FOI Request - Money Allocated to Council for Refugees
Request 101003431855
1. Please advise the source of public money allocated to the Council for refugees in the financial year 2022-23, the total amounts received and the purpose of the financial allocation. It would also be helpful to distinguish which allocations were for dispersal to public, private and third sector agencies and those funds retained to enable the Council to deliver services directly.
2. I request information on the amount spent by the Council in the financial year 2022-23 on services for the following groups:
(a) asylum seekers and refugees.
(b) those resettled under Home Office resettlement programs
(c) Afghans settling in Scotland.
(d) unaccompanied children and young people
(e) people from Ukraine.
3. A breakdown of who receives the public money, the amounts awarded by Council and the purpose. I understand the recipients may be from the public, private and third sectors. I appreciate the allocation/award may be in the form of a contract, grant or other.
4. The reporting requirements set by the Council for recipients accounting for expenditure which may include; the frequency of recipient reports and what matters they cover; details/list of key performance indicators.
Response 08-12-2023
1. Fund sources are from UK Gov and Scot Gov. Finance received for 2022-2023 financial year is £1,081,500.00. The purpose was to arrive and integrate Ukrainian arrivals under the Homes for Ukraine Scheme and Super Sponsor Scheme.
2. a) Mears Housing have the contract for temporary housing for asylum seekers; Asylum Seekers have No recourse to Public Funds. We only provide support from a Resettlement Officer to ensure access to support groups, Mears have their own Welfare Officer who deals with the running of the hotel on a day to day basis.
b) £25,000
c) Not held. To date we have received our initial funding request for the first arrivals to the sum of £210,000. We have spent to date on supporting Afghans £79,710.73. Further money has been spent but still waiting for the invoices. Information that is not held falls under Section 17 of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 - Information not held.
d) Not held. The Moray Council throughcare and aftercare team supports some lunaccompanied asylum seeking children through the National Transfer Scheme. There may be other UASC who have come via a different route and so are not involved with UASC. Information that is not held falls under Section 17 of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 - Information not held.
e) £430,965.02
3. NHS - £34,000
Social Work - £30,000
Host Payments - £26,000
Home improvements - £1568
ESOL - £28051
Housing - £30,000
Environmental Health - £3500
Integration events - £6500
Employability - £19,608.14
Translators - £20,000
Education - £45,000
4. The team reports to Scottish Government every 3 months and internal and external audits every year. So far we have only covered the Ukrainian arrivals, but we have now have wider resettlement with afghans and asylum seekers in this year's financial period 2023-2024. We report on arrivals and departures, housing options that they are in (Hosts, Social Housing, Private Rentals).