Find below our latest update on Homes for Ukraine scheme.
Arrivals: As of 27 April, 809 guests have registered in 533 groups (typically family units) and are being sponsored by 318 Warwickshire households; 162 guests have arrived in the UK, 399 visas have been approved, 214 are pending and 34 are missing applications. The breakdown of guests that have visa status of ‘arrived’ is as follows:
- North Warwickshire = 10
- Nuneaton & Bedworth = 15
- Rugby = 33
- Stratford-on-Avon = 29
- Warwick = 36
We have seen some Ukrainian asylum seekers arriving outside the Homes for Ukraine Scheme, and they have been temporarily accommodated in hotels. As guests arriving under the Homes for Ukraine scheme will ‘make their own way’ to the sponsors’ homes, we can only confirm actual arrivals in the county through the accommodation checks and our Family Information Service contacting all sponsors to ascertain whether or not guests have arrived safely. We have a dashboard, updated daily and shared with district and borough partners, providing key management information about the operation of the scheme in Warwickshire.
Data flows: Our Business Intelligence team is continuing to cleanse the incoming data from DLUHC, and we have a regular flow of data to our district and borough colleagues. We are also ensuring that all checks (DBS, accommodation etc) are being recorded on the DLUHC case management system so that central government has access to an accurate view of the local picture.
Accommodation checks: We have agreed the scope of the accommodation visits with district and borough council housing teams in line with Government guidance and have an agreed data sharing approach to ensure we have overall visibility across the system. As of 27 April, there are 320 accommodations of which 177 have been checked. 167 have passed, 5 have withdrawn (either sponsor or guest) and 5 have failed. Where the accommodation checks have failed it is because the rooms being made available are too small or there are not enough rooms. The Fire and Rescue Service is linked into this process to ensure we can provide any additional support, advice or equipment relating to fire safety which arise from the accommodation checks. Warwickshire Fire and Rescue Service is offering Safe and Well visits to those who would like to take up this opportunity following accommodation checks.
We have ordered Fire Safety in the Home booklets translated into Ukrainian and will be working with the Family Information Service to distribute these to homes with the offer of a Safe and Well visit if required. All enquiries relating to Safe and Well Check referrals need to be made via cfs@warwickshire.gov.uk.
Disclosure and Barring Service checks: Warwickshrie County Council is contacting all sponsors to initiate the DBS check process for sponsors and all other adults living in the household. We have set up a dedicated email for these checks ukrainedbs@warwickshire.gov.uk. We are promised that DBS checks relating to Homes for Ukraine will be expedited.
As of 26 April, 154 DBS checks have been initiated and 127 have been processed and completed.
Webinars for Sponsors: Over the last few weeks Communities and Partnerships Service officers have put on three webinars for sponsors. The aim was to update sponsors on the latest news and information, provide guidance and support, answer questions and listen to ideas and feedback as well as give an overview of what wraparound support is available to all Ukrainian guests and their sponsors. A total of 197 sponsors attended the webinars. Led by WCC’s Strategic Director for Resources, the sessions also involved speakers from Stratford District Council, Mental Health Commissioning, Family Information Service, Children and Families Service and DWP.
The feedback from the sponsors is very positive with huge recognition for our local efforts within Warwickshire. Some of the comments we received included: “Thank you to all of the speakers. Much appreciated. I am proud to live in a country and a 'shire' that is doing what it can to help.”; and “I am hugely aware that you, as a council and associated organisations, are doing all this on top of everything you are already responsible for. I think it's exceptional, and very, very valuable. Thank you, and well done!”
Webinars for sponsors and community support groups - ‘Ukrainian culture, customs and diversity’
WCC’s Communities and Partnerships Service will be launching a series of (initially) three webinars to cover Ukrainian culture and heritage to provide support and improve abilities of helpers and volunteers to provide a warm welcome to guests.
These will take place on the following dates:
- Thursday 28 April - 7pm- 8.30pm
- Thursday 5 May - 7pm - 8.30pm
- Friday 6 May - 11.30am - 1.00pm
Presentations will be given by:
- Roman Leszczyszyn (Association of Ukrainians in Great Britain)
- Maria Zhukova (Community volunteer)
- Mariya Tarnavska (Warwickshire County Council)
You can find the event link here.
Homes for Ukraine community support project : A commissioned piece of work with WCAVA to establish a directory of new offers of help and support from local organisations was launched last week. This will then enable signposting of individuals to the appropriate groups and organisations who are actively involved in supporting Ukrainian guests and host families. Replies are coming in with groups registering their interest and involvement.
We have already got well over 30 groups signed up to this and are expecting a lot more. During the week commencing 2 May we will be arranging virtual meetings with the groups by borough and district to help bring the groups together locally and share information between themselves, WCC and partners to help us work together with communities to provide enhanced support.
Welcome to Warwickshire Events - Rugby and Warwick Library Service: Work is underway with the Libraries Team to organise two substantial welcome events in the latter part of May, (dates to be confirmed asap) aimed at welcoming Ukrainian guests but open to all newcomers to Warwickshire.
This will involve guests, sponsors and community support groups being welcomed into the libraries to see services provided, welcoming entertainment and displays of information and exhibits from our Heritage and Culture collection. This is an opportunity to provide invitations to many partners to attend including, for example, emergency services to say hello and provide information about important services.
