Decision details

To seek approval of the proposed allocation of the Afghan Refugee (Educational) Grant, (Dec 21 to Mar 22 allocation) between local authority and relevant educational establishments.

Approval of the proposed allocation of the Afghan Refugee (Educational) Grant, between local authority and relevant educational establishments and allocation principles for any future allocation of the grant.

The Afghan Resettlement (Education) Grant 2021-22, provided by the Secretary of State for Education is for the provision by local authorities of education services for children from families arriving from Afghanistan under Afghan Relocation and Assistance Policy, Afghanistan Citizens Resettlement Scheme and British Nationals, currently residing in bridging accommodation, namely hotels funded by the Home Office. The funding is part of the £12 million that was announced by the Government as part of Operation Warm Welcome. North Yorkshire County Council has overseen bridging hotels in Scarborough and Selby, since August 2021. The local authority has an obligation to provide a place at an educational setting for all eligible children.

The grant aims to reduce the burden on the Local Authority and Educational establishments from providing education to the children from the bridging hotels as it acknowledges that due to larger numbers living in hotel sites it places an undue burden on particular areas. North Yorkshire County Council has been allocated £247,470, from the Afghan Resettlement (education) Grant, to cover costs from December 2021 to March 2022. It is not yet known if there will be further allocations.

The proposals as based on the same principles as laid out in the initial paper covering September to November funding allocations ie

Educational Establishments:
• Initial fixed contribution per child of £250
• Uniform – it was decided that £100 would be given to the schools for each child for provision of the correct uniform, where required.
• Flexible contribution per educational day – the second element of the payment to schools is a contribution per day the child is in school, we have based the payment of the average funding expected per child annually, pro-rotated down to a termly value.
• Provision for Nurseries – the payment for nursery places for 2, 3 and 4 years olds is proposed to be as per the hourly rate paid to establishments in North Yorkshire.

North Yorkshire County Council:
• Fund EAL Team who have been working to ensure all the children are within an appropriate educational setting, coordinating school visits and children moving on from bridging hotels. Throughout the period working with the Refugees in the bridging hotels has been the main focus of their work so we propose to fund them from this grant for that time period.
• Home to School Transport
• Administration costs – we propose to use 1.5% of the fund to contribute to North Yorkshire County Council costs, including but not limited to administering grant, payments to relevant parties, early years funding team, Home to school transport administration.

None