Decision

RESOLVED

To agree to the Council recruiting a Ukrainian Community Support Officer post on the Council’s establishment, initially for a period of twelve months, with the costs being met through the Council’s Delivery Plan Reserve in the immediate term, and with officers asked to establish if such costs can be claimed back from Government funding to local authorities supporting the national refugee programme in the coming months.

Reason for the recommendation:

To provide a timely response and support to the arrival of Ukrainian refugees into North Norfolk as part of the UK’s Homes for Ukraine programme.

The Chairman invited the Director for Communities to introduce this item. He explained that following the Government’s announcement of two schemes to facilitate access to the UK for Ukrainian refugees, it was believed that large numbers of women, children and elderly people could come to North Norfolk in the coming weeks. Therefore, in order to provide a warm welcome to refugee families and to support local people who had offered to provide accommodation through the Homes for Ukraine scheme via assisting them in accessing health, education, language support and employment locally, the Council proposed creating a Ukrainian Support Officer post. This would be within the People Services are and it was intended that they would speak Ukrainian/Russian and provide a cultural link and support for the new community in North Norfolk. He added that there would be a ‘welcome hub’ at the Council Offices to provide immediate support.

Cllr V Gay asked if there would be arrangements in place to test the language skills of applicants for the post. The Director for Communities replied that there would be access to translation services and to language line to assess that applicants had sufficient skills. He acknowledged that there were many dialects across Ukraine and in response to a further question regarding Russian speaking applicants, he confirmed that this would be preferable, if possible as many Ukrainians spoke Russian as a second language.

Cllr R Kershaw asked if the Director for Communities was aware of any Russian refugees seeking to settle in North Norfolk. The Director for Communities replied that he was not aware of any in North Norfolk and they would not be on the same scale as Ukrainian refugees. He added that there were two schemes in place for Ukrainian refugees – the UK Family Scheme and the Homes for Ukraine programme.

Cllr C Cushing said that it was suggested that Norfolk Council was anticipating approximately 300 refugees and he wondered how many would come to North Norfolk. He also asked about the provision of language support in schools as it was likely that the children of refugee families would not speak English and may need additional support. The Director for Communities replied that the Council had not been advised about the number of families that might come to North Norfolk. One of the reasons for this was that the UK Families Scheme was operating on the basis that support would be provided by the families concerned and no wrap around support would be provided by the Government. Regarding the Homes for Ukraine Scheme, it was not yet known how many residents of North Norfolk had registered for this. He said that the Home Office was matching individuals and that this information was passed onto the County Council who would then process properties in North Norfolk and ask the Council to go out and inspect their suitability. He said that there had been a request to inspect some properties but the overall figure was not yet known. Regarding school provision and support, he said that this was a responsibility of the County Council and there was a team in place to ensure that there was sufficient, suitable school provision. He added that this scheme was different to other refugee support schemes as the accommodation of refugees was spread more widely and not focussed on urban areas and North Norfolk was well set up to educate refugee children as some schools had capacity. He said that there were some teachers coming from Ukraine who may be able to provide support in local schools.

It was proposed by Cllr E Seward, seconded by Cllr N Lloyd and

RESOLVED

To agree to the Council recruiting a Ukrainian Community Support Officer post on the Council’s establishment, initially for a period of twelve months, with the costs being met through the Council’s Delivery Plan Reserve in the immediate term, and with officers asked to establish if such costs can be claimed back from Government funding to local authorities supporting the national refugee programme in the coming months.

Reason for the recommendation:

To provide a timely response and support to the arrival of Ukrainian refugees into North Norfolk as part of the UK’s Homes for Ukraine programme.