IMA is assured that Health and Social Care Trusts in Northern Ireland are protecting the rights of looked after children and care leavers
The Independent Monitoring Authority for the Citizens’ Rights Agreements (IMA) is assured that all five Health and Social Care Trusts in Northern Ireland have confirmed they have appropriate measures in place to ensure the rights of eligible EU and EEA EFTA looked after children and care leavers are protected.
Following the UK’s departure from the EU, all eligible citizens, including children, are required to apply to the EU Settlement Scheme (EUSS) and obtain a grant of Pre-Settled or Settled Status to guarantee their rights to live, work, study, and access benefits in the UK.
The IMA launched a review of Health and Social Care Trusts in Northern Ireland to establish how they identify looked after children and care leavers who need to apply to the EUSS, and the procedures put in place to monitor those applications.
As part of our monitoring duties, we are undertaking assurance reviews across all local authorities in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. You can read our Assurance Review Reports here.
The initial review in Northern Ireland looked at information in three key areas; identification, record keeping and retrospective checks, with each local authority categorised as red, amber or green in a grading system.
The IMA identified no overarching concerns based on the responses from all five Health and Social Care Trusts and is sufficiently assured based on the information provided about the robustness of identification processes, record keeping and retrospective checks.
The report can be located here.
Pam Everett, IMA Director of Operational Delivery said: “The IMA has welcomed the positive collaboration with Health and Social Care Trusts in Northern Ireland who have sufficiently assured the IMA that each Trust is discharging their responsibilities and are providing appropriate support in relation to making and supporting EUSS applications on behalf of all eligible looked after children, children in receipt of Health and Social Care Trust care and support, and care leavers.
“Those who have successful applications should have guaranteed their rights to continue to live, study and work in the UK.”
Based on the information provided, the IMA does not at this stage consider that further compliance action is required by any Health and Social Care Trust in Northern Ireland.
The initial review of all local authorities and Health and Social Care across the UK have been completed as part of Phase 1 of this work. The IMA will continue with individual assurance reviews across England and Scotland.