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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 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 Department
for Education in relation to this. This statutory duty to promote best interests,
coupled with funding provided to local authorities under a new burdens as-sessment
should ensure that this important work will be done.</p><p>The Home Office engaged
with the Department for Education, the Association of Directors Childrens Services
and other Local Authority stakeholders across the UK in advance of publishing the
guidance. The Home Office also conducted a private trial phase of testing where 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.</p><p>The
Home Office is committed to continuing to engage with local authorities as they undertake
their responsibilities to ensure that all eligible looked after children and care
leavers are supported to make an application to the EUSS. The Home Office will ensure
that caseworkers liaise with and support applicants to get the status they require.</p><p>We
consulted with the Department for Education in advance of publishing the guidance
to ensure adequate consideration was given to other categories of looked after children,
where the local authority does not hold full PR, under section 20 of the Children
Act 1989. It has been confirmed that in those cases there is a duty on the local authority
to raise awareness of the EU Set-tlement Scheme to those with PR for those eligible
child(ren) and to provide practical support where needed, or signpost to relevant
community support where deemed more appropriate to do so.</p>
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