scotland as asylum seekers choose to live in different areas onreceiving a positive decision. There is also evidence that other asylum seekerschose to move to, for example, Edinburgh, outside the NASS arrangements. Thiscauses (and has caused) problems in both tracking asylum seekers and refugeesand in ensuring that they are provided with all of the information they require toaccess health and social care services (as well as raising issues in relation tochild protection). These problems are exacerbated by the fact that agencies havebeen reported, in some areas at least, to have failed to work together effectivelythrough, for example, the sharing of information, and facilitating cross-referral.There are also issues in terms of which agencies take overall responsibility forworking pro-actively with refugees when they move within Scotland. One local

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authority (in providing evidence) suggested that there is a need for proactivecapacity building work in areas with pre-existing minority ethnic populations (andhence informal support networks) in the expectation that significant numbers ofrefugees will, over time, chose to move from the main dispersal areas to otherareas within Scotland.

The lack of on-going research

Finally, in relation to over-arching issues, due to the priority which has had to begiven to service delivery, there has been a consequent lack of focus on essentialresearch, and it is thought that there is a need to remedy this for two mainreasons; its potential impact on current health care needs and provision, andsecondly, the lessons which can be learned from the current situation whichcould make future service delivery more effective. There is some urgency inrelation to this, given that there is (as will be noted later) a high burn-out rateamong professionals working with asylum seekers and refugees, and there is,therefore, a consequent danger that much of the current knowledge and goodpractice will be lost.


• The publication of Fair for All and the forthcoming implementation ofthe Race Relations (Amendment) Act will focus the attention ofproviders on race equality issues generally, and on issues facingasylum seekers and refugees.

• Health and social care providers are increasingly recognising theneeds of refugees who have settled in Scotland over the last 50 years.

Actions

• It is important to ensure that service planning takes fullaccount of the particular needs of refugees who have been inthis country for many years, and whose needs have historicallynot been fully acknowledged.

• Although dispersal is a matter for the Home Office, there is a need toensure that liaison is effective in providing the maximum noticepossible of planned movements in order that services can beadequately prepared.

• Similarly, there is a need to ensure, through these arrangements, thatthe Home Office is aware of the capacity of local agencies, particularly(but not exclusively) in terms of language, to work effectively withdispersed asylum seekers.

• The issue of the movement of refugees is complex and will require tobe addressed in order to ensure that, on one level, appropriateinformation is available to them (and that, for example, case and otherpapers are transferred) and also that child protection issues areaddressed.

• It is suggested that there is a need for some capacity building work inareas which may either receive asylum seekers and refugees in duecourse under the NASS arrangements, or through migration withinScotland, in order to ensure that formal and informal support networkscan be effective.

• There is an urgent need to capture, through appropriate research, theexperiences of workers involved in providing services to recent asylumseekers and refugees and the good practice this represents in order toensure that this is not lost.

In addition to these overarching issues, there are a range of themes which havebeen identified by the Group, specifically, service planning and resources, barriersto accessing services, specific health and social care issues and employment.These are discussed in the next four sections.

SERVICE PLANNING AND RESOURCES

At a basic level, it was identified by many of those who provided evidence to thisgroup (personally and in writing), that there needs to be an overall approach tothe provision of services which is anti-racist in principle and in practice. This wasseen to need to pervade all aspects of a service, and to be the key principlewhich underpins the approach taken to staff training and supervision. Parallelingthis, a point made elsewhere in this document is also relevant here, thatorganisations should urgently review policies in many areas of service delivery inorder to ensure that they meet current best practice standards in terms of ensurethat service provision is effective and anti-racist in its approach. As one writtensubmission further noted, however:

“Policies dealing with anti-discriminatory practice, complaints and equalityof opportunity need to be operating and not just sitting on a shelf.”

There was some evidence, however, from those who responded to the request toprovide information to the Group, that current policies and practices are beingreviewed, in part due to the imminent need to publish a Race Equality Scheme.

A point made by a number of respondents was that some services do not tendto act on their own initiative in terms either of targeting new groups, or even

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maintaining information about these groups’ access to services. This highlightsthe importance of central planning and the early development of both strategiesand clear guidance.

Joint working

There is seen to be a clear need for coordination of services. In Edinburgh,there seem to be particular difficulties in joint working, due to the fact thatservices are perceived to be less willing to share information. This has nothappened to the same extent in Glasgow, with, for example, service providerssharing common databases (with open and secure areas) as well as servicesbeing co-located. There is a suggestion that some of this apparent lack ofcooperation is founded in a fear of being accused either of data protectionviolations, or of racism, through the sharing of what is perceived to be, butwhich may not be in fact, sensitive information. There are also seen to beissues relating to a lack of confidence and knowledge among staff of otherorganisations.

There are examples in both cities of joint working within services, for exampleamong Health Visitors, and there are examples in Lothian of centralised planningof services on a multi-agency basis within the overall framework of planning forthe implementation of “Fair for All”.

There was a view expressed in evidence to the Group that shared assessmentmay help the situation of asylum seekers and refugees, as assessments will onlybe carried out once, with core information being shared between services(although this is likely to relate primarily to older people, and hence a significantnumber of asylum seekers and refugees will be less likely to benefit, at leastinitially). This is likely also to be more efficient and cost effective, e.g. in terms ofthe extent to which interpretation is required.

One approach which is being taken in order to improve the delivery of servicethrough joint working is the development of strategies and action plans, sharedwithin and across sectors. One example of this is the Strategic Action Plan onMinority Ethnic Health, being developed by the NHS in Lothian. It is intended thatthis plan will include a specific policy document on asylum seekers and refugeeswithin the overall context of mainstreaming minority ethnic health services. Inareas with small numbers of asylum seekers and refugees (for exampleGrampian), work is being taken forward within the overall context of minorityethnic health planning and the use of mainstream services where required. Moregenerally, community planning was also identified as a means by which jointworking by services could be facilitated.

At a wider level, it is recognised (as it has been by other Satellite Groups) that theforthcoming implementation of the Race Relations (Amendment) Act will requirepublic authorities (and voluntary organisations where these are working undercontract to statutory providers) to put in place race equality schemes. These willnot, in themselves, assist in the coordination or improvement of services, but willprovide a framework for review and assessment, as well as improving theaccountability of service providers through the requirement to publish informationon, for example, service use and complaints.

Proactive working

There is a need for services to recognise that, for a range of reasons, there is aneed to adopt a proactive approach to working with asylum seekers andrefugees. This extends to the provision of information (for example, throughwelcome packs, and through joint working with, for example, advice providerssuch as the CAB or those providing support with language such as ESOL tutors)and outreach services. A point made by Health Visitors who provided evidence tothe Group (but which is equally valid for any service provider) is that eachprofessional who comes into contact with an asylum seeker or refugee in effectrepresents all services, and must, therefore, be alert to the needs of their clientsin other health and social care areas.

Policy issues

The demographic pattern of asylum seekers and refugees is quite different toeither the settled minority ethnic population or Scotland as a whole. There are farmore children in this group and the birth-rate is higher, there are far more youngpeople and far fewer older people and there are relatively few extended families.These differences have a significant impact on the way in which a service can beprovided in areas with high concentrations of asylum seekers and refugees (andfor the funding of services).

Local policies on dispersal have an impact on the service delivery model used –in Glasgow the policy has generally been one of high concentration in relativelysmall areas, whereas in Edinburgh, it is planned that asylum seekers will bedispersed throughout the city. This has led to a model in one area of Glasgow ofconcentrated dedicated services (with dispersed support where required), whilein other areas of Glasgow, two or three practices have been identified. InEdinburgh, the model is to mainstream service provision through all surgeries andother services wherever possible, but to provide specialist support, e.g. throughlink health visitors.

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The considerable impact on individual service providers of the dispersalprogramme cannot be overstressed. One surgery in Glasgow, for example, hasover 3200 registered asylum seekers and refugees. This surgery has adopted theservice concentration model described above, and has 2.2 (FTE) GPs and otherstaff dedicated to working with asylum seekers and refugees. Even though it wasassumed that a multi-practice model of provision would be better given thepattern of dispersal in south Glasgow, in the event, a very large proportion ofeligible asylum seekers and refugees registered in one practice – leading to awide range practical issues for staff in all disciplines.

These practical issues are complex. For example, experience in Glasgowsuggests that there is a need for 15-minute appointments at GP practices due, inpart, to the need to work through interpreters, but also due to the sheer range ofissues facing many asylum seekers. Some surgeries have now developed “dropin” appointments on designated days to allow for the life patterns of asylumseekers and refugees (and to accommodate recent arrivals). This has required asubstantial amount of prior planning and the active cooperation of the InterpretingService, to allow interpreters to be on hand on the designated language days.The approach of using “drop in” is now also common among social careproviders in the voluntary sector, again with a range of consequences in terms ofresources and service planning.

One of the difficulties faced by service providers, for example, GP surgeries, isthat, as asylum seekers and refugees move between areas (but still within asingle administrative area), there is an understandable reluctance to re-registerwith other practices, when a considerable element of trust may have been builtup with, for example, a single GP or a Health Visitor. This issue is now causingpractical difficulties, particularly for out-of-hours visits, and for services where in-home visiting is essential, such as health visitors, and is requiring some elementof flexibility in service delivery.

A further aspect of the same issue is that there may be, in due course, difficultiesin moving asylum seekers and refugees from specialist services (for examplesurgeries of the type operated in one part of Glasgow, or specific voluntarysector provision) to mainstream services, and this issue needs to be handledcarefully. Evidence from Glasgow suggests that there has not yet been a need toapply strict eligibility criteria for remaining with individual services, but this isthought to be likely to arise in the future, stressing the need for the developmentof culturally sensitive (and client needs aware) service in the mainstream. InEdinburgh, where a non-concentrated service delivery model has been adopted,mainstreaming has proved difficult due to the fact that there were few pre-existing services which were appropriate, illustrating this problem clearly.

Health visitors have a key role in working with asylum seekers and refugeesthanks to their regular and informal contact though home visiting (which applieswhich ever model of service delivery is adopted). Health Visitors also play apivotal role in terms of onward referral to other services, and also in terms ofcommunity development through, for example, attendance at drop-in facilities,and the development of additional services such as food cooperatives. Healthvisitors in Glasgow have adopted two different models of provision – in northGlasgow, a centralised single team model, where as in south Glasgow, a modelmore similar to that in Edinburgh, with dispersed services with some centralcoordination and support.

Resources issues

There are a range of resources issues which impact on the ability of health andsocial care service providers to deal effectively with asylum seekers and refugees.This is especially true for specialist services, as these tend to be project fundedand are not, therefore, secure in the medium and longer term – mainstreamservices tend to be more securely funded. Many specialist services also tend tobe delivered by non-statutory partners in the voluntary sector, again leading toissues with longer term sustainability. Similarly, many (although by no means all)services in the voluntary sector are delivered by minority ethnic-led providers.Recent research by the Scottish Executive suggests that minority ethnic-ledvoluntary organisations face additional issues in relation to accessing funding,again, potentially undermining the likelihood of effective service delivery which issustainable in the longer term.

There is also an issue in relation to the basis on which resources are provided toorganisations. At present, much of the available monies are designated forasylum seekers, but needs do not change simply because of a positive decision.This suggests that, in the longer term, as the relative balance of asylum seekersand refugees changes, there may be shortfalls in the resources available toprovide longer-term support to refugees.