Family Information Service support: We have set up a Ukrainian helpline number (0800 408 1447) as well as the ukraine@warwickshire.gov.uk inbox. Our Family Information Service will be managing the helpline and inbox. Each family will be offered a Family Information Service brokerage visit soon after their arrival, which will provide an opportunity to listen to the needs of the family and signpost to support available including education, finance, housing, and health (including mental health). We will also link them in with Universal Credit and universal services such as the library service, leisure centres and Children and Families centres. We would encourage all enquiries to be channelled to this helpline to create one point of contact and effective data collection.
By Friday 29th April, 31 brokerage visits will have been made. New arrivals are being contacted daily to make appointments.
Finance and Payments: We are still awaiting the Government guidance on finance and the grant conditions. The county council will receive the funding which also needs to cover costs incurred by our district and borough council colleagues. We are building up an overall budget for the support package under the Homes for Ukraine Scheme which we will validate against the Government’s funding guidance and grant conditions. Kushal Birla has met with the heads of housing group to discuss and agree a funding mechanism and a plan for expenditure under the scheme. It has been agreed that the county council will administer the £200 interim payments for all districts/boroughs apart from Nuneaton & Bedworth Borough Council.
The interim payments will be undertaken on behalf of the county council by the Post Office’s Payout Now! Service, enabling us to provide a voucher via email/text. The thank you payments of £350/month to sponsors once guests arrive and accommodation checks have been satisfactorily completed will be administered by the districts/boroughs.
Welcome packs and communicatiosn: We have a welcome pack for Ukrainian guests and have written to all sponsors thanking them and signposting to support and advice. The welcome pack has been translated. A Facebook group has been set up and now has 324 members. The county council website has dedicated pages of all current information plus a translation facility for the web pages.
Health including Mental Wellbeing: Public Health has shared with CCG colleagues LSOA level data on where our sponsors live to support their planning with primary care. We have ensured that helpful translated health documents have been uploaded to the Welcome to Warwickshire website https://www.warwickshire.gov.uk/ukraine.
These include:
- Information on how the NHS works
- General vaccination guides including childhood immunisations
- COVID-19 vaccination guides.
Public Health has been working with Coventry Refugee and Migrant Centre to design an offer of intensive 1:1 trauma-informed counselling support for Ukrainian refugees, and other refugees across Warwickshire, who require this level of support. This service will include interpreters being present within the sessions, where required. Finance colleagues have been involved in initial discussions around what procurement will look like, given the current uncertainty around how many Ukrainians will need this service.
Conversations have also been had with CWPT, CWMind and mental health commissioners around other resources which will be advertised and made available to Ukrainian refugees and sponsor families including, but not limited to:
- Wellbeing for Warwickshire services https://wellbeingforwarwickshire.org.uk/
- Tailored support/sessions for sponsors
- Suicide awareness training (Zero Suicide Alliance)
- Children’s mental health services (Coventry & Warwickshire RISE)
- WOMENTalk sessions for female Ukrainian refugees
Schools: The Government is providing additional funding to councils to provide education services for children from families arriving from Ukraine under this scheme. The Department for Education (DfE) will allocate funding on a per pupil basis for the three phases of education at the following annual rates:
- Early years (ages 2 to 4) - £3,000
- Primary (ages 5 -11) - £6,580
- Secondary (ages 11-18) - £8,755
These tariffs include support for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). We will continue to keep schools updated with necessary information. For the time being, all school places will be handled by Warwickshire School Admissions Service, in line with the normal admissions procedures: https://www.warwickshire.gov.uk/admissions
Skills/work: We are working with Adult Community Learning to expand ESOL provision. The team has also conducted surveys to evaluate the existing needs of ESOL with employment support partners and a second survey to education providers to evaluate their capacity to support us in meeting the increased demand in a partnership way. Early feedback suggests that the delivery hotspots would be Rugby, Leamington, Stratford and Bedworth.
The partnership with the libraries and the Warwickshire Community Skills Hubs (which is allocated space in the libraries to deliver training) can support this. Employability and Skills, ACL and the resettlement team are meeting this week to map this out and initiate the start of delivery. We are also engaged with DWP locally and working with them on a support package, including further potential use of Warwickshire Community Skills Hub, as well as looking at wider issues such as childcare for women with young children. We’re already seeing requests from DWP calling out for employment opportunities such as lawyers and logistics managers which will be well received and meets many of our local skills shortages.
A number of businesses have, through our Fair Chance Employment Programme, made offers of employment opportunities, including:
- Ocado
- JLR
- Co-Operative Group
- HS2
- University of Warwick
Along with many small businesses in Care, Hospitality, Retail and Leisure.
Through the Fair Chance Employment Programme, a new training and employment programme is set to stand up in early May. In Warwickshire we have many existing funded employment programmes with funding available to support OFFICIAL the development of a bespoke and collaborative employment programme to meet local need. The employability and skills team have designed a series of workshops to build a Welcome to Warwickshire Employment Partnership Programme which will run in the Warwickshire Community Skills Hubs and offer individuals the opportunity to gain additional skills and attend job clubs whilst progressing on a journey to work. The Fair Chance Employment Programme Team will link to the workshops and align suitable jobs to those on programme. Welcome to Warwickshire Employment Programme Partnership:
