Supporting families with no recourse to public fund training

8th January 2019 by ficheb

Migrant Action in partnership with Project 17 Charity (London) will be hosting a training course for people supporting families with no recourse to public funds.

This is the second time Migrant Action is hosting the training as the first session was extremely popular and take up was high.

The session will run from 10.30-4pm at Oak House, Waxwing Room Park Lane, LS3 1EL, Leeds on Wednesday 13th March

26 participants attended at the last training, 24 rated it excellent and 2 rated it good. Comments included: really useful training; excellent facilitation; a great session allowing me to really improve my knowledge; one of the best trainings I’ve ever participated in.

This is a more advanced course for those who have attended Project 17’s supporting families with no recourse to public fund training, or for those who regularly make Section 17 referrals. The course focuses on getting the best outcomes for families requesting support from local authorities. It helps advisers prepare clients for assessments, anticipate refusals, and challenge negative decisions.

Learning outcomes include:
• An understanding of the current of future legal framework for local authority support
• The ability to prepare effective referrals for support
• The ability to anticipate reasons for refusing support
• The confidence to challenge refusals of support
• Knowing when to refer clients to community care solicitors

The course will cover:
• Overview of the legal framework
• Common reasons for refusing support
• Preparing effective referrals to minimise refusals
• Responding to refusals and failures to assess
• Accessing legal advice and representation

To book on the course please send requests to: info@migrantaction.org.uk

Migrant Action was established in 2016 as an Advocacy and Rights based organisation providing information, guidance, advocacy support and direct practical assistance to ‘vulnerable’ migrants. Migrant Action works with migrants who have fallen through the cracks of the immigration system including (but not restricted to) stateless people, those who have been unable to regularise their status and those on temporary visas. We work to ensure equity of rights and justice for migrants, and although the primary focus of our work is not with asylum seekers and refugees, we do signpost them to appropriate … Read more ..

Happy New Year from Migrant Action

Dear friends of Migrant Action,

In a few hours, we will be saying ‘good-bye’ to 2021 and ‘welcome’ to 2022. Thank you for your solidarity and support helping to strengthen Migrant Action’s advocacy and pursuit for migrants’ rights & justice in an increasingly challenging and complex environment. The essence of our work is even more relevant now!

Context

BREXIT, the ‘New immigration bill which reinforces the ‘hostile environment’ policy targeting migrants, the Climate crisis, Covid-19, Systemic racism, negative press narratives fuelling anti-migrant sentiments by sections of the media, protracted conflicts, political violence, human rights violations, economic exploitation, and political marginalisation of the global south.

These developments constitute a disturbing environment for migrant’s rights & justice. Firstly, it engineers and sustains vulnerability and the precarious conditions that trigger more mobility of migrants across and within countries. Secondly, it entrenches and exacerbates an infrastructure that undermine migrants’ capacity to access justice, deepen inequality, racial & social injustice and routinely negate migrant rights and dignity. In essence, such an environment poses an existential threat to the dignity and humanity of migrants.

Our Response

Migrant Action is adapting and responding to this changing and complex context. We have expanded provision and adapted service delivery model to proactively support vulnerable migrants during the pandemic and beyond. We enhanced our delivery of crisis interventions to prevent homelessness & destitution, increased access to immigration advice for people with insecure immigration, increased integration support for new migrants, assisted more EU migrants to regularise their immigration status in the UK after Brexit. Our advocacy work continues to promote equity of rights and justice for migrants. Essentially, Migrant Action continues to a lifeline and safety net for vulnerable migrants in this challenging environment.

Migrant Action has also strengthened its capacity and resilience in pursuit of transformational social change. The current context demands more urgency to challenge anti-migrant sentiments and policies, tackle structural inequalities, climate change, systemic racism, and social injustice. To this vein, our strategic advocacy through ‘Strengthening Hands’ partnerships to grow migrant ‘voice’, as well as our collaborative research, capacity building and campaign-based activities have been impactful.

Looking to the future

Migrant Action anticipates operating in an even more challenging context as it grapples with the issues undermining rights and justice. However, we have emerged from 2020/21 with more capacity and resilience to respond to present and future challenges working as a team with staff, volunteers, trustees, partners, funders and of course, those we serve- migrants. Therefore, we look forward to 2022 with greater hope and fierceness commitment to rights and justice for migrants, a fair and humane immigration system and for a more equal, just, and peaceful society in which everyone including migrants can realize their full potential.

Dear friends, your solidarity remains invaluable and integral to our success, even more so, now!

Thank you and Happy New Year!

Fidelis Chebe

Director