Model 1: Dedicated NRPF social workers

An individual or team of social workers responsible for case-managing families and/or adults with care and support needs who are being provided with accommodation and financial support because they have no recourse to public funds.

4.1 Overview

Dedicated social workers will usually sit in either adult social care or children’s social care, working on the cases relevant to their directorate or across both practice areas, with funding arrangements made accordingly between directorates.

In children’s social care, a dedicated NRPF social work team will usually hold all the child in need cases where the parent’s immigration status and lack of income and housing is the only safeguarding issue. They may then liaise with and support other social work teams who hold cases with safeguarding risks or additional child in need issues. Similarly, where adults with care and support needs require specialist care such as sensory or residential care, dedicated NRPF social workers may assist or jointly hold cases with social workers providing this care.

Some councils have reported creating combined social work teams responsible for people with no recourse to public funds, unaccompanied asylum seeking children, and foster placements. Some NRPF teams will not case-manage households with certain types of immigration status, such as pre-settled status, such people will instead be case-managed by generic social workers.

Dedicated social workers can build an expertise in supporting people with no recourse to public funds and households with precarious immigration statuses which, when combined with generic social work skills, can enable them to provide holistic care to each household. If properly integrated with other social workers, this can foster services which focus on social working principles and increase general aptitude for understanding immigration related considerations as dedicated NRPF workers both support and learn from the teams around them.

4.2 How key elements are delivered

Oversight

Oversight and supervision of services for people with no recourse to public funds will be the responsibility of the NRPF team manager, often with a separate budget for housing, subsistence and staffing. The manager’s line management should provide senior sponsorship.

Training and knowledge sharing

The worker or team will be regularly trained and keep up to date with changing legislation and practice related to the no recourse to public funds condition as well as maintaining social work expertise. The workers will often provide basic training and knowledge sharing to other parts of the council.

Referral routes

Usually, cases will be referred into social services through the normal routes and assigned to NPRF social workers once identified.
Some teams will create direct referral pathways from the front door team or other organisations to more quickly assign emergency cases and eliminate administrative overhead.

Assessment of need

NRPF social workers will be responsible for carrying out social care needs assessments.
There are some examples of non-social workers being hired to assist with establishing a supported household’s financial circumstances.
As all assessments are undertaken by the dedicated team, managers must consider how sudden increases in requirement for assessment will be addressed.
For families, a social worker will still need to identify how these financial circumstances impact on the child and what support is required to meet a child’s needs.
For adults, a financial assessment will be undertaken once an adult determined to be eligible for care and support but the NRPF social worker is also likely to have established their financial circumstances when assessing need.
Human rights assessments will be carried out by NRPF social workers..

Provision of destitution relief

In almost all cases NRPF teams will be supported by officers who handle the administration of subsistence payments.
More commonly than in non-social work NRPF teams, social work teams may also contain housing officers to source and administer housing placements.
Social care managers should consider how transition between social care teams will be managed, particularly regarding the provision of accommodation, subsistence, and and a continued focus on finding a long-term route out of destitution.

Provision of care and support beyond destitution relief

The dedicated NRPF social workers will provide additional support that has been outlined in the care plan, undertake regular visits and reviews of the care plan.
Where specific needs require specialist care, cases will usually be passed to other teams e.g. child protection cases and adults in residential care.

Pathways off support

Responsibility for promoting independence and assisting supported households to identify and achieve a long-term pathway out of destitution will sit with the assigned NRPF social worker, who will usually record their cases on NRPF Connect and signpost to immigration advice.
Relationships and protocols with other services should be agreed between team managers.
Some services with sufficient need will have an officer who assists with the administration of NRPF Connect and immigration resolutions.

Hospital discharge

Working protocols between local health providers and the council will be overseen by a team manager and often an NRPF social worker will become the named contact regarding section 117 aftercare and hospital discharge.
Given their expertise, dedicated NRPF teams will often find and deliver the housing and subsistence support for these cases whilst NHS colleagues provide any additional care.
Whether or not the team then recoup those costs from the NHS will be agreed between the two organisations.

Transition to mainstream support

The assigned NRPF social worker will be responsible for supporting their client into mainstream services.
Centralised teams or workers will be able to establish relationships with mainstream housing, benefits, and employment assistance services so that households eligible to exit social services support are prioritised and overall time on support is reduced.

Edge of care and discretionary support

Dedicated NRPF social work teams in England and Wales will usually lead where support under section 19(1) of the Care Act is being considered.
Whether or not the team is involved with wider council initiatives such as trafficking or domestic abuse will usually depend on whether or not they sit in a wider refugee and migrant service, or whether they are framed as a specialist social care team.
As the officers responsible for assessments, NRPF social workers will build referral routes and signposting information for people who fall outside of care eligibility.

4.3 Potential challenges

Councils with dedicated NRPF social workers or social work teams have reported the following challenges:

Professional development, caseload oversight, and cross-team collaboration must be put in place to ensure that NRPF social work teams do not become isolated, and the quality of social care is consistent across the department.
With small specialist teams, services can find it difficult to balance capacity when the requirement for support or assessments is abnormally high.
Continuity of care can be difficult where households are transferred between NRPF social work teams and other social work teams.
Where social work teams are part of a wider refugee and migrant service there may be instances where a non-social worker is managing social workers and arrangements must be made for clinical supervision.
It can be difficult to recruit qualified social workers with the knowledge of immigration-related support required for the role.
If a team handles both adult and family NRPF cases, managers must ensure that their team remains in close contact with both adult social care and children’s social care.