Case No. UKUT-00227-(IAC)

with children.As Ministers for Immigration and Children, we welcome this coming together and are confident that it will help to support more effective joint working.The UK Border Agency undertakes difficult and sensitive work on behalf of society as a whole. Working with children presents particular challenges. To meet these challenges effectively, the UKBorder Agency needs the support of all those with an interest in children. The development of this guidance has been greatly assisted by the input ofa range of organisations outside Government. We are grateful for this and look forward to continued co-operation to achieve the better outcomes for children which we all want to see. Phil W oolas Minister of State for Bo r ders and Immigration Ba r ones s Delyt h M o r g a n Parliamenta r y U n d e r - S ec r e t a r y o f Stat e fo r Child r en , Y o u n g Peopl e an d Familie s INTRODUCTION 1. Improving the way key people and bodies safeguard and promote the welfare of children is crucial to improving outcomes for children.2. Section 55 of the Borders, Citizenshipand Immigration Act 2009 (the 2009 Act) therefore places a duty on the Secretary of State to make arrangements for ensuring that immigration, asylum, nationality and customs functions are discharged having regard to the need to safeguard and promote the welfare of children in the UK. A similar duty is placed on the Director of Border Revenue in respect of the Director’s functions.3. The guidance sets out the key arrangements for safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children as they apply both generally to public bodies who deal with children (Part 1) and specifically to the UK Border Agency (Part2). These arrangements will help agencies to create and maintain the right organisational ethos for working with children. They include: • Senior mana g ement commitment to the impo r tance of safeguarding and promoting c hildre n ’ s w elfare; • A clear statement of the a g ency ’ s responsibilities t ow ards c hildren a v ailable for all staff; • A clear line of accountability within the or g anisation for w ork on safeguarding and promoting the w elfare of c hildren; • Se r vice de v elopments that ta k e account of the need to safeguard and promote w elfare and is info r med, where appropriat e , b y the views of c hildren and families; • Staff training on safeguarding and promoting the w elfare of c hildren for all staff working with or in contact with children and families; • Safe rec r uitment procedures in place; • Effect i v e inte r -a g ency w orking to safeguard and promote the w elfare the c hildren, and • Effect i v e info r mation sharin g . 4. Section 55 is intended to achieve the same effect as section 11 of the Children Act 2004 (the 2004 Act) which places a similar dutyon other public organisations1. As well as providing a driver for improvement within the UK Border Agency, the duty will also help to improve inter-agency working in respect of children. Section 55 applies to the carrying out of the relevant functions anywhere in the UK. THE ROLE AND S TA TUS OF THIS G UIDANCE 5. This guidance is aimed at staff of the UK Border Agency and contractors when carrying out UK Border Agency functions. It setsout the key arrangements for safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children. The guidance is modelled on the guidance which supports section 11 of the 2004 Act2. It isin two parts. Part 1 describes the general arrangements to safeguard and promote the welfare of children which are likely to be common to all agencies covered by section11 and, in the case of the UK Border Agency, by section 55. Part 1 is intended to make clear how the work of the UK Border Agency fits 1 For the full list of bodies cove r ed by Section 11 see paragraph 1.1 of the guidance belo w . 2 Statutor y Guidance on making a r rangements to safegua r d and p r omote the welfa r e of child r en under section 11 of the Child r en Act 2004 updated Ma r ch 2007. Issued by DCSF and available at www.dcsf.gov.uk/ever ychildmatters/_download/?id=1372 into the wider arrangements, although not all of Part 1 is directly relevant to it. Part 2 sets out how those general arrangements apply specifically to the UK Border Agency.6. This guidance is issued under section 55 (3) and 55 (5) which requires any person exercising immigration, asylum, nationality and customs functions to have regard to theguidance given to them for the purpose by the Secretary of State. This means they must take this guidance into account and, if they decide to depa r t f r om it, h a v e clear r easons f or doing so. 7. Where private or voluntary organisations are commissioned to provide services on behalf of the UK Border Agency, the agreement under which the arrangements are made should require that the private or voluntary organisation