Resources issues are not restricted to the voluntary sector. There is also seen tobe a lack of investment in buildings in Glasgow, due to the fact that the NASScontract is time-limited, and there is a perception that there may be no value inbuilding for an uncertain longer-term demand – although this is perceived to haveled to operational difficulties in the meantime.

As noted by some of those who provided written evidence to the Group, thereare also resources issues for areas where only very small numbers of asylumseekers are arriving (noted to be “one at a time” in one case). These areas do nothave anything approaching a suitable number of asylum seekers and refugees to

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consider providing specialist services, and this means that there is addedpressure on mainstream services, and considerable difficulties for providers inensuring that, for example, translated material is available, and interpretation isavailable when required. It was noted that there is a danger that asylum seekersand refugees in these situations might become, in effect, invisible to serviceproviders, unless there is some measure of proactive (and hence resourceintensive) work undertaken.

Evidence presented to the Group suggests that some services are struggling tocope with the demand, even in Edinburgh in advance of the main dispersalprogramme. In Edinburgh particularly, there are areas with no dedicated staff withring-fenced budgets, leading to staff being forced to prioritise work with asylumseekers and refugees against other work, for example, with minority ethnicgroups. There are also issues with non-core services (such as stressmanagement and massage) being squeezed due to lack of budgets.

There are issues more generally in relation to staffing resources. As burn-out (andvery long hours as a norm) is an issue in terms of working with asylum seekersand refugees, work of this kind has tended to attract newly qualified staff, whoalso tend to move on quite quickly – taking their knowledge and expertise withthem. There are also reported to be recruitment problems in Glasgow. Evidenceprovided to the Group suggested that staffing levels in practices with highvolumes of asylum seekers and refugees are considered to be too low, and ratiostake no account of the additional issues such as interpretation. This was reportedto have impacts both for GPs and Health Visitors, as well as on the service whichcould be provided (and was said to contribute to the burn-out problemmentioned elsewhere) for various types of staff including GPs. As noted earlier,there are also shortages of minority ethnic staff, and staff with suitable trainingacross a wide range of service provision. This has been identified as a particularissue in relation to the provision of child care, but this is not unique.

Lack of information for service providers

There is a basic lack of information about asylum seekers and refugees inScotland in terms of everything from numbers to specific health or social careneeds. In the specific case of health providers, there is also, in many cases, nomedical history available to health care staff to assist in determining the healthneeds of asylum seekers and refugees, although a number of contributorsstressed that this should not be seen as a reason for failing to undertake a fullhealth screening. Although a screening is undertaken by the Home Office at thepoint of landing in the UK, it was also stressed that the circumstances of this(particularly in relation to non-disclosure of issues which an asylum seeker mayfeel to be detrimental to their case) need to be borne in mind, and that, therefore,

such evidence should not be taken as definitive. The lack of prior information onsocial care needs is likely to be virtually total and there is, therefore, a need toensure that these form part of the initial assessment process.

There is a lack of translated information both for professionals, and to provide toclients. There is a lack of information to provide in welcome packs. Paradoxically,some services have been reported to have boxes of unused leaflets. There arealso quality issues, for example in terms of inaccurate translations of healthrelated materials. There are many “myths” about asylum seekers and refugeeswhich staff are subjected to on a regular basis. There is a lack of core materialsfor staff to help them to effectively address these directly.

Child protection issues

The group has been made aware of a number of child protection issues which itis appropriate to summarise here, although some have already been mentionedelsewhere (for example, in Section 6 in terms of the apparent conflict betweenthe Children (Scotland) Act and the Immigration and Asylum Act).

One of the key problems facing health and social care workers is that structuresmay not be particularly well defined in asylum seeking and refugee families. Thereare many examples in both Glasgow and Edinburgh of loose family groups,where children may be living variously with other relatives, or be moving betweenparts of an extended family.

There are also examples in both areas of families which are struggling to copewith most aspects of their lives due, in part, to the circumstances in which theyfind themselves, and in part due to their prior experiences in their country oforigin, In these circumstances, social care staff face considerable dilemmas interms of the approach which they should take, and in assessing what is the bestinterests of the children concerned.

Evidence set out in Section 6 is also relevant here, that both education andsocial care staff have faced problems in relation to widely differing parentingnorms between Scotland and other countries. The example most often givenis the age at which children are left alone in a house – in Scotland this isgoverned by legislation, but in other countries, children at much youngerages than would be permitted here are allowed to remain at homeunsupervised. As with other issues, this has led to some flexibility in theapproach of both social care staff and the Children’s Reporter in usingdiversion to parenting programmes rather than statutory measures for careand supervision.

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• There is increasing evidence of joint working between agencies bothat a strategic and operational level (although in some areas, thereremain difficulties with sharing information).

• There is also evidence of ad-hoc groups of staff both within andacross specialisms coming together to identify and address issuesfacing asylum seekers and refugees. There is now some level ofinterchange between staff in Edinburgh and Glasgow.

• There is considerable evidence of flexibly being shown in terms ofservice delivery, with, for example, changes to appointment times, thedevelopment of schedules to meet asylum seekers’ and refugees’lifestyles, and joint working arrangements developing between healthand social care providers and interpretation services.

Actions

• There is a need to ensure that an anti-racist approach is taken to theplanning and delivery of services to asylum seekers and refugees, andthat organisations review and monitor their policies in order to ensurethat these are effective.

• There is a need to document and disseminate the lessons fromthe approach taken by service providers in Glasgow (and,where relevant, in other areas within the UK) to the provision ofservices for asylum seekers and refugees, particularly inidentifying means of planning and delivering services in anintegrated manner. Specific consideration should be given toidentifying good practice and developing guidance for areaswith low, as well as high, concentrations of asylum seekers andrefugees.

• Asylum seekers have been identified as a key group in the Executive’s“Fair for All” programme for improving the health of ethnic minority groups(launched in December 2001) and this should provide a backgroundagainst which work with refugees will take place, with a focus onaddressing refugees’ needs within the overall context of “mainstreaming”.

• Given evidence that the sharing of information between serviceproviders has been an important factor in shaping thedevelopment of effective services for asylum seekers andrefugees, the Scottish Executive should consider thedevelopment of guidance for all agencies on effective andappropriate means of sharing such information. This guidanceshould balance the need for information for shared planningwith the need for patient confidentiality.

• An Ethnic Minority Health Resource Centre has been establishedwithin the Public Health Institute which will support NHS Boards inplanning the integration of refugees (as well as asylum seekers) intomainstream services. The ways in which this work can contribute tothe overall health response to refugees should be considered.

• Given the demands on staff, it will be important to consider thestaffing implications and additional costs of meeting the needs ofrefugees.

• The Scottish Executive should consider appropriatemechanisms for the provision of funding to support health andsocial care services in those areas significantly impacted bythe arrival of asylum seekers and refugees. The existingcapitation-based approach may not necessarily reflect thesignificant additional costs of providing appropriate andresponsive services to these groups.

• There is a considerable amount of work going on at present todevelop shared assessment processes. Where good practice emergesin relation to asylum seekers and refugees, this should be capturedand disseminated widely.

• There is a need to develop (and share) new, more effective patterns ofdelivery (or models of service provision). As a matter of routine, theseshould be reviewed and evaluated, and the experiences shared widely.

• Many of the organisations involved in health and social care,particularly in the voluntary sector, suffer from short term, project-based funding. The use of structured planning approaches across arange of services should be used to try to ensure that longer-term (atleast three years) funding can be identified for as many service deliveryareas as possible.

• Although, currently, most refugees are concentrated in Glasgow, thereare many individuals and small groups in other areas, where serviceproviders are less able to provide the range of services necessary.There is a need, therefore, to identify approaches which allow asylumseekers and refugees in these areas to access services in the maindispersal areas with a minimum of disruption or difficulty. There is alsoa need to ensure that service providers can gain access to advice andguidance on asylum seeker and refugee issues.

• There is a need to ensure that, as initial screening programmes aredeveloped, that these include social, as well as medical needs.

• Child protection is a difficult and complex area, and the arrival ofasylum seekers and refugees in Scotland highlights a need for thedevelopment of guidance for service providers, both in terms of thegeneral approach to adopt and interpretations of current legal andprofessional approaches. In this context, there is a specific need for

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the development of accessible information on child protection issues(and definitions) for asylum seekers and refugees, and for thedevelopment of appropriate parenting programmes.

BARRIERS TO ACCESSING SERVICES

There are a wide range of evident barriers to accessing services. The recentREAF Report, in its Health and Social Care Action Plan, identified that barriersarise in three main areas:

• “Communication and accessibility;• Insensitivity to the cultural and faith needs of service users;• Inadequate information about services, and a lack of accountability to

the provision of services.”

These findings are supported in large part by the evidence provided to thisgroup. The remainder of this section will consider some of the issues which arosein submissions to this Satellite Group using these broad categories.

Communication and accessibility issues

Much of the health and social care system which operates in Scotland isimpenetrable to people whose first language is not English, or who are notfamiliar with specific services. Examples of this include cited in evidence to theGroup include the use of “GP” instead of “doctor”, and a lack of awareness ofservices such as the Reporter to the Children’s Panel, giving rise tomisunderstandings and avoidable concerns.

Many of the problems facing health and social care service providers on a day-to-day basis relate to interpretation (although it is noted that there are increasing,although still small, numbers of bi- and multilingual workers being employed).There is little training for health and social care staff in working with an interpreter– this is very difficult to do effectively, and one professional (who spoke a numberof languages fluently) suggested that even they had taken around one year tobecome fully effective in working in this way. Although good practice suggeststhat an interpreter should be used, on some occasions, this is not possible, andhealth and social care staff have to work through other family members, althoughthis raises issues of confidentiality and dignity. Sometimes staff have to workthrough mutual third or fourth languages.

There are examples of good practice emerging in terms of providing an effectivetranslation and interpretation service to health and social care professionals.

Work is underway in Glasgow to develop standardised “term banks” to help bothquality and speed of interpretation (as well as getting new interpreters up tospeed more quickly). As noted earlier, some medical practices are now workingwith Interpretation Services to, for example, schedule single language days toallow for more flexible appointments, and to cater for newer arrivals.

There are a range of practical difficulties for service providers in working withinterpretation services. For example, it was reported to the Group that staff andpatients wish to use the same interpreter over the period of treatment, to allowfor consistency of service, but professional standards for interpretation suggestthat this should be discouraged in order to prevent longer-term intimacydeveloping. There are issues among some communities in terms of distrust ofinterpreters (both in terms of confidentiality, and, in some cases, a fear thatinformation will be passed to intelligence services). The management of theseissues have been described as difficult for health and social care professionals,many of whom are unaware of the political and social issues involved. Overall,however, there is a perception that the quality of interpretation is increasing.

At a practical level, there are also barriers. In some parts of Edinburgh, forexample, asylum seekers and refugees are prevented for accessing their local GPas lists are closed.

Cultural insensitivity and staff awareness issues

A point made in a number of written submissions is that current services “lackawareness” of cultural issues facing asylum seekers and refugees, and minorityethnic groups more generally, and that, as an allied issue, there is some degreeof unwillingness to address workers’ own cultural conditioning. Most obviously,there is a need to recognise that some women and children will require to workwith staff who are women, and that there is therefore, a need to ensure that thiscan be accommodated within both mainstream and specialist services. There isalso a potential tension between cultural and gender equalities issues (as theseare perceived in Scotland). For some men, for example, the provision oftreatment by a woman doctor may be unacceptable. It is important, therefore,that public service providers develop policy and practice which provides acommon and appropriate response.

