Legal and policy

Child First, Migrant Second: Ensuring Every Child Matters
Heaven Crawley ILPA, February 2006

The evidence presented in ILPA’s policy paper Child First, Migrant Second: Ensuring that Every Child Matters suggests that despite Government reassurances that every child matters, children who are subject to immigration control are systematically excluded from some of the measures intended to deliver better outcomes for children.

The paper argues that this problem is exacerbated by the recent introduction of policies that encourage local authorities to exclude migrant children from the provision of the Children Acts (1989 and 2004) as part of the wider government objective of controlling immigration. Social workers who are supposed to be protecting children are increasingly being required to behave as if they are immigration officers. The paper argues that these roles are ultimately incompatible.

ILPA’s policy paper sets out the implications of the current approach for separated asylum seeking children, asylum seeking children in families, trafficked children and young people, and children in private fostering arrangements. It makes concrete and specific recommendations for ensuring that each of these groups of children matter in policy and practice.
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Legal and Social Policy Briefing
Endersby C, University of Kent, February 2006
This briefing establishes the wider context in relation to unaccompanied minors, locating social work interventions with these children within domestic and European legislation and social policy
Download PDF file [108KB]