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<p><strong>(1) </strong><strong>Homeless</strong></p><p>We provided £4.3 billion to
help councils to manage the impacts of COVID-19 which includes their work to support
homeless people, including £3.7 billion which is not ringfenced, and £600 million
to support social care and a further £3.2 million in emergency funding for local authorities
to support vulnerable rough sleepers.</p><p>On 18 July, we launched the Next Steps
Accommodation Programme (NSAP). This makes available the financial resources needed
to support local authorities and their partners to prevent people from returning to
the streets. The NSAP is made up of two sources of funding: £161 million to deliver
3,300 units of longer-term move-on accommodation in 2020/2021; and £105 million of
additional funding to pay for immediate support to ensure that people do not return
to the streets.</p><p>£23 million will be provided so that vulnerable individuals
experiencing rough sleeping, including those currently in emergency accommodation as
a response to COVID-19, can access the specialist help they need for substance dependency issues,
in order to rebuild their lives and move towards work and education. This funding
is part of the £262 million funding announced at Spring Budget 2020.</p><p>274 local
councils will share £91.5 million of government funding to ensure interim accommodation
and support for the most vulnerable people, including by helping people into the private
rented sector, secure interim accommodation such as supported housing, and assess
the wider support these people need in order to rebuild their lives. An additional
£13.5 million fund will be used to enable local authorities to tackle new or emerging
challenges.</p><p><strong>(2) </strong><strong>Unaccompanied asylum-seeking children</strong></p><p>In
addition to the money paid to local authorities through the local government finance
settlement the Home Office provides additional funding contributions to the costs
incurred by local authorities looking after unaccompanied asylum-seeking children
(UASC) and former UASC care leavers. Increases to these contributions for 2020-21
were announced on 8 June.</p><p>For each former UASC care leaver supported, local
authorities now receive £240 per person per week. This represented a 60% increase
to the lowest rate that was previously paid.</p><p>Local authorities supporting UASC
totalling 0.07% or greater of their general child population receive £143 per person
per night for each UASC. All other local authorities receive £114 per person per night
for each UASC in their care.</p><p>The National Transfer Scheme (NTS) was established
in July 2016 to achieve a more balanced distribution of UASC. The scheme was initially
successful, achieving nearly 900 voluntary transfers of UASC from entry local authorities
between July 2016 and December 2018.</p><p>More recently the NTS has not been working
as intended and there is a need to achieve a more equitable distribution of UASC.
We have therefore worked with local government partners to develop proposals to further
improve the NTS. On 28 August we launched an informal consultation with local authorities
on these proposals.</p>
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