Thank you for joining us here and welcome to this update from the Communities Migration and Resettlement Team. We have highlighted aspects of our work over the summer period and take a brief look into the autumn. It is a brief snapshot of our work, deliberately short mindful of how busy everyone is. We are always happy to have a conversation about our work and invite you to reach out to any of us:

Refugee Resettlement Team Mailbox: refugeeresettlement@devon.gov.uk
Homes for Ukraine Team Mailbox: health.ukraineresettlement-mailbox@devon.gov.uk
Bridging Team Mailbox: afghanbridging-mailbox@devon.gov.uk
ESOL and Engagement Team Mailbox: ESOL@devon.gov.uk

Updates and looking back

Hotels to homes – Afghans resettle

Back in March 2023 the government announced the closures of the Bridging hotels for Afghan refugees. As of August both of Devon’s bridging hotels were closed, 2 years since they first opened. Below is a passage from the Bridging team on their thoughts and experiences.

“I’m going to draw a picture of my house”, the young girl smiled as her family’s possessions were crammed into a Luton van.

“I can’t wait to cook kabuli” added mum, her face beaming. And off they went. Away from Exmouth – home for two years – and on to Exeter to start new lives. This exchange was repeated amongst the many Afghan families the Bridging Team found houses for before the Exmouth and Exeter hotels closed in August.

Birmingham, Manchester, Luton, Enfield, Essex, and even Folkestone and Newton Abbot, homes were found for families despite the housing crisis and their joy at moving was palpable. To say it went smoothly would be a disservice to the team and partners in the Home Office and DWP and Resettlement colleagues, but we got there with perseverance and tenacity, and some heartbreak.

We built great rapport with the families, and it was very emotional as they left for new beginnings, but we remain in touch and will help if possible. Their new lives are starting, and we know it will be hard, but Afghans are resilient and we are confident they will prosper in the UK.

Scrutiny masterclass

In July 2023, the Migration and Resettlement team presented a masterclass to Devon’s scrutiny committee. The session was an engaging and informative tour through the work of the team and offered insight into the lives and experiences of those across Devon who work with and/or are supported by the work of the team. Scrutiny masterclasses are attended by councillors and aim to ensure councillors have a good understanding of work across the council and allows for monitoring and consideration of progress. The masterclass was attended by 12 councillors and of those who attended we saw good levels of engagement. The following feedback speaks to the nature of the session, ‘Thank you for one of the best masterclasses we have had at Scrutiny – really well judged and balanced with the interactive materials. It could be such a difficult subject to contend with, and you did it with compassion and respect and at the same time covered a lot of information’. If you’d like us to present a masterclass to your team or would like to look at the materials we used please let us know.

The Migration and Resettlement website is officially 2 months old!

Back in August we officially launched the Migration and Resettlement website, this has been up and live for two months now. This means that important information on Migration and Resettlement and the work we do within the team is easier to find and share for everyone. If you haven’t already, please do take a look and let us know what you think. We are aiming to keep the website up to date with any new developments. The website can be found here: Home – Migration and resettlement (devon.gov.uk)

Supporting People and Families Seeking Asylum: An Interview with Jury Arevalo, Refugee Support Devon

When we heard that Jury Arevalo – who has worked closely with us to support hotel based individuals and families seeking asylum – was leaving to work in Bristol we wanted to ask her about her experience of working in Devon and with us in DCC. Below is an extract of that interview. See the full interview.

How would you describe your role in three to five words?

I couldn’t say three. That’s going to be hard, but I could maybe say 4 instead, the first one is ‘challenge’ not for the first hotel but for when the second one started, there was a lot of issues that I found it a little bit challenging in the beginning because you if you saw it you’d say ‘Oh my God, where are they going to start?’So that’s why I think it was good in a way that I said, OK, I’m just gonna do it. The second word is ‘empathy’, so my role … well my experience, I have lived experience which helped me to understand why they’re here. To work with that you know my heart … my hands on my heart and say, OK, this is this is happening. This is big. I have never seen so many people in one place. The next words are ‘advocacy and integration’, so one of the things is for me to be able to have trust from them. To get that trust and integrate myself in this community, because first that’s the way that you can build the trust and people can have the confidence to have a chat with you and you can get important information that you need to get for example, safeguarding concerns, domestic abuse, medical urgent situations as well as immigration cases, there’s some cases that are very unique and you have to start working with them from the beginning.

Routes to Wellness – Autumn 2023

An innovating new study led by the University of Plymouth’s School of Psychology is seeking to support the mental health of refugees. The Migration & Resettlement Team is part of a collaboration between academic researchers, refugee services and refugee communities within the South West who are aiming to develop a co-designed peer-support model to make finding help easier. Researchers learned that refugees preferred a model of peer support to improve their mental health but that little research existed on how and if this model worked.

Through workshops the model is being coproduced by those with lived experience. From November 2023, events focused on recruiting those with live experience as Peer support workers (PSWs) will launch in both Plymouth and Gloucestershire. Six PSWs will receive training to provide the new support model. The workers will then work with up to 10 refugees each over a 9-month period. A regular newsletter is available to keep updated on how the model is received and evaluated over the coming months.

