Find below the latest update of the Homes for Ukraine scheme.
Sponsors and Guests: As at Monday 25th July, a total of 1,294 Ukrainian guests have been matched with 517 sponsors in Warwickshire. Of these, 742 have arrived in Warwickshire.
Unaccompanied Minors: As of Thursday 28 July, the Homes for Ukraine scheme will open for new applicants who are under 18 and not travelling with or joining their parent or legal guardian. The process for new applications will be different and requires the planned sponsor to first undergo safeguarding checks before an eligible child can begin their visa application. From 28 July planned sponsors of eligible children can start their applications via a new online service. This will enable local authorities to begin safeguarding checks. The visa application process will open to new applicants on 10 August.
The Government guidance has been revised to reflect this change:
• Guidance for applicants and parents
Homes for Ukraine Scheme community support: Homes for Ukraine Webinars for guests are continuing. Our last webinar was on Monday 18 July. The webinar gave the opportunity to guests and sponsors to ask the Homes for Ukraine Support Team questions relating to available support. Colleagues from various departments including housing, education, DWP, Family Information Service joint the sessions to answer relevant queries.
The dates for the next webinars are:
• Monday 8 August 7pm - 9pm
• Thursday 11 August 7pm – 9pm
To join, please register here.
Health including Mental Wellbeing: Following requests from sponsors on the last webinar, information on childhood and other trauma has been added to the Homes for Ukraine website. Key support documents are available in English and Ukrainian taken from Barnados work on providing trauma information for host families. Work continues to look into the provision of trauma support for children.
Family Information Service support:
• Welfare Checks: All guests who have arrived in the last 3 weeks have been contacted. From September the officers will be beginning the 6-month welfare checks.
• Re-matching: There are just over 50 rematches that are currently being progressed.
• Expressions Of Interest: 584 potential hosts have confirmed they are still interested in hosting guests from Ukraine. We are working with local district and boroughs to pre-emptively check properties to expedite the re-matching process.
• Sponsor and host survey: 70 sponsors have been emailed to ask for their future intentions. 31 sponsors have replied; 7 have said they will want to finish at 6 months - these have been directed to the re-matching team for rematching and housing support 15 have said they will want to stop within 6-12 months. We are continuing to work with district and boroughs and the new housing officers to support guest and host families.
Communications: The Facebook group now has 761 members. The feedback from the group is positive and the interaction within the group is high. The release that was produced earlier this month had good coverage by four local online newspapers and reached nearly 9k impressions on Nextdoor App (To follow Warwickshire County Council on Nextdoor app you can click here). The county council webpage has been updated with additional information on mental wellbeing. The format of these briefings is now more friendly for people that rely on assistive technology. The briefings are easy to read and can be translated by the tool on the website – the ReachDeck Toolbar.
Schools: Schools have now finished for the summer break in Warwickshire. Admissions will continue to look at school placements for guests as and when they arrive over the summer period, although with schools closed, we are limited in our ability to make school place offers. This is recognised through the Department of Education requirement to offer a place within 15 school days of application being received (not working days). By the conclusion of the 21/22 academic year, 161 In Year applications had been received for Ukrainian refugee children with 77 primary and 26 secondary school offers made. One of the recurring issues previously shared in this briefing is the ability to get information on live vacancies from schools to ensure that offers can be made more promptly. At the end of term, we introduced a new approach to collecting this information from schools and will monitor closely how this works into the next academic year. The Team have been briefed on the need to make an offer within 15 school's days of receipt, even if we are unable to find a space at the applicant's preference schools. The Education Service now has an officer specifically assigned to In Year sufficiency work. This will enable us to work more pro-actively and keep a live data base of schools who are able to increase their pupil numbers in locations where capacity pressure points are anticipated or have already been identified.
Skills/Work: English to Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) Assessment sessions have been set up in libraries on the following dates:
• Friday 29th July from 09:00 Stratford Upon Avon Library
• Friday 29th July from 13:30 Leamington Library
• Friday 5th August from 13:10 Rugby Library
• Thursday 11th August from 09:00 Leamington Library
• Thursday 11th August from13:50 Stratford Upon Avon Library
• Friday 12th August from 09:40 Atherstone Library
• Friday 19th August from 09:00 Nuneaton Library
• Friday 19th August from 13:50 Rugby Library