Decision details

Support for customers on Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (ARAP) schemes

1. During the past year a number of new citizens have moved to York under the ARAP scheme due to recent initiatives through the Ministry of Defence (MOD) and Mears (on behalf of the Home Office) as well as a successful bid by CYC for Local Authority Housing Fund (LAHF) funding.

2. The MOD is providing 6 family homes on barracks, some families have already moved in and others are soon to do so. Mears have leased a 7 bed property from a private landlord off barracks and are actively seeking other properties to lease in York. CYC have purchased 9 homes through LAHF funding for this cohort and continue to source privately owned properties through which are leased or managed by CYC through the YorHome team. A 10 bed property has recently been secured through YorHome which will be managed as a house in multiple occupation housing single women through the ARAP program.

3. All MOD properties will be classed as service family accommodation (SFA) and families will need to move on at the end of 3 years, supported by the refugee resettlement team to find new accommodation.

4. Any homes leased by Mears outside the barracks do not necessarily have to move out of the properties at the end of the 3 years if the landlord is willing to sign up to YorHome or otherwise keep the family in the property and rent to them directly. This will be at the landlords’ discretion and will depend on affordability for the family.

5. Households needing to move on from their accommodation provided through Mears will all need help to move on to permanent accommodation by the end of the 3 year period, this permanent accommodation may be in the private sector. The transition to new housing will also need to be supported with a period of ongoing lower level triage/support to ensure the moves are successful and sustainable.

6. City of York council has agreed to provide the integration support to the MOD and Mears households through the refugee resettlement team and receive a ring-fenced integration tariff to fund this support.

7. There are currently 1.6FTE refugee resettlement workers funded to work with people who have arrived in the country under ARAP. An internal review has been undertaken of the capacity in the refugee resettlement team (RRT) and it has been determined that additional capacity is needed to effectively support the increased number of families.

8. An additional 0.5 FTE refugee resettlement worker will be recruited to ensure that sufficient capacity is available to support all customers. With 0.5 FTE to be funded through the Asylum budget to provide support for people who have been accepted through the Asylum route this will allow recruitment of 1FTE working across both parts of the refugee service. This will initially be on a fixed term up to end March 2026 to allow for a further review of demand and capacity across the groups which the RRT support. In addition 0.5 Housing and private rented officer (grade 6) until end March 2026, this will support the YorHome team to prepare for new legal requirements as a result of the Renters Rights bill as well as helping to support the compliant and smooth running of Houses in Multiple Occupation, which require more day to day input than family homes.

9. £122,845 funding has been received so far in 2024 which has not yet been allocated into the budget, however due to delays in payment being passed to CYC for new arrivals there is significant income still expected for arrivals who have already moved into properties. For example the integration tariff for the MOD and Mears properties has not yet been received, but will be over £200k in year one and a further £200k over years 2 and 3 which will ensure that there is an ongoing budget for staffing and costs relating to furnishing and setting up properties. The budget below shows an annual cost for the staffing outlined,


budget 200000
REFUGEE WORKER (MK) 37 8 34,988 44,926
refugee worker (EH) 22.2 8 26,956
YorHome assistant 18.5 6 18,477
REFUGEE WORKER (new) 18.5 8 34,988 22,463
MANAGER 18.5 9 20,115 20,115

132,936

1) Option 1 – create additional fixed posts as described above to meet the needs of this customer group with funding via the ring-fenced integration tariff.

2) Option 2 – provide support for these new customers through existing capacity.

Option 2 is rejected as this option cannot provide the level of personalised support expected through the provision of the integration tariff, and leads to a higher risk of tenancy breakdown and negative health and wellbeing impacts. There would be a risk of significant reputational damage to the council as a result of tenancy failure. The integration tariff cannot be used to fund services elsewhere in the Council is it is ring fenced for particular purposes and to this specific customer group.