Evidence from medical professionals has also highlighted that there are potentialtensions where medical diagnosis and treatment (often from a Westernperspective) are in conflict with belief systems. This issue was also raised interms of approaches to, and the treatment of, mental illness. One health authorityalso identified the issue of patients who had received treatments in their countryof origin which would not be acceptable medically or ethically in Scotland. Again,

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there is a need to ensure that these issues are captured as these arise and that ashared understanding can be developed (bearing in mind the urgency of thisgiven the very high rate of turnover of staff working with asylum seekers andrefugees). These issues are also evident in social care settings, for example interms of responses to differing approaches to parenting (for example in terms ofphysical punishment) among groups of refugees and asylum seekers.

Evidence from Saheliya (a voluntary organisation working with women) suggeststhat, in order to deliver a service with which (in this case) women feel comfortablequickly (and can, therefore, gain from), it is important to provide a team which ismulti-ethnic and multi-lingual. While it is recognised that this may not always bepossible, it is, however, considered important that service providers work towardsthis through fair recruitment practices tied to targeting groups under-representedin their workforce. In cases where providers are creating specific teams drawnfrom existing staff, there is likely to be more flexibility in appropriate identifyingworkers.

Many public agencies were reported to have developed a more sophisticatedunderstanding of the faith and cultural needs of other communities, but,inevitably, this has concentrated on larger communities within the minority ethnicpopulation. Given the sheer number of groups now resident in Glasgow, clearlythere is seen to be a need to ensure that this work is extended to other groups.Healthcare Chaplaincy Training and Development in Scotland identified (as anaspect of good practice) this it has developed as a means of assisting, in thiscase, healthcare staff, through a “Religion and Cultures Manual” for use in eachhospital to provide information on main faith groups’ needs in terms of diet,modesty, workshop and necessary procedures in the event of a death. It has alsodeveloped a contact list of faith representatives.

The issue of death and bereavement is particularly complex for health and socialcare providers, given the range of cultural issues which may be involved. It wassuggested that there is a need for training to be developed for staff (perhapsthrough conferences) to assist staff better understand, not only spiritual andreligious needs, but also the wide range of practical issues involved.

A more general suggestion made by some contributors to the Group is thatstandard training on cultural sensitivity, and working in a multi-ethnic, multi-lingualcontext be developed and offered widely to services working with asylum seekersand refugees.

Given all the above issues, the importance of the health and social care staffresponse to refugees is clear and, although some of these issues have beentouched on earlier, it is appropriate to summarise these here. As in the wider

population, there are variations in staff understanding and staff attitudes to theseissues. The Home Office report “Full and Equal Citizens” suggested that there isoften poor awareness of issues relating to refugees amongst health and socialcare professionals. There was a consensus view in this group, as in others, thatthere is a need for a client-centred, anti-racist approach to be taken.

Many staff are reported to be “very concerned” about making mistakes, or, forexample, being labelled racist in their approach simply through unintentionalactions – this makes the delivery of effective services much more difficult that itneed otherwise be, and there is, therefore, a need for awareness raising for staffat all levels and in all functions.

There is also perceived to be a need for staff to understand the consequences oftheir actions – for example, the danger of sending out important pre-operativematerial in English only, or even appointments – unless family members havesome English, or the patient takes the letter to a third party, there is likely to beconfusion at the very least.

There were also concerns expressed about the ways in which services are beingdelivered. In the view of several of those giving evidence to the Group, many staff inhealth settings are still working from a paternalistic, Western medical model of care,which is a long way removed from the culturally competent health service objective.

At a wider level, there is a lack of clarity about patients rights as asylum seekersand refugees, which again impacts on the quality of health and social careservice which can be provided. Paralleling this, there is also a lack of knowledgeabout NASS and the dispersal process.

Staff training is seen as central to the development of effective services forasylum seekers and refugees. Over 1000 staff in Glasgow (statutory andvoluntary sectors) have received training – evaluation has been positive. This isnow being considered for rolling out to other areas. Organisations in Lothian areworking to raise staff awareness of issues facing asylum seekers and refugees,including training for GPs, and in-house training for whole practices. Many ofthese are being delivered on a multi-disciplinary basis.

There are issues with training however. Staff turnover is high, and there is a needto mainstream awareness training so that it becomes part of induction and on-going training programmes, within the overall context of staff development plans.There is also a lack of monitoring of the impact of training on actual practice interms of service delivery. There is also seen to be a need to provide on-goingsupport to staff to ensure that confidence built in training is not dissipated inpractice.

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It is suggested that there is a need to undertake capacity building with serviceproviders in new areas in advance of the arrival of asylum seekers.

Issues relating to lack of access to information and accountability

Refugees lack information about the services to which they are entitled. Forexample, they may be unaware that health care is free. This is also likely to bethe case in reverse, with many health and social care organisations unaware oftheir responsibilities towards asylum seekers and refugees, leading to a situationwhere, if these groups are not targeted for specific information, they will remainunaware of many of the potential services which may be accessible to them.

One approach taken in a number of settings is identified to be the use ofadvocates, to work along side asylum seekers and refugees to improve both theiraccess to services, and to help services work more effectively with these groups.Evidence of good practice in this area was provided by MEHIP (the MinorityEthnic Health Inclusion Project) in Lothian, which has worked with clients from arange of groups (including 162 refugees) to improve their access to mainstreamhealth and social care services. One potential benefit of this approach (illustratedby MEHIP) is that such advocates can work across services, and can beproactive in working with both individuals and groups in the community (as wellas maintaining contacts with statutory sector providers). As with other initiativesof this kind, however, these approaches are constrained by resources and arenot secure in the longer term.

There are a range of issues facing asylum seekers and refugees who wish tocomplain about service provision in health and social care. At one level, there is aneed to ensure that clear and accessible information is provided on how tocomplain, and that some mechanism is put in place to ensure that complaintscan be accepted (for example in terms of accessing interpretation). Services alsoneed to be aware of other factors which may be involved for asylum seekers, forexample, in terms of a fear that in some way complaining may be detrimental totheir case or a generalised perception that complaining will draw the attention ofauthorities to their families (as may have been the case in the country from whichthey came). The duties within the Race Relations (Amendment) Act may help inmaking agencies more accountable through the need to publish information oncomplaints, as well as on service delivery issues.

It is suggested that many asylum seekers and refugees are put off accessingservices due to a misperception of the role of health professionals – for examplein terms of the extent to which information given to staff will affect theirapplication for asylum. As noted earlier, there are also issues with terminology

and function, for example, Health Visitors. A number of submissions (to variousSatellite Groups) have stressed the fact that much time is taken up by workersexplaining how various services work (in many cases, not their own service) oreven how, for example, public transport operates. This suggests that there is aneed for as much common information as possible to be gathered together intostandard leaflets, audio tapes or even briefing packs.

Some asylum seekers and refugees may be put off accessing health services asthey are unaware that primary health care is free, and in the case of asylumseekers, that many other services are also free. One health board noted that theappointments system common in GP practices may be a source of stress in itselfand may be a barrier in some cases.

As noted in other sections, there is a lack of involvement of minority ethnicgroups generally, and asylum seekers and refugees in particular in serviceplanning. There are a range of barriers to this, including childcare and language.There are increasing attempts to reach out to asylum seekers and refugeesthrough, for example, the use of open space events. Traditional means ofconsultation and research (telephone, mailed questionnaires) are, however,considered to be unlikely to be effective. Face-to-face contact is seen to be thepreferred method, although there is also participation in drop-in centres, withattempts to gain feedback about service needs.

One means being adopted by some service providers in the voluntary sectorwhich has the effect of increasing accountability is the use of asylum seeker andrefugees volunteers in both staff and management roles.


• There is evidence of joint working between health services andinterpretation services in order to address some of the existing barriersto provision, including the development of language days, and ofstandardised term banks.

• Increasingly, multi-lingual and multi-ethnic teams are being deployedto work with asylum seekers and refugees.

• Some of the issues facing professionals in terms of the potentialconflict between western models of care and the cultural traditions ofasylum seekers and refugees have been recognised and improvedapproaches are being developed.

• There is evidence that providers are identifying and disseminatinggood practice information in relation to the faith and cultural needs ofasylum seekers and refugees (and minority ethnic groups moregenerally).

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• Over 1000 staff in Glasgow have received race equality training.• Innovative approaches are increasingly being used to improve the level

of participation of asylum seekers and refugees in consultativeprocesses.

Actions

• There is a need for the development of core information andguidance to allow health and social care professionals todeliver an appropriate service to asylum seekers and refugees.(Examples of this could include information about culturalnorms with respect to bereavement, the provision ofappropriate foods, and guidance on the use of interpreters.)Where necessary, this should be supplemented by appropriatetraining.

• There is a need for a substantial programme of awareness-raising for health and social care professionals within theoverall framework of the implementation of Fair for All and theRace Relations (Amendment) Act 2000.

• The Scottish Executive, working with the Ethnic MinorityResource Centre, should address the apparent barrier toaccessing services for asylum seekers and refugees by ensuringthat there is adequate information available about health andsocial care services in accessible and readily understoodformats. This should be complemented by information madeavailable by service providers about local services.

• There is a need to identify (where it exists) and develop (where it doesnot) common information about health and social care services. Thisshould be aimed at professionals and, in appropriate formats, atasylum seekers and refugees. The development of term banks (forinterpreters and to some extent for multi-lingual professionals) shouldbe supported by additional resources if necessary.

• Staff working with interpreters should be provided with training in theiruse.

• Good practice examples in terms of using flexible modes of servicedelivery to address barriers should be captured and shared widely.

• There is increasing evidence of staff facing a range of issues due tothe tension between current Scottish practice (in, for example, medicaltreatment, equalities issues and child protection) and that in someother countries and within some other belief systems. This issuerequires to be addressed (perhaps by the Scottish Executive workingwith professional bodies) in order to provide effective and consistentguidance to staff on the most appropriate approach to take.

• Paralleling this, there is a need for training for professional acrosshealth and social care areas in issues relating to cultural sensitivity.

• There is a need to take steps on a proactive basis to ensure thatasylum seekers and refugees are aware of their rights in relation tohealth and social care, and that this is done using appropriateformats.

• It would be desirable for the Scottish Executive to make agenciesaware of their responsibilities in relation to asylum seekers andrefugees, although it is recognised that this process is now underwayin terms of compliance with the Race Relations (Amendment) Act.

• There is a need to ensure that public authorities have in place fair andaccessible complaints systems, and that the additional issues facingasylum seekers and refugees in complaining are recognised andaddressed.

• Where possible, agencies should be encouraged to develop multi-ethnic, multi-lingual service delivery teams as emerging good practicesuggests that there are likely to be substantial benefits from this.

• There is a need to ensure that asylum seekers and refugees are moreinvolved in service planning, and in administrative structures than atpresent.

Health and social care issues for specific groups

As well as the more general issues which have been found to affect the widerasylum seeker and refugee population, there are also additional issues whichimpact on smaller groups. A number of these, for example, relating to olderpeople, were mentioned earlier. There are also specific additional issues fordisabled people, although it is recognised that there are few in the current groupof asylum seekers and refugees in Scotland, although there it is likely that, giventhe age profile of the long-standing refugee population, there are likely to be asignificant number in this group, and many who will not be accessing necessaryservices at present. These issues will be exacerbated by social (and economic)isolation where they do not have families here. Many do not speak English well,and tend to be a forgotten group in terms of service provision.

Evidence presented to the Group suggests that it is not always clear that theneeds of white, largely European, minorities are well catered for, as this grouptends not to be recognised by, and included in, specialist provision to minorityethnic groups.