Homes for Ukraine

The Home Office is officially reporting that Devon has now welcomed over 2000 Ukrainian guests (actual figure 2003). A big thank you to all our team members, both past and present, for the part they have played in helping change the lives of so many people and of course to all the other departments and colleagues in DCC we have called upon since the start of the scheme.

Refugee Employment and Enterprise Project (REEP)

The Team is working hard to help migrants, refugees, and speakers of other languages in Devon find jobs that match their qualifications and skills. After investigating the situation, we found that access to employment support varies widely across the county. Some places like Exeter and Plymouth are well-served by work club initiatives, while others lack sufficient support. Plus, the rural areas and limited transportation options have made it tough for language learners to access the help they need.

To bridge this gap, we have partnered with Libraries Unlimited to set up a network of weekly work clubs in libraries and enhance existing ones; we aim to make at least one available in every district. Work clubs are now open in Tiverton, Newton Abbot, Barnstaple, and Bideford, with additional clubs opening in Tavistock, Ivybridge, and East Devon soon. Details of times and locations of the work clubs. The work clubs are open to all, with additional support for any speakers of other languages. The clubs offer a range of help and support including:

connections with local employers;
updating CVs;
interview preparation;
job hunting and career progression;
multilingual resources;
referrals to ESOL classes, training courses, and business mentoring.”

Fewer Hotels as Living Accommodation

In the period May to September 2023 the Home Office ended its use of four hotels (located in Exeter, Exmouth and Ilfracombe), as part of the Government’s plans to reduce reliance on hotels for people resettling or seeking asylum in England. Devon has one Home Office commissioned hotel remaining, a family hotel accommodating 185 adults and 107 children of 35 nationalities. When the Home Office stands up a hotel and for the whole time it is operational, the Council works with multi-agency partners nationally, regionally and locally to meet the needs of residents from new-born to older years. For the Council this means involving its specialists in areas such as education and learning, early years, family support, safeguarding and public health. The Council also commissions support from specialist organisations such as Refugee Support Devon who focus on wellbeing, advocacy and immigration advice. The Council remains involved until a hotel is stood down and the residents have left. After a hotel is closed multi-agency partners convene for a final time to reflect, learn and share their experiences.

NRPF (No Recourse to Public Funds)

“A person will have no recourse to public funds when they are ‘subject to immigration control’, as defined at section 115 of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999. A person who is subject to immigration control cannot claim public funds (benefits and housing assistance), unless an exception applies.” (NRPF Network, 2023)

A victim of domestic violence denied support and a place in a women’s refuge because of her status as the spouse of a university student from overseas.
A migrant worker who fled an exploitative employer but ended up living on the streets after being refused support by a local authority because no NI contributions had been paid.
A failed asylum seeker forced to work for as little as £10 a day despite living in the UK for 18 years

These are real life stories from some Devon residents, but this is a national problem: according to Home Office estimates, between 1.4 million and 1.6 million people in the UK are subject to the No Recourse to Public Funds (NRPF) conditions.

It is crucial for statutory and non-statutory services to understand the implications associated with NRPF status and the impact on individuals and families but the rules around NRPF are complex, challenging and continually changing. So, the Migration and Resettlement Team is leading on work that aims to improve awareness and understanding across the County Council. As part of this work, we will be joining the NRPF Network, a national network which works to safeguard the welfare of destitute families, adults and care leavers who are unable to access benefits due to their immigration status.

Racism in schools project

We are currently working on plans to launch an anti-racism project, aimed at Devon’s schools, in November 2023. We are conscious that racism is a widespread issue in schools across Devon and that it isn’t always easy for them to find the support that they need; so, one of the aims of the project will be to increase awareness of the wide range of resources and support that are available – both nationally and locally to help schools to tackle racism and discrimination. We envisage this to be a collaborative project, working with partner organisations from different sectors and we know that there are a number of local voluntary and community sector organisations that have experience of working with schools and offering support, including training for staff and governors, workshops for pupils, advocacy and mentoring.

The project is at its preliminary stages where we are liaising some of Devon County Council’s teams who play a part in education, including the schools’ governance, admissions, inclusion and EMTAS (Ethnic Minority and Traveller Achievement Services) teams. We have already approached our partners in the voluntary sector to understand how we can work together in sharing their expertise across schools in Devon.

Hong Kong Education Webinar

In close partnership with experienced members from Devon’s Hong Konger community (those who have moved to the UK under the British National Overseas visa route), we facilitated the production of a webinar that explores key areas of the Hong Kong education system including elements like SEND and parental involvement. The aim of this webinar was to provide schools and teachers with a better understanding of the differences between educational systems and an overview of some of the difficulties that pupils from Hong Kong are facing in their new schools in Devon. The webinar has been shared with schools that are known to us as having pupils from Hong Kong and we plan to work with EMTAS to share this resource further afield, raising awareness and encouraging conversations about English as an Additional Language (EAL) pupils and their experiences of school life in the UK.