Approximately 1 in 10 children in care in the UK is not a British citizen. Many of them would benefit from legal advice and other assistance relating to their immigration status and/or British citizenship.

Social Workers Without Borders and Kids in Need of Defense UK (hosted at Central England Law Centre) are offering a free training session for social workers and other local authority staff who want to better understand how to assist children of migrant backgrounds. This will be a participatory session focusing on cases that may arise for social workers who work with children in care, care leavers, and/or children in need.

We will discuss:

How immigration and citizenship issues affect the life chances of children and young people
The benefits of early resolution of immigration/citizenship issues for children’s well-being and to save local authorities significant time and money
When and why specialist legal advice is needed
Some of the routes to improving immigration status or acquiring British citizenship
What is an “e-visa” and who should have one
Local authorities’ duties and how to address children’s immigration and citizenship issues through care/pathway plans, looked after child reviews, child in need assessments, and other social care processes
How to work effectively with people who have unresolved immigration/citizenship issues
Other related issues of interest to participants, time permitting

[Note: this session will not focus on asylum issues, but we will cover some issues that affect refugee children]

About the trainers

Cynthia Orchard is the Manager of the Refugee Law Clinic at the University of London and was a consultant policy advisor with KIND UK from 2021-2024. She has worked on migration, refugee, and citizenship issues for around 20 years, with several charities, the UK Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, and the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe. She has personal experience of the UK’s immigration and naturalisation systems, and she had foster brothers as a child, leading to an early interest in social care issues.

Rebecca Flint is a supervising solicitor with the KIND UK project and is based at the MiCLU project at Islington Law Centre. She has worked in immigration law since 2010, in both private practice and the charity sector. She specialises in complex cases for minors which at present include issues with regards to trafficking, criminal offending and citizenship.

Ben Feder is the Head of Direct Work at Social Workers Without Borders (SWWB). He is a registered social worker with over 15 years’ experience working alongside marginalised children and young people, including as a statutory social worker, a children’s rights advocate and a specialist caseworker with separated young people seeking asylum. Alongside his SWWB role, he is the asylum and immigration practice lead within a local authority leaving care service. He delivers training and guest lectures on social work practice with separated children and other care experienced young people with unresolved immigration status.

KIND UK is a collaboration between five specialist immigration advice organisations including Central England Law Centre and MiCLU. The project focuses on securing permission to stay in the UK and British citizenship for children. By bringing organisations together, it provides a unified and simplified experience for clients and increases the visibility of their work. https://www.kidsinneedofdefense.org.uk/

Central England Law Centre (CELC) provides free specialist legal advice to those most in need and uses legal processes to fight inequality. It covers the following areas of social welfare law: Immigration and Asylum; Child and Family; Employment; Health and Social Care; Housing; Welfare Benefits; and Public Law. It hosts KIND UK and, through this, supervises lawyers at corporate law firms and a law clinic at Birmingham City University in making citizenship applications for children. https://www.centralenglandlc.org.uk/

The Migrant and Refugee Children’s Legal Unit (MiCLU) at Islington Law Centre provides specialist representation and support to young refugees and migrants, and to challenge the injustices they face. Through KIND UK, it supervises lawyers at corporate law firms in making children’s immigration and citizenship applications. https://miclu.org/

Social Workers Without Borders (SWWB) provides expert independent social work evidence to assist immigration and asylum decision making and works collaboratively across the social work and immigration sectors to promote best practice with children, families and adults impacted by immigration policy and border controls. Its work is organised into three strands: 1) Direct work - carrying out independent social work reports for immigration proceedings 2) Campaigns at the intersection of social work practice and immigration policy 3) Education for students, social workers and other professionals. www.socialworkerswithoutborders.org

The Refugee Law Clinic at the University of London provides training and practical experience to law students and commercial lawyers who volunteer with the Clinic. The Clinic currently works mainly on fresh claims for asylum for people who have exhausted their appeal rights but have ongoing protection needs and may expand to other types of casework in future. https://rli.sas.ac.uk/projects-0/refugee-law-clinic.

Children's journeys to secure immigration status and British citizenship