The issues of a lack of mental health support (both in terms of medical and otherforms of care) for under 18s has already been noted, but there are also a rangeof other issues evident. Many children have little experience of play, and may be

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inhibited from playing by their experiences. One of the key roles of Health Visitorsand other services is to develop play skills in younger children.

Unaccompanied young people are a growing concern in Glasgow, and there is aview that the response of statutory agencies was not quick enough in addressingthis problem. There is a perceived lack of 24-hr support for young people in thissituation. At a wider level, there are a range of issues in relation to the care ofyounger people. Some of these have been raised in Section 6 (and echoed bycontributors to this group) in the context of a lack of clarity about the relativepriority of Scottish and UK legislation (the Children (Scotland) Act 1995 and theImmigration and Asylum Act) and also the apparent failure of some socialservices agencies elsewhere in Scotland to take seriously their responsibilityunder the Children (Scotland) Act.

Evidence set out in Section 6 (but which is also relevant here) is that there are small(but steady) numbers of children being dispersed to Glasgow who have oftenconsiderable additional support needs. In these cases, although there aremainstream policies in place to manage the care of these children on a multi-agencybasis, there are a range of additional issues which have been identified by educationand social care staff which also impact upon this, including, in some cases languageand the need for interpretation, and, for many parents, a fear that accepting care atthis level of intensity (or even admitting that it is required) will prejudice their care forasylum. In some cases, these children require residential care, either full time or on aschool-day basis, and this has required a substantial measure of investment by thelocal authority in terms of staff training, and at a practical level, in ensuring thatinterpretation services are available at a level of intensity necessary to ensure thatstaff can communicate with the children, and their parents as required.

Women can face social and economic isolation – there are seen to be too few groupsworking with both older and younger women who are asylum seekers and refugees.There is also a lack of culturally sensitive services – women-only swimming sessionsis an obvious and controversial example. Women may face specific health and socialcare issues as a result of previous experiences (e.g. of rape and other forms of sexualassault), issues such as female circumcision/ genital mutilation, issues in relation tobirth control and pregnancy and the stress of bringing up children in a newenvironment. A lack of childcare provision can also inhibit their access to services.

Actions

• As noted earlier, the specific needs of long-standing refugees inScotland need to be addressed.

• The mental health needs of children should be identified andappropriate provision made.

• As noted in Section 6, there is a need to clarify the issues surroundingthe Children (Scotland) Act and the Immigration and Asylum Act.

• There is a need to increase awareness of the specific issues facingwomen, and for these to be addressed through the provision ofappropriate services.

It is worthwhile at this point in summarising some of the specific physical andmental health issues which have arisen in evidence to this group.

Physical health issues

Asylum seekers are seen to be likely to experience particular disadvantages inrelation to health which will require to be addressed. Some refugees mayexperience physical health problems for example untreated fractures and softtissue injuries, broken teeth, dislocated joints, as a result of their previousexperiences of, for example, oppression, torture and violence. General healthscreening is offered to all new patients at the first medical with the GP. Conditionssuch as diabetes, nutritional or previous untreated medical conditions orinfections are identified and treated or referred onto other health professionalcolleagues. Recent bereavement and current experience of isolation and racismmay also affect them. It is also likely that, among asylum seekers and refugees,there will be instances of communicable, nutritional and other diseases very rarelyseen in Scotland, such as tuberculosis, kwashiorkor, bilharzias and malaria.

In Glasgow, there is a programme of health screening underway of new asylumseekers which is proving to be beneficial. In one area of Glasgow, Health Visitorsare doing similar work. The NHS in Lothian is currently implementing anapproach which allows for, for example, routine chest x-rays and programmes ofimmunisation for all babies from within asylum-seeking families. One key issue isthat many asylum seekers and refugees have not had access to any form ofhealth care for a considerable period before arriving in the UK, and may,therefore, require a considerable amount of support. Refugees frequently face anumber of health problems for which they have received little or no previoustreatment for a long period of time. Some may experience medical conditionswhich are common in the country which they came from, and many will not havereceived immunisation in the past.

A point made by a number of those who provided written submissions was interms of access to a range of other medical and social care professionals, such asdentists, optometrists and dieticians. Access to dentists, for example, is notcurrently well developed for asylum seekers and refugees. It was suggested byone NHS Board that an approach of providing a letter of introduction in awelcome pack may also be effective and could be tried on a pilot basis.

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Mental health problems

A significant number of asylum seekers and refugees have mental health problems.Many of these are specific to this group and less usual in the wider community.These have often arisen out of their experiences in the their country of origin, ortheir journey to Scotland. Evidence from doctors working with asylum seekerssuggests strongly that, in many cases, mental health often deteriorates over theapplication process, stressing the need for care to be provided from day 1.

Many asylum seekers and refugees do not present initially with mental healthissues, but rather with either definite or implied physical symptoms, (e.g. sleepdisorders, eating disorders, physical symptoms) and there is arguably a lack ofawareness among health professionals in recognising these. Social andeconomic isolation can be contributory factors. Mental health issues can beexacerbated by the fact that, as asylum seekers are unable to work (for the mostpart) and have very little money, they tend to have a great deal of time on theirhands. Poverty is a key issue as asylum seekers and refugees do not have theresources to access supplementary services which are available to many peoplein the wider community. This issue was stressed in evidence provided to theGroup by both statutory and voluntary sector service providers, in noting thatresources tend to be stretched, and non-core services often struggle to achieveproper funding.

In many cases, it appears that mental health problems get worse when a positivedecision is given, and the application process (and the stress of this) may havebeen masking underpinning problems.

There are long waiting lists for many services (reported to be as much as 5 to 6months in Edinburgh). GPs and specialist providers reported feeling powerless insome cases to provide adequate support due to lack of service provisionoptions. There are limited or no services for people aged under 18 or over 65despite the fact that many young people have been found to suffer delayedreactions to their experiences. Although there are relatively few older currentasylum seekers, there are likely to be additional issues due to the fact of a lack ofextended family support frameworks. Staff working in mental health werereported to the Group to be feeling de-skilled and demoralised.

Post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is being identified as a significant issueamong asylum seekers and refugees, with some services struggling to cope withthe demand, but, alongside this, a more general failure of GPs to adequatelydiagnose such problems. There is also seen to be a lack of provision for torturevictims, including a lack of knowledge among staff of many of the issues, andthere is a lack of resources for rehabilitation work generally.

One of the difficulties facing mental health practitioners is that they are working toa western European model of therapy, which is not necessarily accessible by, orperceived to be relevant to other groups. There is also a lack of support forprofessional development to help identify the means of working through othermodels of therapy.

Increasingly, mental health staff are being asked to provide expert reports forassessment hearings, and there is little evident support for these staff in terms ofhow to go about this (despite the impact and potential consequences for theclient). In Glasgow, this seems less of a problem. Medical staff in Glasgow havebeen working with the Medical Foundation for Victims of Torture in London, whilein Edinburgh, the Scottish Executive is assisting with a seminar to bring togetherexperts from England with mental health workers here, in both cases to improvepractices in relation to report writing.


• Basic screening programmes are in place to identify the health needsof asylum seekers and refugees.

• A voucher system for access to dentists is currently being piloted inGlasgow.

• Work in underway to further develop the skills of doctors and mentalhealth professionals who provide reports on the impact of torture andtrauma on their patients.

Actions

• There is a need for the Scottish Executive to continue to provide theresources necessary to carry out individual assessments of health needs.

• Practice staff, GPs and others working with asylum seekers andrefugees in relation to health and social care needs need to beresourced to allow additional time in order to identify their needs.

• There is a need to ensure that appropriate professional training ischannelled to staff working with asylum seekers and refugees whomay have experienced torture or other forms of trauma.

• The current provision of mental health services does not appear to beadequate, and should be examined.

• There is a need to facilitate the sharing of good practice in developingreports to support applications for asylum.

• There is a need to consider other developments, such as the provisionof dental vouchers, to encourage the take up of examinations. Thisissues is also relevant in terms of other services which as dieticiansand opticians.

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• There is a need to develop aspects of provision in which there is acurrent shortfall, to enable services to respond in an appropriate way.

HEALTH AND SOCIAL CARE PROFESSIONALSAMONG ASYLUM SEEKERS AND REFUGEES

There are many skilled refugees in the community in Scotland. Anecdotalevidence from Glasgow City Council suggest that there are as many as 27doctors qualified in their country of origin living in Sighthill alone. It is likely thatthere are a similar, or greater number of nurses and other health workers withinthe asylum seeker and refugee population. There are a range of initiativesunderway, or planned (set out in more detail in Section 8), to try to minimise thebarriers faced by a range of medical and social care professionals in becomingregistered to practice in the UK. This group could make significant impact bothon areas of skill shortages, but also on the development of a culturally –sensitive, multi-ethnic health service. This issue has been addressed more fully bythe Enterprise, Lifelong Learning, Employment and Training Satellite Group.


• A range of initiatives (set out in Section 8) are underway in Scotlandand England to facilitate the access of health and social careprofessionals among refugee communities to the labour market.

Action

• Asylum seekers and refugees represent a significant potential resourceto the health service, and all steps necessary should be taken byprofessional bodies, colleges and universities (supported bygovernment) to ensure that barriers to accessing qualifications and toregistration are identified and minimised, hence speeding up theprocess.

SECTION 8 ENTERPRISE, LIFELONG LEARNING,EMPLOYMENT AND TRAINING ISSUES

A number of key issues and actions can be identified in relation to a range ofareas relevant to enterprise, lifelong learning, employment and training.

SUPPORT AND INFORMATION

A number of issues have been identified by the Group in terms of support toasylum seekers and refugees and the nature and extent of the informationavailable to them.

Assimilation

One of the key issues facing asylum seekers and refugees in terms of trainingand employment is the fact that, for legal reasons, assimilation cannot begin atday 1 (taken to be the day of lodging a claim for asylum). As will be detailed inthis section, asylum seekers are restricted to part-time non-advanced furthereducation, except in ESOL, where they can study full time (but face a range ofcapacity-related restrictions currently). There are also issues for refugees grantedexceptional (rather than indefinite) leave to remain, in terms of the courses opento them and the fees they will face. Although, until recently, asylum seekers couldwork if their claim had not been decided within 6 months, this concession wasrecently withdrawn, and this group now cannot work while their claim is still beingprocessed (although those who are already working can continue to do so). Thisclearly may have a serious impact on the individuals involved. Currently, manyScottish asylum seekers are reported to be facing a wait of 1 year to 18 monthsfor a decision, although this is decreasing, and some decisions are beingreceived in a much shorter time. Over this period, most are gaining little ornothing in terms of their education or work experience, and the skills they haveare dating. This makes it less likely that, at the point of receiving a positivedecision, they will be able to find productive work commensurate with their skilllevels. This is an issue for the Scottish economy, which is currently facing skillshortages in areas which could potentially be assisted by refugees.

Qualifications and documentation

College staff estimate that perhaps only 40% of asylum seekers and refugeeshave any documentation in relation to prior learning or qualifications. There is alsoa considerable difficulty with identifying any proof of work experience prior tocoming to Scotland. There are also issues evident with the fact that manyrefugees will not have access to references, and it may be difficult to carry out

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background checks as would be required for, for example, jobs working withchildren.

