Britain is urged to take in 3,000 refugee children

[MumOnTheRunCatchingUp]

Just read this report and I'm left wondering where we will place this amount of lone possibly orphaned, children. Foster carers are in demand anyway, but how are our children's homes and the care system going to cope? So many British children already in the care system are being failed

[StealthPolarBear]

Yes surely they could offer bursaries. And as a pp said how much would care and education cost (although they would still need a social worker )

[ReallyTired]

Given that the uk don't want to take adults (who might work and contribute) because our island is deemed to crowded by some. Taking a smaller number of expensive children is a way of contributing to helping Syrian refugees without hoards of people coming to the uk.

Germany will take nearly a million people. Our efforts are pathetic in comparison.

[amarmai]

families who are from that area of the world and already in UK , will come forward to offer help , as they are already doing elsewhere.

[DingbatsFur]

Do you like and read Mog Books? Enjoy the Sainsbury Advert that was on at Xmas? Judith Kerr was a refugee. The UK should take as many as they can.

[ReallyTired]

Denmark, Sweden and Germany spend more on children who are in care. Although most of their children are in foster care, the most difficult children are looked after in children's homes by degree educated orofessionals.

www.theguardian.com/society/2009/apr/21/child-care-europe

It is unfair to severely disturbed children into foster care. It just sets them up for failure and rejection. Foster carers with limited training struggle to cope with the most challenging teens 24h/7.

[ReallyTired]

There are lots of famous successful people like Albert Einstein or Jesus Christ who were once refugees.

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_refugees

[ThomasRichard]

I can't afford to send my children to private school but I would have no problem with refugee children being given state-funded places. I know next to nothing about child psychology but I can imagine they would do better with lots of other children their age to 'absorb' them and very small class sizes, especially if they're picking up the language too.

[ReallyTired]

We have to make the logistics work. Yes, it will be expensive, but the uk is one of the richest countries in the world.

A lot of refugee children could be brought up for the cost of one bombing run to Syria. Perhaps if everyone stopped bombing the crap out of Syria there would be fewer refugees.

[VikingVolva]

"Perhaps if everyone stopped bombing the crap out of Syria there would be fewer refugees."

I think that would definitely be true. IS are remarkably effective at preventing people from leaving, and before the bombing began their territory expanded rapidly and the outflow of people escaping before falling into their hands increased enormously.

I think we should take vulnerable as well as the 'straightforward' refugee, even though it would be costly.

I don't think boarding schools are the answer though, because of the long school holidays. There can't be many (any at all?) that have 52 week provision.

[ObsidianBlackbirdMcNight]

They will mostly be teenagers, not tiny tots. Wouldn't institutional care be OK for most of them? I know foster care might be ideal, but realistically I don't think too many people want to take teenage boys from unknown backgrounds

We already have foster carers who take unaccompanied minors so this isn't a new issue. Obviously the numbers are overwhelming all at once and different solutions will have to be found.

There are children's homes who could take them but they are incredibly expensive so wouldn't be the preferred choice. Many unaccompanied minors do not need the level of supervision and support provided by children's homes as they have developed more independence and self care skills than equivalent aged British teens. Many of them do fine in supported housing (such as hostels or independent living with support workers) and these are a cost effective way to support them in some areas. Not in London or the south east to be honest.

The government will need to carefully plan where these teens are placed. At the moment the LA the child presents themselves to takes responsibility but these will have to be allocated. I worry that we might end up with lots of traumatised young people being placed with insufficient supervision and support all in one place which could lead to huge issues.

[ObsidianBlackbirdMcNight]

Boarding school won't work - it's not cost effective.

[StealthPolarBear]

Why obsidian? I've not done the sums but surely the cost of boarding school minis the cost of education minus the cost of their placement would be cost effective. There's still the issue of holidays as others have mentioned but in principle I wouldnt be surprised if the costs are almost equivalent.

[w0lfgirl]

Looking after refugee children is fair and can create jobs for thos wanting to work in teaching, nursing, ect. Thinking in the long term.

[Samcro]

where is the money going to come from??
at the moment council budgets have been cut and there is no money for this to be funded at a local level. and if it can be funded, then why is adult social care in free fall

[ObsidianBlackbirdMcNight]

They will still need a placement for holidays and the carers will be paid a retainer while they are at school. It's not either/or it's both costs.

[amarmai]

has anyone mentioned the huge number of british children who were evacuated to other countries during the 2nd world war?

[MumOnTheRunCatchingUp]

samcro I guess the answer is to cut services a little more. Local councils will know of ways I would think

[ObsidianBlackbirdMcNight]

samcro I guess the answer is to cut services a little more. Local councils will know of ways I would think

Social care budgets cannot be cut. There is literally no facility to cut them. Additional budget must be provided.

[ObsidianBlackbirdMcNight]

I mean social care spending not budgets.

[Tribblewithoutacause]

Social care and the like are already on the bones of their arses with the spending cuts. So are the police and other public sectors. I highly doubt they can be cut anymore than they have.

[w0lfgirl]

Yes and there were those poor children who never saw their parents again, sometimes siblings were split up too. I watched a TV documentary about this. Those evacuees are elderly being reunited with their families for the first time since the war. Sad.

[Sparklycat]

If we cut the social care budget or police/nhs budgets even more to provide the care for the children then our own elderly and children will suffer (and everyone else when the crime rate and hospital treatment times go up). Cutting social care costs to provide is completely not an option in my opinion.