Refugee Children from Ukraine – message from Richard Nash, Interim Corporate Director, Children’s Services at the LA

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21 March 2022

 
Dear Colleagues,
 
I know that all of us have been following the war in Ukraine with horror and disbelief. It has been amazing to hear how many of you have acted positively through fundraising and supporting your pupils in understanding and processing such a complex and emotive situation. We have been advised by central government that we can expect the arrival of Ukrainian refugees across the country over the next few weeks and we should expect that the people of Buckinghamshire will be generous in taking these families in and keeping them safe in our community.
 
We know that the refugee population is overwhelmingly made up of women and children, and in order for them to feel safe and valued in this country a school place will be a key element in their support. At this point we do not have an idea of numbers, but we know that you as school leaders will be keen to support these families as soon as they arrive.
 
The Chairs of BASH and PEB, alongside the LA, have agreed some principles that will support the admission of children from Ukraine during this time:
 
· Children are admitted to their closest age appropriate school
· Siblings should stay together
· Children are admitted via the admissions team and we would ask schools to support families in processing this
· Where schools need to go over PAN this is permitted and will be managed through the fair access protocol
· The LA will support schools to admit children and to sustain their school places
· Where families have a strong preference for a particular school, we will make every effort to accommodate them
 
These overarching principles will be applied on an individual basis to children when they are looking for a school place and we would ask for your help in supporting parents through the process. We will aim to offer a place as quickly as possible to give families certainty.
 
As more information is released, we will share it with you. For the moment it may be useful to share this with your senior leadership teams and to start a low level of contingency planning for this scenario.
 
Below is a form of words that you may find useful to use with parents if you wish to start preparing them for the possibility of arrivals from Ukraine.
 
Suggested text to parents:
 
All of us have been following the war in Ukraine with horror and disbelief. It has been amazing to hear how our schools have acted positively through fundraising and supporting their pupils in understanding and processing such a complex and emotive situation. The Local Authority have been advised by central government that we can expect the arrival of Ukrainian refugees across the country over the next few weeks and we know that the people of Buckinghamshire will be generous in taking these families in and keeping them safe in our community.
 
The refugee population is overwhelmingly made up of women and children, and in order for them to feel safe and valued in this country, a school place will be a key element in their support. It is important that we all do our best to support these victims of war and welcome them into our school communities with empathy and compassion.
When we have further information on the situation for our school, we will write to you again.
 
Yours sincerely,
Richard Nash
Interim Corporate Director, Children’s Services