There is a general problem for asylum seekers and refugees in having theirqualifications recognised in the UK. A range of issues were raised about supportbeing available only for narrow occupational areas to allow refugees with specificqualifications to convert these (through a variety of means) to allow them to workin the UK. A route for requalification has been identified for fully qualified primaryteathers (although this has bought to light a range of unexpected difficulties) andis being piloted for doctors at Queen Mary’s University Hospital Medical School inLondon (with Home Office support). A scheme to retrain nurses (and othermedical professionals) at Glasgow Caledonian University is currently stalled dueto a lack of resources. The Scottish Refugee Council has organised placementsfor teachers in Scottish schools to gain some work experience.

A survey of college students identified that a significant number of asylum seekers andrefugees had primary teaching qualifications, but were not, for a range of reasons,pursuing this as a future career option. With the support of the GOALS Project/GTCand REMIT (see page 149), a pilot project for refugees with primary teachingqualifications will commence in 2003, involving both practical experience and taughtmodules in ESOL, maths and “Scottish society”. It is hoped that these students willthen join the Additional Teaching Qualification course at Strathclyde University. Thus far,one limitation in terms of access to the programme is that it will be restricted tostudents with evidence of prior qualifications-verified by NARIC and accepted by GTC.

Work with other qualified students in relation to jobs such as classroom assistantsand nursery nurses are being investigated within the framework of a European SocialFund application. In addition, the possibility of recruiting the children of asylumseekers and refugees into teaching-related courses is currently being investigatedwithin the framework of a Scottish Higher Education Funding Council (SHEFC)-funded “GOALS” project, which has the overall objective of attracting young peoplefrom under-represented groups into higher education. One strand in an EQUAL bidcurrently being developed includes support for alternative means to havequalifications recognised/localised. There are also a range of alternative means whichcan be used to achieve the economic integration of refugees, including the use of theaccreditation of prior learning (APL), the use of skills tests and trial periods. The grouprecognises that the solution to this issue is likely to lie in a combination of approachestailored to the circumstances of individual sectors/skills groups.

It was noted by the Group that higher education institutions may have moreflexibility in accepting students without prior evidence of their qualifications.Similarly, professional bodies may be prepared to be flexible, through the use ofmeans other than documentation to demonstrate competence and eligibility formembership.

Thus far, only a small number of refugees have either had their qualificationsrecognised, or been able to access sufficient support to have their qualificationslocalised through a mixture of APL, work experience and further teaching. It isacknowledged that the practical difficulties involved in the recognition process areconsiderable, not least that, given the nature of the asylum process, there may beas few as one or two examples of individuals with particular qualifications in the UKat any one time, and, in some cases, it may be difficult to secure the cooperation ofthe original awarding body. The work described earlier in relation to primaryteachers identified a range of issues with the equivalence process. A range ofteachers qualified in their country of origin and with apparently relevant overseasqualifications were submitted for assessment, but it became clear that, in somecases, as much as 4 years’ training might be required before some might be ableto meet UK registration standards. It is recognised that the overall issue ofequivalences of qualifications will take many years to resolve, and this, therefore,identifies the need to develop alternative approaches of the kind set out above.

The consequence of this is that there is considerable evidence of refugeesworking in low level jobs, considerably below those their qualifications (andcurrent command of English) would suggest. One of the key issues in this is that,when asylum seekers are granted refugee status, current benefit restrictionsapply to them, and they are forced to actively seek work and take employmentoffered to them, or risk having any benefits suspended. Due to the relative lack ofappropriate support from elsewhere, this means that work experience orvolunteering as a means of updating or localising skills, is very difficult.

Support frameworks

Another key issue facing asylum seekers and refugees is the absence of supportnetworks. The roles of trades unions and the National Union of Students wereidentified, in terms of providing informal support networks to those in work andthose who are students. Students’ associations, for example, have providedpeer-to-peer support, often through students having a “year out”. It has provedto be more difficult to provide mentoring support, as it is difficult to find studentswith the time commitment to undertake this.

Although outwith the remit of this group, the emergence of refugee communityorganisations was identified as being of considerable importance in providinginformal support. This issue has been considered by the Satellite Group dealingwith community development, positive images and the media.

Poverty and family circumstances

The impact of poverty and family living circumstances on the extent to whichyoung people can achieve their potential in terms of further and higher educationis also a significant issue. Access to courses has also been constrained by

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asylum seekers being unable to afford course books and transport to college,although hardship funds do exist within colleges. Poverty also impacts on serviceproviders, who have now, in many cases, provided services free of charge. Someasylum seekers within the dispersal programme who are allowed to work, andwho start a full-time job, risk losing their accommodation if they earn too much,as NASS support would be withdrawn. High rent levels mean that it is difficult totake low-paid jobs.

Many young people will have faced considerable disruption to their school andcollege education, and may be facing physical, psychological and otherconsequences of their experiences. There is seen to be a need to providesupport (both within the context of education, and more widely through healthand social services). It is also evident that most college staff will have had little orno experience of dealing with these issues, and there is, therefore, a need toensure that ongoing development support is provided to them (and other staffgroups). These issues apply equally to adults and to the support of this naturewhich employers can provide.

The Scottish Refugee Council, for example, works closely with other providers,such as the careers services (and now Careers Scotland). Its role includesawareness raising for staff in other areas of work. One aspect of this wasidentified as helping staff in colleges to understand the complex livingcircumstances and family histories of asylum seekers and refugees, and to allowfor this in making decisions about whether or not to permit students with “poor”attendance records to continue with their courses.

Support provision

The impact of the “digital divide” on refugees and asylum seekers was noted,with the suggestion that there is need to ensure that services are not exclusivedue to a lack of access to technology.

The patchy nature of service provision is an issue for all services (for example,college and university services, as well as SIP-led services). Refugees may settleoutside eligible areas, and hence may be ineligible to receive support. It was notedthat there is much confusion about what support is available (both among staffand refugees themselves) and the eligibility for this support. It was identified thatsome people granted refugee status are unwilling to divulge their positive decisionto colleges and other providers, as they equate the status of “asylum seeker” withreceiving support, and assume that this will be withdrawn on change of status.

The current policy of providing additional funding for social inclusion purposesthrough the use of post codes was questioned by the Group. This was seen as

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exclusive, and to give rise to specific problems in relation to asylum seekers andrefugees, and to minority ethnic communities more generally. Minority ethniccommunities (including asylum seekers and refugees) have tended to be locatedin “deprived” areas – which generally qualify for additional levels of funding. For arange of reasons, including racism and cultural factors, many minority ethnicfamilies have moved from these areas, but may remain in poor quality housing inother areas – for example in Edinburgh City Centre and Govanhill in Glasgow – inareas where there are, for example, no SIP resources available. This internalmigration of refugees has been noted in other sections of this document.

Information

The lack of effective information being provided to asylum seekers and refugeeswas set out in detail in Section 2, however, there are a range of additional issueswhich can be summarised here. There is, for example, a need for a clearexplanation of entitlements in relation to education and work-related support toassist college, SIP, local authority and other staff to provide accurate and effectiveadvice. The system of education funding is extremely complicated and there aremany potential sources of funding available to asylum seekers and refugees (e.g.13 separate sources for access to higher education). There is, however, a lack ofinformation available to this group, as well as to intermediaries working on theirbehalf, about this. There is also a lack of information about the location ofcourses suitable to this group. At a more practical level, enrolment proceduresvary, and can often be very complex, and there is need to ensure thatintermediaries are aware of these and can provide proper advice.

There are also issues about the lack of information about the skills, experienceand qualifications of asylum seekers and refugees. The group was made awareof a number of proposals which may lead to the development of, for example,skills audits, employment action plans and the development of a database ofrefugees which could be used to identify a match between a refugee andidentified vacancies.


• Some work is on-going in both Scotland and England to allowdoctors, teachers and some other professionals to gain access to UKqualifications and registration to allow them to work here.

• Consideration is being given by the Scottish Executive to a range ofmeasures in Scotland to facilitate access to the labour market,including targeting the children of refugees for entry to professionalwork areas.


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• There is some evidence of support frameworks emerging both withinlearning institutions and within the community.

• Careers Scotland has committed a full-time post to work withrefugees directly, supplementing outreach work already taking place.

• The Scottish Refugee Council is undertaking work to raise theawareness of college and university staff about the life circumstancesof asylum seekers and refugees.

Actions

• There is a need (also identified by other groups) to make employers,trades unions, college and universities and students more aware of thecircumstances of asylum seekers and refugees, including the issuesthey may have faced in their home countries, the difficulties they mayhave faced in coming to the UK and the poverty facing many here.Most importantly, in this context, is the impact of these experiences onthe asylum seeking and refugee community, for example in terms ofphysiological and psychological health, ability to learn and what hasbeen described elsewhere as “cultural bereavement”.

• A way should be found to allow asylum seekers to gain workexperience and useful vocational skills while waiting for their case tobe decided. There may be potential for a local pilot project to bedeveloped, although it is recognised that this raises some policyissues which will require to be addressed.

• There should be more progress on recognising thequalifications and/or experience of asylum seekers andrefugees and on providing conversion courses and competencetesting where appropriate. This should proceed on two levels:first, through funding to assist SQA, other awarding bodies,professional bodies and sector skills councils to find ways ofrecognising qualifications and/or experience, and secondly,through the development of appropriate provision withincolleges and universities (with the use of pilot projects in thefirst instance where appropriate).

• There is a need for publicly-funded provision to be made available toallow refugees to achieve the necessary Scottish or UK qualificationsand experience necessary to allow them to gain employment, and toallow them to contribute to the Scottish economy at a levelappropriate to their skills.

• There is a need in developing policy to address social exclusion torecognise that minority ethnic communities are not always locatedwithin traditional deprived areas where support is available, and,therefore, to ensure that resources are directed to address the needsof these communities.

• There is a need for comprehensive information to be provided oneducation, lifelong learning and training issues to both asylum seekersand refugees, and intermediaries, particularly relating to eligibility,funding support, fee levels and the appropriateness of the provision.This provision should supplement, rather than duplicate, informationavailable from, for example, Careers Scotland.

ENGLISH LANGUAGE PROVISION

The pivotal role of the acquisition of English in terms of integration generally andin both education and work was reinforced by the Group. It is important to bearin mind, however, that asylum seekers and refugees come to Scotland with aconsiderable range of language skills – from lack of literacy in a first language topost-graduate qualifications and full fluency in English, and that, therefore,solutions should not be predicated on the assumption that support is required foreveryone to an equal level.

Good English language skills, however, clearly enable asylum seekers andrefugees to integrate more readily within the communities in which they arelocated and to access services and support which they require. There is,however, a need for a high level of input with many refugees who will havediffering needs, ranging from those who require basic level provision to thosewho have had a high level of education in their country of origin.

Jobcentre Plus has identified that there is a lack of capacity in higher level Englishclasses for professionals wishing to learn English, and the colleges have identifieda lack of capacity in ESOL classes at all levels, both within colleges and in thecommunity.

Basic literacy is a significant issue for a significant number of asylum seekers andrefugees. Many staff with ESOL qualifications, however, may not have beentrained in basic literacy support – this is another area where there is potential fora pilot project. Basic literacy cannot be taught in large classes.

The recent literacy and numeracy strategy for Scotland did not consider ESOLspecifically, and the Group is concerned that this should be remedied, with astrategy being prepared as soon as possible. It is understood that a strategy hasbeen developed in England and Wales, and this may provide lessons which caninform the development of a specific Scottish strategy. Literacy plans are beingdeveloped for each area in Scotland through a Scottish Executive-funded projectbeing delivered by Communities Scotland. Although it is acknowledged that theneeds of asylum seekers and refugees are reflected in the plan for Glasgow, it is

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not known whether or not this is true for other areas. There is, therefore, a needto ensure that Communities Scotland provides guidance to all partnerships toensure that this issue is identified in all areas with, or likely to receive, asylumseekers and refugees, and that it covers both college-based, and community-based adult basic education.

