Recommendations & Conclusions
10 items
2
Recommendation
Twenty-Fifth Report - Asylum accommodat…
Accepted
We are very concerned that thousands of people continue to be placed in hotels rather than more appropriate accommodation. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, ministers decided to continue support for asylum seekers after their asylum claim had been resolved. As a result, since March 2020 many more people have entered …
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We are very concerned that thousands of people continue to be placed in hotels rather than more appropriate accommodation. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, ministers decided to continue support for asylum seekers after their asylum claim had been resolved. As a result, since March 2020 many more people have entered the asylum support system than have left it. The Department has increasingly used hotels as contingency accommodation for asylum seekers. Approximately 9,500 asylum seekers are currently accommodated in 91 hotels across the UK. However, hotel use was high even before the COVID-19 pandemic, with more than 1,000 people in hotels each night since October 2019. Some asylum seekers have been in hotels for far longer than 35 days, the point at which the Department expects providers to have moved people into more permanent accommodation. Hotels usually lack facilities for children and are not suitable for families to share for extended periods. While in hotels, asylum seekers cannot register with a GP or enrol their children into school, so extended stays are potentially damaging to all asylum seekers and particularly to children. On 1 October 2020, 428 school-age children had been in hotels for more than 35 days. The Department asserts that it prioritises getting families with children, and other vulnerable service users, out of hotels quickly, and is producing further instructions to providers on how to prioritise getting people out of hotels appropriately. Recommendation: The Department should, within three months, set out a clear plan for how it will quickly and safely reduce the use of hotels and ensure that asylum seekers’ accommodation meets their individual needs. 6 Asylum accommodation and support transformation programme
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Government response AI summary
The government accepted the recommendation with a target date of February 2021, committing to reduce hotel use by procuring more dispersed accommodation and accelerating procurement plans, while also moving people with concluded asylum claims out of accommodation.
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HM Treasury
3
Conclusion
Twenty-Fifth Report - Asylum accommodat…
Accepted
The Department’s failure to prepare effectively for the new service means that it has yet to deliver what was promised. The model of regional accommodation contracts is similar to what existed under COMPASS, although the Department intended the new service to improve asylum seekers’ experience and make it more sustainable. …
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The Department’s failure to prepare effectively for the new service means that it has yet to deliver what was promised. The model of regional accommodation contracts is similar to what existed under COMPASS, although the Department intended the new service to improve asylum seekers’ experience and make it more sustainable. Although the previous COMPASS contract was due to expire in 2017, the Department only started planning for the new contracts in 2016, meaning it did not have enough time to consider all its options before the old contracts expired. The Department extended the COMPASS contracts by two years, to September
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Government response AI summary
The government agrees with the committee's finding and is considering a wide range of options for future accommodation models, improving current contract operations, and managing existing contracts closely to recover from pandemic impacts. Decisions on future changes will be made within recommended timelines.
