An unaccompanied asylum-seeking child (UASC) is a young person, under the age of 18, who has travelled to the UK on their own, seeking a safe place to live.

A refugee is a person who has fled from another part of the world and is legally entitled to live in the UK.

What is our most pressing need?

We need accommodation, in nurturing homes, to support these 16-18 year old children while their asylum claim processes through the system.

These ‘supported lodgings’ prepare vulnerable young asylum seekers for life within the UK. Supported by ICN and a social worker, our carers provide the guidance and home atmosphere to enable young people seeking asylum to begin their lives again.

If you think you could offer the stability and care that these teenagers need, we’d really like to hear from you.

Carers are paid £140 per week per child (to include food).

How to become a Supported Lodgings Provider

There are 5 steps in the process:

STEP 1

Initial contact and face to face meeting

You can express your interest in becoming a Supported Lodgings Provider by contacting the UASC Manager by phone or e-mail. See below for the required contact details. We would then arrange to visit you in your home. This gives you the opportunity to chat with us in a relaxed environment and find out more about what the supported lodgings role and the assessment process entails.

STEP 2

Application Form

Next, if all parties are happy for you to start the assessment process, then you would complete our supported lodgings application form. You can see what it looks like by downloading the form below. If required we would contact you if have any questions regarding your application form. The application form can be completed before step 1 if you choose to do so. If you do this, we would arrange to meet you just as in step 1, to help decide whether to continue through to the assessment process.

DOWNLOAD FORM

STEP 3

Assessment Process

If we are happy with your application form we would then go through the assessment process with you, which would include several visits over a period of time, to complete the assessment form and home safety checks.

STEP 4

Approval

Once we are happy that we have all the information needed as part of the assessment process and you have read and signed the assessment form then we would arrange a panel meeting with all the ICN Managers. You wouldn’t join this meeting. During this panel meeting the managers would review all the information provided in the assessment form and would vote to decide whether to accept you as an ICN Supported Lodgings Provider. The alternative decisions that could be made are: we would require you to take certain actions before being accepted or you would not be accepted as an ICN Supported Lodgings Provider, (reasons would be given if this happens).

STEP 5

DBS and references

If you are accepted as an ICN Supported Lodgings Provider this would become official once you have completed a mandatory DBS check, which we would organise with you and we have contacted the referees included in your assessment form. Once the DBS comes back clear and your references are satisfactory, you will officially be an ICN Supported Lodgings Carer! We would then contact BCP and Dorset Councils to match you with a young person seeking asylum.

 

Any questions?

If you have any questions or would like to discuss the process in more detail, please contact Mel Kerour (UASC Manager) on 07309 723140 or email her at m.kerour@icn.org.uk.

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