The Group has taken the view that there is need for an overall increase in thelevel of resources being made available for English language support. In thecurrent climate of zero growth in overall college funding (and stringencies in termsof funding for other organisations), it is clear that this can only be achieved byidentifying additional resources, as there seems no prospect of monies beingdiverted from other areas of provision.

ESOL provision in colleges

A specific issue has been raised as a result of demand for language courses infurther education (FE) colleges. The Scottish Executive, in a further educationscoping paper prepared for the first meeting of the Group, noted that previousfunding rules prevented colleges claiming back the cost of fees for coursesattended by asylum seekers (a position that was then out of line with fundingguidelines in England). Additionally, the guidance governing core funding forcourses involving asylum seekers was unclear, and colleges in those areas with ahigh concentration of asylum seekers were providing applicants with access tobasic English courses (in order to fulfil the Scottish Executive’s social justice andinclusion agendas). Measures have been taken to address some of these issues.Although relating particularly to asylum seekers, these issues impact on the laterexperiences of refugees.

There are also issues specifically in relation to the weighting attached to ESOLprovision (which is treated in a similar way to the teaching of modern Europeanlanguages to native English speakers). This has implications in a number ofareas, not least in the fact that class sizes have generally to be so large as tomilitate against the creation of an effective learning environment.

The Scottish Further Education Funding Council (SFEFC) undertook a detailedconsultation on weightings, and decided not to adjust the ESOL weighting at thattime. A range of issues were raised about the basis of this research, but it wasnoted that, ultimately, ESOL weightings could only be increased by removingprovision from elsewhere. SFEFC identified that it would be concerned if Ministerswere to instruct it to vary weightings, for example for ESOL provision in isolation.

A further issue was identified in that all ESOL provision is hours-based, not units-based, giving colleges no opportunity to “shave” hours from the delivery of a

course. An ESOL course will take 40 hours, while other vocational areas may bedelivered within, for example, 36 hours, but be funded for 40 hours. SFEFC hasidentified that it has a problem in principle with college-derived programmes suchas these, as it is more difficult to assess whether the time allocation is accurate.

Due to the sheer numbers and the lack of resources, the ESOL situation couldbe described as, at best, fire-fighting, and is reaching saturation point.Anniesland College has seen a three-fold increase in its department, and similarincreases have been identified in other colleges. There is a lack of qualified andexperienced tutors – newly qualified staff do not have the experience to workeffectively in current circumstances, and, as a consequence, there is a fast burn-out rate among newly qualified ESOL staff.

As a consequence of the lack of resources, the weighting issue, a lack of staffand a lack of buildings, class sizes are very large – which is not seen byprofessionals to be an effective working or learning environment. Althoughcolleges have mounted community-based provision, this has not always provedto be popular, specifically among young men, although this has been an effectiveapproach for other groups such as minority ethnic women, and in other areas, forexample, in Edinburgh (where there are substantial waiting lists). Young menappear to prefer to be taught “in college”, with the status which attaches to this.This is a particular issue in Glasgow given the relatively high percentage of youngmen within the dispersal programme.

There is reported to be a chronic lack of childcare facilities, although, ironically,there are resources available which could be used to purchase provision if thiswere available. Colleges are identified as being strict in applying the Home Officerules in relation to not providing, for example, childcare payments to asylumseekers, but rather provide free places in college-funded provision. The catch-22situation for colleges here is that they cannot currently mount this sort ofprovision.

It was identified that learning another language as an adult tends to take a longtime, and some students can lose patience. This might be addressed byalternative modes of delivery which combine vocational and ESOL provision,ideally with work placements, although it is acknowledged that this might beexpensive, and it would be difficult to identify appropriate placement providers.There are emerging examples of good practice which require to be documentedand disseminated. There is also what was described as a “desperate” lack ofwork experience places for non-English speakers.

While some of these specific issues have been recognised and tackled, thegeneral need for English language provision to meet the range of needs, and the

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pressure on services, remains. This also needs to be set within the overallcontext of the need for provision evident among minority ethnic groups generally,and the pressures created by non-asylum-related immigration into Scotland.There is a need to consider whether, in the light of these issues, there is a needfor the Scottish Executive to make additional resources available to collegesoutwith the normal funding routes (or via SFEFC if this is more appropriate) toaddress the evident shortfall in provision in areas of very high unmet demand.Given that colleges already provide English language training within New Deal,there may also be opportunities for securing additional resources from project-based sources, such as New Deal, or Scottish Enterprise. There is also scope forthe development of pilot projects with the overall framework of pathfinderresources to identify innovative and effective means of delivering such provision.

There are also a range of issues with the current qualifications frameworkspecifically as it relates to ESOL. The current units date from the early 1990s, butare not currently used at all in Scotland, with colleges having developed more up-to-date and relevant provision specific to their needs. It is noted that thedevelopment of ESOL units is currently the subject of a consultation by SQA.


• Literacy plans are being developed, and in some areas, will reflect thespecific needs of asylum seekers and refugees.

• There has been a considerable expansion of English languageprovision both within colleges and the community (although this is notyet adequate to meet demand for a range of reasons).

• Guidance for colleges has been clarified to identify and addressanomalies in the funding of places for asylum seekers.

• The development of new ESOL units (the current units are used onlyvery rarely) is currently the subject of a consultation by SQA.

Actions

• The Scottish Executive should take the lead (working with allinterested parties) in the development of a national strategy forESOL, building on the recently published adult literacy strategy.While this work is being undertaken, the Scottish Executiveshould consider the use of pathfinder resources to test a rangeof alternative approaches to current provision.

• Prior to the agreement of a national strategy, there is an urgentneed for adequate resources to be made available to supportthe provision of English language tuition (both on a stand-alonebasis and in conjunction with vocational courses) for those

asylum seekers and refugees who require it, to allow them tointegrate as quickly as possible. Given the current zero growthin overall funding for further education, this will require theScottish Executive to provide additional monies to colleges tosupport this work. The increased resources will be required notonly in teaching, but also in support services and childcare.

• There is an urgent need to address the shortage of appropriatechildcare.

• There is a need to identify ways, perhaps through a pilot programme,to allow ESOL provision to be delivered in conjunction with vocationalcourses.

• There is a need to provide support to staff in vocational areas to helpthem provide a more effective level of support to learners whose firstlanguage is not English outwith an ESOL context.

• There is a need for on-going staff development to allow ESOL andother staff to effectively deliver basic literacy support. This will alsorequire additional resources, as current class sizes militate againsteffective learning.

• There is a need for joint action by colleges, universities, businessorganisations and others to identify more effective means of providingwork experience placements for asylum seekers and refugees.

• Communities Scotland should provide guidance to local partnershipsto include the basic literacy needs of asylum seekers and refugees inthe development of local plans.

• There is a need to recognise that the provision of non-teachingservices to asylum seekers and refugees within colleges (such asguidance and pastoral care) is more expensive, and this should beaddressed in the funding provided.

LIFELONG LEARNING

There are a range of issues in relation to lifelong learning. Some of these relate tofunding, others to capacity, while there are also issues evident in terms of thenature of the service which can be provided.

Funding issues relating to continuing education are particularly relevant to asylumseekers, but impact upon the subsequent experience of refugees and are,therefore, important to note. Support from the National Asylum Support Service(NASS) for the provision of education to asylum seekers stops at school leavingage. In Glasgow, the City Council has allowed asylum seeker pupils to stay on atschool beyond 16 if they wish to do so, and if they can meaningfully benefit fromcontinued studies at school. Each case, however, has been decided on an

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individual basis. This raises issues relating to the general accessibility ofcontinuing education and the means of identification of needs and decisionmaking. There are issues where colleges provide places on a on-off basis toyoung people before their official school-leaving date – in this case neither theeducation service nor funding council pays for this tuition, and colleges have tomeet the cost themselves.

There are a great many issues evident in relation to college funding, both forasylum seekers and for refugees. The funding settlement for FE and HE isreported to be very tight at around 1.5%. This means that colleges will have totake prioritisation decisions – this has implications for new provision for asylumseekers and refugees.

It was noted that provision for refugees and asylum seekers is currently patchyand depends, to some extent, on local circumstances. It was identified that thereare capacity issues, in relation to staff and resources. Colleges (and otherproviders) can be stretched in a range of ways, including language support,physical facilities (such as simply having enough classrooms, books, prayerrooms and childcare provision) and training for all staff. It was also suggestedthat there can be historical issues which mean that specialist services are notalways located in areas where these are now required. There are waiting lists forsome forms of provision in some areas.

The considerable fragmentation of other services was noted by the Group, withmany organisations working, often in isolation of each other, with single clientgroups. The need for greater coordination was identified as a cross-cutting issue(as it has been by other groups). This is an issue for colleges directly as they areunable, in some cases, to call upon wider services within the community andhave, therefore, to provide a wider range of services in-house.

The issues facing colleges and other service providers, in terms of providing aculturally sensitive, effective service were also highlighted by the Group. Thebasic approach of most colleges is founded in the principles of anti-racism, andthis involves working with all staff, not only teaching staff (including all supportand administration staff). It was noted that there are not, generally, sufficientresources to provide this training, and there are, in some cases, shortages ofstaff with the skills to provide the training necessary. This clearly impacts on thenature of the service which the college can provide. The difficulties of managingan anti-racist approach to the management of a college in these circumstancesare clear.

It has also been suggested that there is uncertainty amongst refugees about theireligibility for further education. This has implications for colleges in terms of audit

where students change status in mid-course, but do not identify this to thecollege concerned (for fear of losing out). Issues relating to language and culturemay also affect the advice which people are given about course choices andsupport, and the lack of childcare and language support may, as notedelsewhere, cause additional barriers.

It was noted that there is currently a lack of flexibility in relation to aspects of theSQA qualifications framework which can be seen to disadvantage those whosefirst language is not English (although this is currently out to consultation). Groupawards containing communications skills modules are currently difficult to obtainfor non-English speakers. SQA is considering a range of ways to address this,although the support of employers in recognising non-standard awards cannotbe taken for granted.

There are also perceived to be cultural issues for universities and students’associations, in that much social life (essential to integration) currently takes placein licensed premises which are not suitable for some groups of asylum seekersand refugees.

Overall, there is considered to be a lack of clarity in policy in relation to the needsof asylum seekers and refugees.

Student funding for asylum seekers and refugees

There are a range of complications for the funding of asylum seekers (and somerefugees with exceptional leave to remain). This situation is governed by the 1997Bursaries Direction, which restricts full-time provision only to ESOL, but providesaccess to part-time non-advanced vocational courses.

The basis of access generally is that applicants must have been resident for 3 years, and have settled status. This is waived for refugees. Asylum seekers arenot eligible for bursary support, but colleges can provide access to “hardship”funds, to support for example, transport and childcare. This is a problematic areaand colleges generally are reported to be very concerned about the currentHome Office restrictions (whereby general living expenses are a matter for NASS)and may be seen to take what may be a cautious approach to support to asylumseekers. It was identified that colleges, given their financial circumstances, havelittle leeway in terms of accepting students for whom they will not (due toeligibility issues) receive fees or SUMs.