concerned takes this guidanceinto account in the provision of those services and, if they decide to depart from it, haveclear reasons for doing so.8. The guidance does not replace any current operational instructions and should be read alongside them. T IME T ABLE 9. The commencement date for section 55 ofthe Borders, Citizenship and Immigration Act2009 was 2 November 2009. P A R T 1 UNDERS T ANDING THE DUTY TO MAKE ARRANGEMENTS TO SAFEGUARD AND PROMOTE THE WEL F ARE OF CHILDREN 1.1. Section 11 of the 2004 Act places a duty on key people and bodies in England to make arrangements to ensure that their functions are discharged with regard to the need to safeguard and promote the welfare of children. Section 28 of the Act requires similar bodies in Wales to do the same. Theapplication of this duty will vary according to the nature of each agency and its functions. The key people and bodies that are covered by the duty are: • local authoritie s , including district councils; • the police; • the probation se r vice; • NHS bodies(Strategic Health A uthoritie s , Designated Special Health A uthoritie s , Prima r y Care T r ust s , NHS T r ust s , Local Health Boards and NHS F oundation T r usts); • Or g anisations (cu r rently the Connexions Service) providing services under section114 of the Learning and Skills Act 2007;Border Agency in an Act that deals directly with UK Border Agency work. It therefore appears in section 55 of the Borders, Citizenship and Immigration Act 20093.1.3. The duty does not give the UK Border Agency any new functions, nor does it over- ride its existing functions. It does require the Agency to carry out its existing functionsin a way that takes into account the need to safeguard and promote the welfare of children.1.4. Safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children is defined in the guidance to section11 of the 2004 Act (section 28 in Wales) and in Working Together to Safeguard Children4 as: • protecting c hildren from maltreatment; • pre v enting impai r ment of c hildre n ’ s health or de v elopment (where health means ‘p h ysical or mental health’ and de v elopment means ‘p h ysical, intellectual, emotional, social or beh a vioural de v elopment’); • Y outh offending teams; • G o v e r nors / Directors of Prisons and Young Offender Institutions; • Directors of Secure T raining Centres; • T he British T ranspo r t P olic e . 1.2. The UK Border Agency functions are not devolved, unlike those of the bodies listedin the 2004 Act, and so the Government has chosen to apply the duty to safeguard and promote the welfare of children to the UK 3 In Scotland the legislative p r ovisions for p r otecting child r en and p r omoting their welfa r e a r e contained in the P r otection of Child r en ( Scotland ) Act 2007 and the Child r en ( Scotland ) Act 1995. The principles of co-operation and info r mation sharing between agencies in the safegua r ding of child r en a r e, howeve r , impor tant themes in the legislative framework and guidance gove r ning the deliver y of child r en’s ser vices in Nor the r n I r eland, whe r e the legislative p r ovisions a r e the Child r en (Nor the r n I r eland) O r der 1995, and the Safegua r ding V ulnerable G r oups (Nor the r n I r eland) O r der 2007. In both jurisdictions A r ea Child P r otection Committees a r e the means of p r oviding local p r ocedu r es and p r ocesses for agencies to comply with the legislation to safegua r d child r en and to co-operate togethe r , and for anyone working with child r en. 4 The W elsh Assembly Gove r nment has p r oduced its own version of “ W orking T ogether” with a definition that matches this albeit exp r essed in a dif fe r ent wa y . It is available at: http://cymru.gov.uk/pubs/circulars/2007/nafwc1207en. pdf?lang=en • ensuring that c hildren are g r o wing up in circumstances consistent with the pr o vision of safe and effect i v e care; and • unde r taking that role so as to enable those c hildren to h a v e opti m um life c hances and to enter adulthood successfull y . 1.5. The overall framework set out in the 2004Act is to provide a basis for achieving the vision of safeguarding set out in the report Safeguarding Children5 i.e: • all a g encies w orking with c hildren, y oung people and their families ta k e all reasonable measures to ensure that the risks of ha r m to c hildre n ’ s w elfare are minimised; and • where there are conce r ns about c hildren and y oung people ’ s w elfar e , all a g encies ta k e all appropriate actions to address those conce r n s , w orking to a g reed local policies and procedures in pa r tnership with other a g encie s . FRAMEWORK FOR MAKING E FFECTIVE ARRANGEMENTS TO SAFEGUARD AND PROMOTE CHILDREN’S W EL F ARE 1.6. Each agency will have different contributions to make towards safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children