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HM Treasury
6
Recommendation
Twenty-Fifth Report - Asylum accommodat…
Accepted
The Department has failed to ensure the safety and security of some of the vulnerable people who use asylum accommodation and support services. We are concerned that the Department focuses on processes, such as awarding contracts on time, at the detriment of the needs and experiences of asylum seekers. While …
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The Department has failed to ensure the safety and security of some of the vulnerable people who use asylum accommodation and support services. We are concerned that the Department focuses on processes, such as awarding contracts on time, at the detriment of the needs and experiences of asylum seekers. While the Department is aware that far-right organisations have been protesting outside some hotels, it does not track these incidents or engage the police on a national level. There have been 29 asylum seekers in hotels with positive tests for COVID-19. There were also 47 people with positive tests in the Stone Road initial accommodation hostel in Birmingham, who were moved to accommodation and hotels in other locations. The Department’s accommodation contract with providers does not have a key performance indicator for safeguarding asylum seekers and the Department still developing a framework for monitoring and assuring itself that providers meet their contractual requirements on safeguarding. The Department has committed to working with its partners, such as local authorities, to ensure they understand this framework. 1 The Home Office has now published key KPI data for these contracts, available at https://www.gov.uk/ government/publications/key-performance-indicators-kpis-for-governments-most-important-contracts#history – see the spreadsheet ‘Data for April to June 2020’, select HO contracts and lines 172–179 show the AASC and AIRE KPI data. 8 Asylum accommodation and support transformation programme Recommendation: The Department should, within three months, publish its safeguarding assurance framework, specifying: • when it will be implemented and how it will operate; • how it will focus on the experience of service users; and • how partners will feed in their concerns and experiences. Asylum accommodation and support transformation programme 9 1 The Department’s oversight
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Government response AI summary
The government accepted the recommendation with a target date of February 2021, confirming it is developing a safeguarding assurance framework in collaboration with providers and stakeholders. It outlined the establishment of a joint safeguarding board, a national safeguarding forum with local authorities, and local safeguarding …
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HM Treasury
8
Conclusion
Twenty-Fifth Report - Asylum accommodat…
Accepted
The Department told us that it knew at the start of the transformation programme in 2016 that COMPASS was under-priced. It explained that it carried out a ‘should cost’ model to establish a reasonable range of costs, which indicated that the new services should cost between 20% and 31% more.18 …
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The Department told us that it knew at the start of the transformation programme in 2016 that COMPASS was under-priced. It explained that it carried out a ‘should cost’ model to establish a reasonable range of costs, which indicated that the new services should cost between 20% and 31% more.18 The Department is paying an estimated 28% more to providers, but the NAO found that with more bids it may have been able to secure better prices. The Department awarded three out of seven regions to the sole bidder and had to restart the competition in two regions as there were no initial bids. In total, the Department received bids from only four companies.19 We asked whether this lack of competition left the Department a customer in a seller’s market. The Department asserted that there had been competition within some regions and that this enabled it to see that there was market pressure. It explained that it had benchmarked across different regions, including those where there had been less competition, to ensure that the prices it was paying were comparable across the country. Overall, it considered retaining the incumbent providers and attracting a new provider was a good outcome from the procurement.20 However, one of those incumbent providers, Serco, paid £7 million in service credits for not meeting performance standards under COMPASS. We asked why, when their performance had been below standard, they were still able to participate in the new contracts. We were concerned that this suggested that existing providers already had performance challenges.21
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Government response AI summary
The government agrees and plans to restart paused "open book accounting" work in 2021. It is also strengthening contract management by revising structures, developing robust operating procedures, and improving information capture and sharing based on external expert advice.
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HM Treasury
9
Conclusion
Twenty-Fifth Report - Asylum accommodat…
Accepted
The Department recognised that it had paid more for the new contracts, but told us that as a result it was getting a better quality service, with better support for vulnerable people. We saw little evidence of this and the Department22 accepted that its ability to determine whether this was …
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The Department recognised that it had paid more for the new contracts, but told us that as a result it was getting a better quality service, with better support for vulnerable people. We saw little evidence of this and the Department22 accepted that its ability to determine whether this was the case had been affected by the ability of contractors to share data about the services that were being delivered. The Department was overclaiming success and justifying a higher fee on the basis of an improvement in the quality of service which it could not evidence.
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Government response AI summary
The government agrees and plans to restart paused "open book accounting" work in 2021. It is also strengthening contract management by revising structures, developing robust operating procedures, and improving information capture and sharing based on external expert advice.
