Recommendation 24

We asked why, if safeguarding was essential to the new contracts, the Department’s accommodation contract with providers did not contain a key performance indicator for safeguarding asylum seekers. The Department agreed that this was a critical aspect of the new contracts and explained that safeguarding was instead reflected throughout almost all aspects of the contract. It had set up a safeguarding board, and through that was working with partners to develop a safeguarding assurance framework to ensure the safeguarding elements of its key performance indicators were met. The Department said it would work with its partners, such as local authorities, to ensure that they understand this framework. We asked why, in the interests of accountability, it had not published the safeguarding framework and how it expected to assess whether an approach was good or bad practice without an agreed key performance indicator or standard. The Department committed to looking at this as part of its work with the safeguarding board.68 61 ASY0005 - Hull City Council 62 Qq 68–69 63 Q 49 64 Correspondence from Matthew Rycroft, Permanent Secretary, Home Office, Re: Home Office Asylum Accommodation and Support, dated 15 October 2020 65 Q 49 66 Q 55 67 Qq 134–136 68 Qq 137–139 Asylum accommodation and support transformation programme 17