There is an issue (which is common to many, and not only to asylum seekers andrefugees) that the income thresholds for the fee waiver are quite low, andstudents can find themselves, in effect, excluded due to not meeting the earnings

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threshold. This is, however, a particular issue for refugees due to the fact thatESOL provision tends to take longer and can be more expensive.

The different funding regimes in place, and particularly the differing eligibilities foradditional support, also place pressure on colleges and on frontline staff, whohave to administer a range of regimes within their student population.


• Although NASS funding for education ceases at 16, Glasgow CityCouncil has provided top-up funding to allow young people to remainat school if they wish to do so.

• The Scottish Executive is investigating changes to the funding rules forasylum seekers to facilitate access to more advanced courses at anearlier stage.

• Colleges and universities have provided access to hardship funds toallow asylum seekers and refugees access to courses (although thedifficulties for asylum seekers in relation to NASS maximum incomelevels are noted).

• The Scottish Executive has made a number of changes to the fundingand eligibility provisions for colleges in order to allow increasednumbers of asylum seekers to qualify for support.

Actions

• There is a need for funding for staff development support acrosscolleges.

• There is a need for clarity in the funding of continuing education forasylum seekers and refugees.

• There is an urgent need to remedy the negative impact of the currentqualifications framework on non-English speakers. The currentconsultation by SQA on the framework is noted.

• Asylum seekers should be allowed access to part-time HigherNational courses on the same basis as currently applies fornon-advanced courses. This provision should be met fromwithin existing resources.

BENEFITS AND GOVERNMENT TRAININGPROGRAMMES

Training and re-training also have an impact on the employment opportunitieswhich are available. It has also been suggested that refugees may face similar

difficulties in gaining access to vocational and other training, with the lack ofinformation and the more general barriers which have been identified abovehaving an impact upon this.

It has also been recognised that some refugees who do not enter employmentwill require support to access both social security benefits and governmentprogrammes, with a need for appropriate information and advice in a range oflanguages.

It was noted by the Group that the Department for Work and Pensions, althougha UK agency dealing with a reserved issue, has much local flexibility in terms ofthe ability to undertake pilot projects, and to provide one-to-one tailored supportto asylum seekers and refugees.

A New Deal for Refugees has been suggested, although it was noted that theNew Deal for Ethnic Minorities appears currently to be stalled, and has attractedsome criticism. It is understood that steps are currently underway to remedy this.Training for Work has not proved popular among refugees, despite early entry,and Scottish Enterprise is currently considering adjustments to address this.

Evidence was also provided to the Group of issues with the current New Dealprogramme as increasing numbers of refugees with low levels of English becomeeligible. At present, there is little provision available for this group. The Group hassuggested that the Department for Work and Pensions could consider a pilot projectin Glasgow to inform the development of a New Deal programme suitable for thisgroup, which takes account of their needs in relation to entering the labour market.

The use of volunteering (and the intermediate labour market) as a means ofdeveloping work experience was noted by the Group.


• A New Deal for Refugees is currently being considered by theDepartment for Work and Pensions.

• The Institute for Contemporary Scotland recently launched a work-shadowing programme for refugees.

Actions

• Service providers should audit existing adult literacy, work experience,New Deal and other employment and training programmes to ensurethat these are meeting the needs of asylum seekers and refugees.Where necessary, programmes should be customised or newprovision developed, to meet these needs.

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• There is a need to develop local pilot projects which address the needto deliver work experience to asylum seekers and refugees throughvolunteering or the intermediate labour market.

• The possibility of additional mentoring projects (perhaps on a pilotbasis) should be investigated further.

• There is an on-going need for support to staff in job centres and otherlocations to help improve their skills and confidence in dealing withasylum seekers and refugees.

EMPLOYMENT

As well as education, employment is also central to refugees’ subsequentexperiences. The Scottish Refugee Council Annual Report (2001) noted thatemployment is central to integration, with advice and guidance provided by thatorganisation in relation to the rules and regulations affecting adult education,training and employment. The Home Office report “Full and Equal Citizens: AStrategy for the Integration of Refugees into the United Kingdom” (2001)suggested that:

“many refugees arrive in the UK with good professional qualifications, skillsand high motivation, but often find it difficult to return to their former, oreven related, employment.”

Refugees face a number of difficulties in entering employment, and it has alsobeen noted that unemployment amongst refugees is high. The fact that manyalso often work below their skills and qualification levels is a considerable issue,both for refugees themselves and in terms of the impact both on the UKExchequer and labour market. This is, for many refugees, taken together with theevident difficulties in having qualifications recognised, an employment trap. It isimportant to also bear in mind (and make appropriate provision for) refugees withfew or no skills, and who may be illiterate in their own language. Employment isas central to the effective integration of this group as to those with pre-existingprofessional qualifications, although much of the focus in terms of initiatives hasbeen on the latter, rather than the former group.

An additional, potentially damaging, issue exists for asylum seekers and theirfamilies in that they are not now permitted to work during the period of a claim.This has two main effects. The first is obvious, being the impact on the financialcircumstances of the family. The second is perhaps less obvious, relating to thefact that both asylum seekers and their family members may have skills whicheither cannot be used productively to address skill shortages, or which maybecome obsolete in the period waiting for a decision. This can also lead to

unnecessary social and economic isolation for many women. It is acknowledgedthat employment policy remains a reserved issue, but it was noted by the Groupthat there are a range of ways in which local flexibility can be brought to bear toallow significant progress to be made.

Barriers to employment (some of which have already been mentioned earlier inthis section) have been found to include:

• Lack of support with practical issues such as CVs and applicationforms.

• Lack of recognition of overseas qualifications.• Lack of opportunities for contact with employers.• In some cases, the need for additional training.• The lack of availability of references.• Lack of recent UK work experience.• Lack of knowledge of the job market.• Language barriers where the refugee speaks little or no English.• Lack of employment support networks.• Lack of access to information.• Employers’ attitudes.

The extent of the impact of these barriers is not currently clear as there areconsiderable shortfalls in available information. As yet, for example, there hasbeen no skills audit among asylum seekers and refugees, and information onthose in work (and the jobs they have) is patchy and incomplete. The gathering ofsuch information is viewed as a priority within the overall cross-cuttingrecommendation in relation to gathering statistics. The group has recommendedthat Scottish Enterprise, working with others, undertake research to identify theexact nature, extent and impact of barrier to employment, and bring forwardappropriate solutions.

There may also be specific difficulties for some groups or professions. As notedearlier, there are considerable issues faced by asylum seekers and refugees inhaving their academic and professional qualifications recognised by UK-awarding bodies and employers. There are also likely to be specific additionalissues faced by women in seeking to enter the labour market (or, for that matter,to access training). Many women are unlikely (for a range of reasons) to havegained formal qualifications, or to have worked extensively in their country oforigin, and may face cultural and family pressures here.

The needs of employers were discussed by the Group, and it was identified thatthere is a great deal of misunderstanding among employers of the issues involvedin employing asylum seekers and refugees (the “red tape” issue). It was identified

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that employers want to employ refugees, but are currently put off by a range ofbarriers, including misunderstandings about Exceptional Leave to Remain, delaysin processing NI numbers and the lack of an unequivocal “work permit”document. The recent decision to withdraw the right to work from asylumseekers waiting more than 6 months is also likely to have an impact in adding afurther layer of complexity (in that some asylum seekers will retain a residual rightto work, while others have no right). The threat of a £2000 fine within the 1996Immigration and Nationality Act for employing “illegal” immigrants is also asignificant barrier, with employers reluctant to take “risks” with foreign nationals.Under the legislation, the onus is on employers to demonstrate eligibility to work,not the Crown to demonstrate ineligibility. It was suggested that the Job Centrenetwork could vouch for refugees who do not yet have a National Insurancenumber when sending them to interview.

Much of this confusion surrounds who can and who cannot work legally(accepting that this relates particularly to asylum seekers) and it was suggestedthat some sort of “Green Card” might help. It was identified that some of thisreluctance to employee refugees may arise more from racism and discriminationin employment practices than from “red tape”. A scheme to accelerate theprovision of a national insurance number is seen by the Group to be an urgentnecessity. One of the key actions suggested by the Group is the development ofa briefing for employers (in conjunction with business organisations) bothclarifying the legal position in relation to the employment of asylum seekers andrefugees, and promoting the business and wider benefits.

The Group, however, was provided with evidence of a number of employerswhich have recognised the value of employing asylum seekers and refugees.Examples were given of employers in outlying areas providing transport toworkers based in Glasgow, recruited with support from Jobcentre Plus. TheGroup was clear, however, that the provision of employment of this kind, while acritical stepping stone to integration, should not be, in effect, an end in itself, as itis likely that there will be many asylum seekers and refugees from within thisgroup who have the potential to, and would wish to progress to higher skilledposts, or to further education. Support is required on an on-going basis in orderto ensure that this is facilitated.

At present, policy would be likely to preclude the early identification of the skillsof asylum seekers (a point made by the Industrial Society). The Group wouldconcur with the view of the Industrial Society that there is an urgent need toundertake a skills audit among asylum seekers, and to ensure that this is madeavailable to organisations which support asylum seekers and refugees to gainemployment.

SELF EMPLOYMENT

It is worth bearing in mind that, among asylum seeker and refugee communities,there will be a significant number of people who were entrepreneurs in theircountry of origin. While many may now have limited access to capital, and mayhave operated in market sectors which are not appropriate in Scotland, they arelikely to have specific skills and experience which could support both their ownintegration, and, in time, job creation through the establishment of newbusinesses here. Evidence provided to the Group suggests that there is currentlylittle support available in this area, and the Group notes that this is an area whichrequires further exploration.


• Work is underway at a UK level to speed up the provision of NationalInsurance numbers for refugees.

• The right for asylum seekers to work after 6 months is their claim hasnot been decided has recently been withdrawn.

• There is increasing evidence of employers which are prepared toemploy asylum seekers and refugees, although, as yet, many of theseposts are in semi- or unskilled jobs.

Actions

• There is a need to identify and target barriers preventingasylum seekers and refugees moving into employment. It issuggested that Scottish Enterprise, working with the ScottishExecutive, the Department of Work and Pensions and businessgroups, should undertake a piece of research to both identifythe barriers which currently exist, and solutions which willaddress these. In the meantime, the Group has identified twopriority actions. The first is that the Scottish Executive shouldmake representations to the Home Office to seek a resolutionto the identified problem of the provision of documentationwhich unequivocally establishes the right of an asylum seekeror refugee to work. The second is that the Scottish Executive,working with Scottish Enterprise and business group such asScottish Chambers of Commerce, should provide employers inboth public and private sector with clear guidance on the legalposition in relation to the employment of asylum seekers andrefugees. This guidance should also stress the business andwider benefits of employing asylum seekers and refugees.

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• The provision of National Insurance numbers is currently a brake onthe employment of asylum seekers and refugees and should be, first,clarified (in terms of the fact that an NI number is not needed initially)and secondly, speeded up.

• On a pilot basis, an idea to have the Job Centre vouch for the right towork of asylum seekers or refugees sent to interview should be testedand, if successful, rolled out to other areas.

• A number of large employers have employment diversity policies(which, in many cases, will be achieving little). One potential route for alocal pilot project may be to target such companies to identify thepotential benefits to them of employing asylum seekers (where theyhave a right to work) and refugees.

• It is suggested that Scottish Enterprise consider the best means ofproviding support to entrepreneurs within the refugee community.

• Many women are isolated economically and socially due to permissionto work being granted only to the principal applicant for asylum. Whilethe Group recognises that this is a reserved matter, it is recommendedthat, if current policy is not to be relaxed (as was recommended bythe Industrial Society) some alternative means should be found toaddress the needs of this group while a family is waiting for a decisionfrom the Home Office.