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HM Treasury
13
Recommendation
Twenty-Fifth Report - Asylum accommodat…
Accepted
We received written evidence from stakeholders representing asylum seekers who told us that they needed information on the contracts’ performance to help them better support people. The Refugee Council told us that they needed greater transparency over service standards and performance management to give them confidence that the Department had …
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We received written evidence from stakeholders representing asylum seekers who told us that they needed information on the contracts’ performance to help them better support people. The Refugee Council told us that they needed greater transparency over service standards and performance management to give them confidence that the Department had effective mechanisms in place.31 Asylum Matters told us that the Department does not share information with local stakeholders such as regional Strategic Migration Partnerships, making meaningful scrutiny of the contracts impossible.32 We asked why the Department was not publishing data to meet the Cabinet Office’s ‘outsourcing playbook’, which states that departments should publish key performance information for any significant outsourced contract. The Department said that it would be publishing information in line with this guidance later in October.33 25 Qq 104–106 26 Qq 98–99 27 C&AG’s Report, para 2.9 28 Qq 100–101 29 Committee of Public Accounts. Windrush generation and the Home Office, HC 1518, 6 March 2019 30 Q 115 31 ASY0003 - British Refugee Council 32 ASY0006 - Asylum Matters 33 Q 107 Asylum accommodation and support transformation programme 13 2 Asylum seekers’ experiences The use of hotels
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Government response AI summary
The department agrees to greater transparency, stating it is already sharing summary performance data and developing customer experience surveys, data analysis, and a customer insight dashboard for stakeholders. It is also working with local authorities to define and deliver further data sharing.
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HM Treasury
14
Conclusion
Twenty-Fifth Report - Asylum accommodat…
Accepted
The accommodation contracts allow providers to use hotels as contingency accommodation to meet excess demand. Throughout 2017 and 2018, fewer than 100 people had stayed in hotels each night. But since October 2019, this number has increased to more than 1,000 each night.34 At the start of the COVID-19 lockdown …
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The accommodation contracts allow providers to use hotels as contingency accommodation to meet excess demand. Throughout 2017 and 2018, fewer than 100 people had stayed in hotels each night. But since October 2019, this number has increased to more than 1,000 each night.34 At the start of the COVID-19 lockdown in March 2020, ministers decided to continue support for asylum seekers after their asylum claim had been resolved to prevent them from becoming homeless. The Department explained that as a result, since March 2020 many more people had entered the asylum support system than had left and providers had placed the additional people in hotels. It further explained that the need to have social distancing within asylum accommodation also meant that there was space for fewer people within its normal accommodation. The Department told us that there were approximately 9,500 asylum seekers located in 91 hotels, the majority of whom were still having their claims considered.35 The Department said it was keen to end the use of hotels as soon as possible but did not have a target date for doing so.36
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Government response AI summary
The government is committed to reducing and ending hotel accommodation by procuring more dispersed accommodation, engaging local authorities, and accelerating procurement plans. It is currently assessing the rate of reduction and expected timescale for eliminating regular hotel use.
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HM Treasury
16
Conclusion
Twenty-Fifth Report - Asylum accommodat…
Accepted
Hotel accommodation usually lacks facilities for children and suitable accommodation for families to share for extended periods.42 We received written evidence from the Refugee Council, which told us that while in hotels or initial accommodation, asylum seekers cannot register with a GP or enrol their children into school.43 We received …
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Hotel accommodation usually lacks facilities for children and suitable accommodation for families to share for extended periods.42 We received written evidence from the Refugee Council, which told us that while in hotels or initial accommodation, asylum seekers cannot register with a GP or enrol their children into school.43 We received written evidence regarding the health and well-being themes for initial accommodation residents in Birmingham, which described the importance of addressing the health needs of asylum seekers, who may, for example, be suffering the effects from torture, malnourishment or social isolation.44 However. the NAO found that support organisations and local health 34 Q 26; C&AG’s report, paras 15, 3.17 35 Qq 17, 24–28, 31 36 Q 111 37 Q 57 38 C&AG’s report, para 3.15 39 Correspondence from Matthew Rycroft, Permanent Secretary, Home Office, Re: Home Office Asylum Accommodation and Support, dated 15 October 2020 40 C&AG’s report, para 3.16 41 Q 59 42 C&AG’s report, para 3.18 43 Q 60; C&AG’s report, para 3.18; ASY0003 - British Refugee Council 44 ASY0011 - Health and well-being themes for Initial Accommodation residents in Birmingham 14 Asylum accommodation and support transformation programme providers have struggled to provide services to asylum seekers in hotels.45 We asked whether the Department had considered prioritising families with children in determining who should be a priority for moving out of hotels. The Department said that it prioritised getting families with children and other vulnerable service users out of hotels quickly. It said that it was producing further instructions to providers—via a ‘tasking note’—on how to prioritise getting people out of hotels appropriately and ensure consistency in the criteria that providers were using.46 Engaging local stakeholders
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Government response AI summary
The government is committed to reducing and ending routine hotel use by procuring more dispersed accommodation and moving on those whose asylum claims are concluded, while currently assessing the rate and timescale for eliminating regular hotel use.
