Paul Hamlyn Foundation’s Shared Ground Fund has awarded five voluntary sector organisations (two are working in partnership) grants of between £120,000 and £200,000 over two years from October 2018 to test four different, innovative service and advocacy models for young people with insecure immigration status in four different cities across England.
The projects aim to have positive outcomes for young people by enabling them to access their rights and lead fulfilling lives. Their services seek to support local authorities to meet the needs of young people in their care at the point of transition into, and while receiving, leaving care services, including those relating to education, housing, employment, mental health etc.
A particular focus of the services provided as part of these voluntary sector-led projects is coordinating immigration advice and resolving the young people’s immigration situations, including addressing the possibility of return to their country of origin. Each model has a different approach to informing the planning process for young people, a different relationship with their local authority and a different network of local partners.
Research
NCB has been commissioned to work alongside the projects to understand the impact of the different approaches tested by the project partners on the outcomes for young people with insecure immigration status who are in transition to, and receiving, local authority leaving care services.
This work focuses on research questions including the following:
- What are the outcomes for young people who receive a service from the project partners?
- What are the most effective models of joint working between different voluntary sector organisations and local authorities and what are the conditions required for this to happen?
- Do the models create savings for local authorities and civil society in the longer term? If so, what is the scale and nature of those savings?
- What is required to make the successful elements of the services sustainable beyond the project end dates?
Further information
For further information regarding the research, please contact:
Dr Gayle Munro, Head of Research & Evidence, gmunro@ncb.org.uk