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<p>The guidance pack issued to local authorities in England, Wales and Scotland and
to Health and Social Care Trusts in Northern Ireland on 3 April is not statutory guidance.
The pack puts together in one place, information readily available on gov.uk to provide
a useful tool for front line local authority and HSCT staff tasked with supporting
looked after children and care leavers. The Children Act 1989 provides the legal framework
for local authorities to promote the a child’s welfare and best interests, setting
out statutory duties in relation to looked after children in England, with respective
authorities for the devolved administrations. Statutory guidance is provided by DfE
in relation to this. This statutory duty to promote best interests, coupled with funding
provided to local authorities under a new burdens assessment should en-sure that this
important work will be done.</p><p>During a private trial phase of testing five local
authorities were asked for detailed information on the children in their care eligible
to apply to the EUSS, including what ID evidence they had access to and family situations
in order to ascertain difficulties in obtaining identity documents.</p><p>The participating
local authorities, along with the seven other community organisations participating
in the trial phase provided detailed feedback on challenges they encountered during
the test phase, which was considered before drafting the guidance. The new burdens
assessment takes into account work required to identify the cohort of eligible children
as well as work needed to undertake the EUSS application process itself.</p><p>Organisations
awarded grant funding are required to submit monitoring reports to the Home Office
and this content will be used to assess of the grant funding. Grant funded organisations
will be reporting on the number of vulnerable people they have supported to make applications
and this will assist in determining what future support is required after March 2020.</p>
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