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ITEM EX8

EXECUTIVE – 13 MAY 2003

ASYLUM SEEKERS’ ACCOMMODATION CENTRE – INFRASTRUCTURE

Report by Director for Learning & Culture

Introduction

  1. This report describes the arrangements which the Home Office intends to adopt for the provision of certain services to people resident at the proposed ‘Accommodation Centre’ for asylum applicants planned on Ministry of Defence land near Bicester, should this receive consent and be implemented. Procurement of these services would be the responsibility of the contractor selected by the Home Office to operate the centre, and that contractor would be expected to secure an appropriate level of provision through arrangements with other parties having the necessary expertise.

  2. The services involved include education and libraries, and approaches have been received from prospective contractors to ascertain the Council’s interest in providing these. Such provision, and the terms on which the provision would be made, would be subject to contractual arrangements between the Council and the company eventually employed by the Home Office to run the Centre. Legal authority for a local authority to enter into such a contract was introduced in the Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002.

  3. The County Council appeared as an objector at the public inquiry into the Accommodation Centre proposal, and gave evidence as to (among other matters) the costs which the development would be likely to impose on the local community. The present report is without prejudice to the Council’s opposition in principle to the creation of the proposed Centre.

    4. Background

  4. A decision by the Deputy Prime Minister on the Home Office proposal for an Accommodation Centre for asylum applicants near Bicester is expected by the early summer. If consent is granted the Home Office will then publish an Invitation to Tender. The Home Office intends to enter into a single Design, Build and Operate contract for all services (health, education, catering, cleaning etc.) The contract would probably be let in late 2003 and the Centre would open at the end of 2004 or early in 2005. The contract would most likely be for 10 years.

  5. The Centre would contain up to 750 people. Information presented by the Home Office at the Public Inquiry postulates some 120-150 aged 3 – 16 and about 600 adults but there is no certainty about the profile of the residents. Families are thought likely to have a significant degree of self-sufficiency and their accommodation is thought likely to be akin to university accommodation for students. Individuals’ stays at the Bicester centre are expected to be between 2 and 6 months followed by "dispersal". This could be to anywhere in Britain – dispersal areas are likely to shrink if and when more accommodation centres are opened.

    6. Provision of Education and Library Services

  6. Following approaches by prospective Home Office contractors, the Executive on 15 April authorised submission of a tender to provide education and library services to the contractors appointed by the Home Office to operate the Accommodation Centre in the event that consent for the Centre is given and its development proceeds. This would involve :

        1. A "mainstream" education service for children in the 3-18 age range.

        2. Adult learning facilities, similar to those already provided at the Campsfield House for Group 4.

        3. A ‘Youth Club’ plus contact and involvement in joint activities with local youth.

        4. An On-site Library with both lending and reference facilities, and material catering for the needs and backgrounds of the asylum applicants.

        5. An IT Centre with a high capacity link through OCN to give access to all County broadband services and features.

        6. A crèche for children of residents of the Accommodation Centre.

     

  7. The tender is based on the premise that reimbursement would include full costs, including on-costs and overheads. It should be emphasised that there will be no commitment on the Council’s part unless and until the Accommodation Centre is permitted and a formal contract has been negotiated and concluded with the company selected by the Home Office to operate the Centre.

    8. Financial and Staff Implications

  8. The proposed arrangements whereby the Council would act as a sub-contractor for the provision of certain services – if the offer summarised above is accepted and the development of the Centre goes ahead – aim to at least cover the County Council’s costs in the provision of those services to the Centre, including an element for management, administration and contingencies. Except for the initial staff costs in putting the offer together, the proposals in this report are therefore cost-neutral.

  9. There is concern that this will not be the case with other aspects of the development and operation of the Centre. A major part of the Council’s case at the Public Inquiry was to dispute the Home Office’s assertion that the Centre would be self-contained and to argue that the Home Office should provide extra funding to the Council to cover the costs the Council will incur if the Centre goes ahead. For education this means covering the costs of staff required to attend the centre to fulfil duties in relation to children with SEN (including travel time and travel costs) and the costs of providing places in OCC special schools/units where children‘s needs cannot be met by the on-site provision together with the children’s transport costs.

  10. For libraries we are arguing that the Home Office should meet the costs of addressing the impact on Bicester library and the mobile service if the on-site library does not meet asylum seekers’ needs and they look to local facilities. The Home Office specifications make absolutely no provision for social and health care provision so that is a major area of potential cost to the Council. In other words the centre will not truly be self-contained and the Council will be required to provide services with no additional funding.

    11. RECOMMENDATION

  11. The Executive is RECOMMENDED to authorise the completion, in the event that consent for the Accommodation Centre is given and its development proceeds, of a contract to provide education and library services to the contractors appointed by the Home Office to operate the Centre, subject as set out in the report and to such other terms as the Director for Learning & Culture, in consultation with the Solicitor to the Council, the Head of Finance, and the Executive Members for Schools, Learning & Culture and Children & Young People, may consider appropriate.

KEITH BARTLEY
Director for Learning & Culture

Background Papers: Home Office Specification

Contact Officers: Roy Leach, Tel (01865) 815693, Andrew Coggins, Tel (01865) 810212

May 2003

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