• Given the particular issues facing women, it is suggested that specificmeasures are identified (by, for example, the Scottish Enterprisenetwork or Jobcentre Plus) to support the entry of women into thelabour market.

APPENDIX 1 SATELLITE GROUP MEMBERS

ENTERPRISE, LIFELONG LEARNING, EMPLOYMENT AND TRAINING Linda McTavish, Anniesland CollegeBrian Dempsey, ScotBICGeorge Reid, Scottish Executive Liz Block, SQAJames Anderson, Scottish ExecutiveFlick Thorpe, Stevenson CollegeRizwan Ahmed, Ethnic Minority Enterprise CentreRobert McKay, Springburn Job CentreStephanie Young, Scottish Enterprise

HOUSINGRobert Aldridge, Scottish Council for Single HomelessBrendon Buck, Shelter ScotlandAdrian Liu, Positive Action in Housing LtdClaire Simpson, Citizens’ Advice ScotlandSally Daw, Scottish Federation of Housing AssociationsGeoff Huggins, Scottish ExecutiveFiona Pearson, Scottish Refugee CouncilDavid Comely, Glasgow City CouncilAlan McKeown, CoSLA

JUSTICE, COMMUNITY SAFETY AND ACCESS TO JUSTICE Kathleen Bolt, Commission for Racial EqualityKaliani Lyle, Citizens’ Advice ScotlandTim Kendrick, Scottish Local Authorities Community Safety ForumAlisdair McIntosh, Scottish ExecutiveJohn Rowell, Scottish ExecutiveJohn McLean, Strathclyde Police and ACPOSJune Fraser, Ethnic Minorities Law CentreRobert Sutherland, Faculty of AdvocatesMichael Clancy, Law SocietyScott Pattison, Crown Office

CHILDREN’S SERVICESKen Corsar, Glasgow City CouncilAlison Closs, University of EdinburghEric Byiers, Fife CouncilJackie Pepper, Edinburgh Childcare PartnershipJoan Fraser, Scottish Executive

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Joyce Strain, Glasgow City CouncilKen Goodwin, Glasgow City CouncilLaura Mitchell, City of Edinburgh CouncilLes McLean, Glasgow City CouncilMaria Walker, Glasgow City CouncilMoira Wilson, Scottish ExecutiveSue Fisher, Save the ChildrenTom Bain, Fife Council

POSITIVE IMAGES, COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT AND THE MEDIASally Daghlian, Scottish Refugee CouncilJudith Robertson, OxfamFather Chris Boles, SJ, ACTSHeather Voisey, North Glasgow PartnershipMilind Kolhatkar, Scottish Democratic ForumSelma Rahman, Fife Racial Equality CouncilSophia Marriage, Scottish Refugee CouncilPeter Barry, Scottish Refugee CouncilPhilippa Bonella, Scottish Council for Voluntary OrganisationsIsabel Smyth, SIFCColin McGowan, Communities ScotlandThekla Petrie, Scottish Executive

HEALTH AND SOCIAL CAREProfessor Alastair Ager, Queen Margaret University CollegeHector MacKenzie, Scottish ExecutiveAnn McDonald, Springburn Health CentreDr Rafik Gardee, Greater Glasgow Primary Care NHS TrustSuzanne Mundy, MECOPPDr Shaker, Glasgow Refugee Doctors Association John Legg, Glasgow City Council Keith Redpath, Greater Glasgow Primary Care NHS Trust

APPENDIX 2 EVIDENCE PROVIDERS

ENTERPRISE, LIFELONG LEARNING, EMPLOYMENT AND TRAINING Rami Okasha, NUS ScotlandMartin Fairbairn, SFEFCRhona Hodgart and Celia Fisher, Glasgow ESOL ForumNick Putnam and Jon Busby, Scottish Refugee CouncilEric Milligan, Scottish Enterprise

Meetings were also held with representatives of Paisley and StrathclydeUniversity, GOALS Project, a sub-group of Recruitment of Ethnic Minorities intoTeaching (REMIT). As part of REMIT a sub-group has been formed to look atrecruiting refugee teachers (Strathclyde University, Paisley University, AnnieslandCollege, Scottish Refugee Council, General Teaching Council, Glasgow CityCouncil).

HOUSINGAngiolina Foster, CommunitiesScotlandJackson Greenhorn, Glasgow City Council

JUSTICE, COMMUNITY SAFETY AND ACCESS TO JUSTICELucy McKenzie, Maryhill CABNorma Philpott, Citizens’ Advice and Rights Fife (CARF)Joe Bryce, Immigration Practitioners’ GroupTom Philliben, Scottish Children’s Reporter AdministrationAhmed,8 Iranian refugeeIsabel Conway, Victim SupportMary Miller, Victim SupportNasreen Uddin, Positive Action in HousingElinor Kelly, Glasgow Asylum Rights CampaignSheila Arthur, Glasgow Campaign to Welcome RefugeesWilliam McKinlay, Strathclyde PolicePhilip Shearer, Scottish Legal Aid BoardColin Lancaster, Scottish Legal Aid BoardIan Allan, Scottish ExecutiveLuke Warren, Scottish Refugee CouncilAlice,9 Zimbabwean Refugee

CHILDREN’S SERVICESRowena Arshad, University of Edinburgh

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8 This pseudonym has been used to refer to the Iranian refugee9 This pseudonym has been used to refer to the Zimbabwean refugee


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Mike Gibson, Scottish ExecutiveAnna-Marie Trimblett, Home OfficeRichard Morran, Save the ChildrenJon Busby, Scottish Refugee CouncilAlison Closs, University of EdinburghJohn Donaldson and Jacqui McWilliam, Glasgow City Council

POSITIVE IMAGES, COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT AND THE MEDIABrian O’Hara, Glasgow City CouncilMick Doyle, Scottish Refugee CouncilAli Jarvis, StonewallStephen Grant, North Lanarkshire CouncilCaroline Scott, Strathclyde PoliceAli Brown, Daily RecordAlan Forbes, Glasgow City CouncilJackie McPhail, Glasgow City Council

In addition, it had been intended to receive evidence from Shamine Mansouri and Dr Surjinder Singh on translation and interpretation, and from Liz Mackenzie(of Castlemilk Churches Together) but this was not possible in the time available.Dr Singh subsequently provided evidence to a meeting of the Health and SocialCare Satellite Group, and to a group convened to discuss translation andinterpretation.

HEALTH AND SOCIAL CAREJulia Quickfall, Lothian Refugee Health ForumRose Tibi, Health VisitorSmita Grant and Sana Sadollah, MEHIPClaire Fyvie, Rivers CentrePeter Von Kaehne, Sighthill Medical PracticeAngela King, Greater Shawlands LHCCImran Shariff, Greater Glasgow Primary Care TrustTina Yu, Development Officer, Glasgow Health City PartnershipDr Singh, Manager, Glasgow Translation and Interpretation ServiceLyndell Weaver, Greater Glasgow Primary Care Trust

TRANSLATION AND INTERPRETATION FOCUS GROUPPeter Barry, Scottish Refugee CouncilKenny Hamilton, Scottish Refugee Council Dr Surjinder Singh, Glasgow Translation and Interpretation ServiceVan Dundas, Edinburgh Community Interpreting ServiceAndrew Lennox, Global Connections Ltd

Maureen Londra, Scottish Translation and Interpretation ForumChristine Wilson, Heriot Watt UniversityElinor Kelly, Glasgow Asylum Rights CampaignIsabelle Perez, Heriot Watt UniversityTim Ellis, SE Equality Unit

COMMUNITY PREPARATION FOCUS GROUPMick Doyle, Scottish Refugee CouncilIngram Wilson, Health and Wellbeing Centre, Kingsway CourtGraham Neal, North Edinburgh Welcomes RefugeesWaleed Shamki, Glasgow North LimitedDawn Corbett, Glasgow City CouncilTom Bain, Fife CouncilMichelle Oliver, West Dunbartonshire CouncilPeter Bole, Pollokshaws Integration GroupAnne Rooney, Toryglen SIPEveline Louden, Toryglen Asylum Seekers’ ProjectFiona Boyd, Bridging the GapNick Hopkins, GCVSSteven Inglis, Strathclyde PoliceAlison Miller, NASS

ADVICE AND INFORMATION FOCUS GROUPNick Hopkins, GCVSMick Doyle, Scottish Refugee CouncilMargaret Macdonald, Glasgow City CouncilJoe Brady, Scottish Refugee CouncilAnna Maria Trimblett, Home OfficeJean Cheyne, Springburn CABJune Fraser, Immigration Practitioners AssociationNasreen Uddin, Positive Action in Housing Michael McKeown, Glasgow City CouncilShaw Anderson, Glasgow City CouncilKim Murphy, Glasgow North Ltd

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APPENDIX 3 REFERENCES

Audit Commission (1999) Another Country

Buck, Brendon (2002) Submission on the Housing of AsylumSeekers and Refugees to theSRIF Housing Sub-Group fromShelter Scotland

Buck, Brendon (2002) The Advice, Information and AdvocacyNeeds of Refugees

Closs, A., Stead, J. and Arshad, J. The School Experience of Refugee(1999) Children in Scotland, Edinburgh,

Moray House

Crown Office Submission of the Crown Office andProcurator Fiscal Service toJustice 2 Committee”

Crown Office (2001) : Review of Arrangements for Instruction ofInterpreters by Procurators Fiscal

Glasgow Council for Voluntary Responding to the Needs of AsylumService, Positive Action in Housing Seekers Conference Reportand Scottish Refugee Council

Home Office (2000) Full and Equal Citizens: A Strategy for theIntegration of Refugees into theUnited Kingdom

Industrial Society A Poor Reception

Legal Studies Board The Equal Treatment Bench Book

Macaskill, S. and Petrie, M. (2000) I didn’t come here for fun, The ScottishRefugee Council and Save the Children,Edinburgh

Oxfam Asylum: The Truth Behind the Headlines

Scottish Asylum Seekers’ Good Practice Guidance Note on HousingConsortium For Asylum Seekers and Refugees In Scotland

Scottish Asylum Seekers’ Media StrategyConsortium (2001)

Scottish Executive Housing Relevant Issues Scoping paper

Scottish Executive Scottish Police Service Relevant Issue”Scoping paper

Scottish Executive (1999) “The Stephen Lawrence Inquiry –An Action Plan for Scotland”

Scottish Executive (2001) Further Education Relevant IssuesScoping paper

Scottish Executive (2002) Racist Crime and Victimisation inScotland

Scottish Executive (2002) 2000 Scottish Crime Survey: Analysis ofthe Ethnic Minority Booster Sample

Scottish Executive Education Education Relevant Issues ScopingDepartment (2002) paper

Scottish Executive Education Assessing our children’s educational Department (2002) needs – The Way Forward? Scottish

Executive Response to the Consultation

Scottish Executive Health Health Issues Scoping paperDepartment

Scottish Refugee Council (2001) Annual Report

Scottish Refugee Council (2001) Community Development Strategy

SCVO Voluntary Sector Role in SupportingRefugee Integration in Scotland:A Forward Agenda

Smith, N. Safe in Scotland Report for theCross-party Group on Refugees andAsylum Seekers

SRIF Housing Expert / Co-Sponsor Refugee Forum – Housing Satellite Group

West of Scotland Refugee Forum (2001) Housing and Welfare Sub-Group Report153

© Crown Copyright 2002

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