THIS week with the demolition of the Calais Jungle and the arrival of some of the unaccompanied children to the UK, with more to come, this reminds me of the statutory obligations upon local authorities.

It is unclear of the numbers of children involved but it seems to be reported as anything between 68 and 100 children currently sleeping rough and up to 1500 sleeping in a shelter.

The Home Office have stated their position that the French authorities are legally responsible for those children, including those being processed to come to the UK.

Figures on the BBC website this week stated that 5,596 children had been moved out of the Jungle, and that included 234 children brought to the UK since last week.

But what of those children already in the UK or who are due to arrive shortly? Under the Children Act 1989 (“CA”), a local authority where an unaccompanied child is placed has a legal obligation to support that child. They will usually be classed as a ‘child in need’ and under s.17 of the Children Act, the local authority will have to ‘(a) safeguard and promote the welfare of children within their area who are in need; and (b) so far as is consistent with that duty, to promote the upbringing of such children by their families, by providing a range and level of services appropriate to those children’s needs’.

Under s.20 of the CA, specific duty to provide accommodation to a child who requires it. As well as this, under section 47 of the Children Act 1989 local authorities have a duty to make enquiries where they have reasonable cause to suspect that the child is suffering, or is likely to suffer, significant harm.

The local authority will receive a daily rate per child for this support. A child in need is defined as anyone who has not reached their 18th birthday who is “unlikely to achieve or maintain a satisfactory level of health or development, or whose health and development will be significantly impaired, without the provision of services, or any child with a disability”. A child can be ‘in need’ for a huge variety of reasons, including, in the case of unaccompanied asylum seeking children, because they have no parents or carers in the UK to support them and often no financial means at all.

On the ground this will mean that the local authorities where these children end up, will need to find foster placements for the children, or supported housing or residential placements, and depending on their ages and needs, other support, be that financial or health or emotional or educational. Many of these children will have mental health issues. such as PTSD. which they may need help with.

This week, this paper reported that one child had already arrived from Calais and that Oxfordshire County Council currently had 58 unaccompanied children in its care. There is a shortage of foster placements generally, both locally and nationally, so Oxfordshire County Council looking for people interested in fostering children from all backgrounds and ages.