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HM Treasury
19
Conclusion
Twenty-Fifth Report - Asylum accommodat…
Accepted
We asked the Department about specific examples where there had been issues with its engagement with local stakeholders. At the end of August 2020, the Department moved asylum seekers, 47 of whom had tested positive for COVID-19, from the Stone Road initial accommodation in Birmingham that was closing to hotels …
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We asked the Department about specific examples where there had been issues with its engagement with local stakeholders. At the end of August 2020, the Department moved asylum seekers, 47 of whom had tested positive for COVID-19, from the Stone Road initial accommodation in Birmingham that was closing to hotels in other areas, including in Hammersmith.52 Hammersmith and Fulham Council would be responsible for the public health of the service users that moved there, but we were concerned by reports in the press that that the Department and its provider did not engage with the local authority before asylum seekers were relocated. The Department told us that the movement of asylum seekers was discussed in depth at incident management team meetings, through which providers should work closely with the Department, Public Health England and relevant local authorities. It explained that the use of a hotel in Hammersmith was a last-minute 45 C&AG’s report, para 3.18 46 Qq 59–60, 83 47 Qq 23, 42–43 48 ASY0003 - British Refugee Council 49 Qq 41, 43–44; Committee of Public Accounts, Oral evidence: Immigration Enforcement, HC 407, 13 July 2020 50 Q 41 51 ASY0008 - Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council 52 Qq 51–53; Correspondence from Matthew Rycroft, Permanent Secretary, Home Office, Re: Home Office Asylum Accommodation and Support, dated 15 October 2020 Asylum accommodation and support transformation programme 15 solution after another in Birmingham had fallen through. The Department asserted that it engaged with Hammersmith and Fulham Council as soon as it could but that the type of engagement would have “depended on the circumstances in the moment”.53
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Government response AI summary
The government acknowledges that established engagement mechanisms have not always met stakeholder needs, especially during the pandemic. It has taken steps to improve engagement, is consulting stakeholders, conducting lessons learned exercises, and will reflect this in a new Directorate Engagement Strategy.
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HM Treasury
21
Conclusion
Twenty-Fifth Report - Asylum accommodat…
Accepted
The Department stressed that it awarded its contracts for the new services on time and on budget, and the National Audit Office found that it had laid the foundations for a better service. The NAO also found that the transition to the new services was relatively smooth, with only 5% …
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The Department stressed that it awarded its contracts for the new services on time and on budget, and the National Audit Office found that it had laid the foundations for a better service. The NAO also found that the transition to the new services was relatively smooth, with only 5% of asylum seekers having to relocate, compared to 10% when contracts transitioned to COMPASS in 2012.57 However, a number of stakeholders wrote to us to describe how the Department and its providers do not adequately focus on the needs and circumstances of vulnerable people. For example, the British Refugee Council described how asylum seekers were dispersed to areas that have few or no legal aid providers locally, resulting in delays in accessing legal advice.58 Doctors of the World described how the provision of healthcare within initial accommodation was insufficient to meet the needs of asylum seekers, who often cannot access mental health support or counselling services.59
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Government response AI summary
The government agrees with the committee's finding and, in response, is taking steps to improve engagement with stakeholders and local partners through consultation, lessons learned exercises, and the development of a Directorate Engagement Strategy to address identified shortcomings.
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HM Treasury