A Guardianship Service for All Unaccompanied Children in Wales

Calls for a Guardianship Service The call for a Guardianship Service for all Unaccompanied Children has been made over many years and is supported by respected bodies within Wales and internationally: • The establishment of a Guardianship Service has been a clear expectation of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child for over twenty years. [...] Most importantly, the fear of going back to their country.” Member, Youth-Led Commission, The Children’s Society 3.1 The Illegal Migration Act The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child in its Concluding Observations 2023 stated that if the Illegal Migration Bill was passed it would violate children’s rights under the UNCRC and the 1951 Refugee Convention and urged the UK Government to bring the. [...] An evaluation of the Scottish Guardianship Service in 202237 found that the Service has a major impact in helping children to navigate the asylum system, in orienting them in their new environment, in improving the quality of information given to children from other professionals, and in making interactions with children more child-focused and child-friendly. [...] The evaluation of the Scottish Guardianship Service found that Guardians were even able to affect the implementation of the asylum process, speeding up or slowing down parts of the process, and advocating for decisions to be made without interview, where this was in the interests of the child concerned. [...] Some work, based on the experience of the Scottish guardianship service and the Nidos7 guardianship service in the Netherlands, was completed in 2014 by The United Nations Children’s Fund UK (UNICEF UK) and The Children’s Society on the costs and benefits of an England and Wales scheme.42 For an accurate assessment of costs, this would need to be updated, and costs considered in respect of Wales a.