Regional Refugee Forum North East

£120,074 (2007/2011) for support for the Sub-Groups Project

The Forum, which is linked with similar bodies in other parts of the UK, has developed as an independent body for promoting the collective voice of the region's refugee community. Its membership consists of more than 40 refugee community groups in the North East. The Sub-Groups Project involved individual refugees in a three-year programme of representation to regional bodies, local authorities, the Health Service and other key agencies, regarding issues which affect the refugee community as a whole, particularly employment, housing, health, education, community and child safety, equality, community cohesion and integration. In November 2009 MHF’s Trustees agreed to a further grant to support the policy work of the Forum from August 2010 until December 2012.

Policy impacts and outcomes

• 165 people from 26 countries have taken part in the Forum’s specialist Sub-Groups (covering Economic Inclusion, Access to Education and Training, Promoting the Voice of Youth, Health and Policing), speaking up for 15,000 refugees and asylum seekers in the North East.
• The Forum is a member of the Regional Board of the North East Strategic Migration Partnership, takes part in the Regional Strategy Group led by the Learning and Skills Council involving ONE, the TUC and others, and is on the English as a Second Language Group with practice managers from FE Colleges, Local Authority Adult Education Departments and the Learning and Skills Council. It is a member of the NE Migrant Health Group with the NE Public Health Observatory, Health Authorities and Primary Care Trusts, the Medical Foundation (concerned with issues such as torture) and practitioner groups.
• The Forum contributed to the national Let Them Work Campaign to lobby for return to the pre-2002 position, whereby asylum seekers who had been awaiting a decision for more than 6 months were allowed to work; it has been working in partnership with the Northern TUC, which organized a day conference at which individual refugees and asylum seekers gave moving testimony about their experience; and it has continued to campaign for changes in the way the benefits system discriminates against refugees who gain status in forcing them to take inappropriate and low-paid employment.
• Portrait photographs and an audio CD compilation of testimony from refugees and asylum seekers were on display at Newcastle Arts Centre in January and the photographic exhibition was at Newcastle Central Library during Refugee Week in June 2011.
• Multi-agency ‘Big Conversation’ events were held in Newcastle and Stockton, at which interactive sessions were used to show evidence of barriers faced by refugees and asylum seekers in transferring and developing skills and experience.
• Meetings have been held with managers of Job Centre Plus teams and the Next Step Service, and training has been designed for Job Centre staff. Refugees acting as ‘mystery shoppers’ will discuss feedback with managers of service teams.
• The Forum successfully lobbied for economic inclusion to be added to the North East Strategic Migration Partnership’s 3 year business plan.
• A presentation was made to the NESMP’s English as a Second Language Group to inform them of the implications of the effects of changes to the UK Borders Agency’s accommodation and support contract and the removal of the remission of fees from those not on Job Seekers Allowance.
• The Forum has decided on a strategy for targeting North East MPs regarding the TUC led Right to Work Campaign. The national Refugee Council has been committed to supporting this campaign but, as a result of substantial staff cuts, may no longer be able to do so.
• Following campaigning by the Forum’s associated group Youth Voice, Newcastle University’s Finance Committee agreed to accept five asylum seeker refugees per year on a home fee basis. The acceptance of this principle this coincides with the increase in fees and the costs are likely to be prohibitive for refugee students. However one of the leaders of Youth Voice has recently been offered funding from the Children’s Society to enable her to take up a place. It is intended to use this story to extend the campaign to other North East universities.
• The Forum contributed views on proposed changes in the government’s contracts for asylum and refugee support, including the combining of the North East with Yorkshire and Humberside as a single region for single managed bids. Further discussion has been invited by the Deputy Director and Immigration Team Manager of UK Borders Agency NE.
• The Forum contributed to the business plan for Newcastle City Council’s ‘International Newcastle’ and ‘City for Sanctuary’ initiatives and is represented on the Steering Group for these.
• The national Housing & Migration Network, led by the Housing Associations Charitable Trust, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation and the Migrant Foundation, held a meeting of housing experts in Newcastle in April, at which the Forum gave a presentation on its experience of integration and regeneration. The Network welcomed the Forum’s views on influencing policy on refugees at national level.
• The Forum was sub-contracted for the national Refugee Council to research, and provide evidence of, the future needs and roles of refugee community organizations in the North East, as a contribution to the Council’s strategic planning for beyond 2012. The Forum lobbied for the Refugee Council to adopt a supportive role, adding value to regional activity as opposed to the Council itself seeking to deliver regional work, and argued for partnership in the planning and delivery of campaigns.
• A regional forum for Intercultural Arts, to involve BME and refugee arts, is being planned and, although support for refugee artists is not currently a priority for the Forum, it played a part in encouraging this development.
• 56 representatives from 40 refugee community organisations on Teesside, Wearside and Tyneside took part in workshops (delivered by the Equalities and Human Rights Commission and Middlesbrough Council) to raise awareness of the Equality Act and to empower their organisations to challenge discrimination.
• The Forum and Newcastle City Council jointly presented findings from the Forum’s work on the economic inclusion of refugees to the 25th Euro Cities Social Affairs Forum conference in Rotterdam.
• As part of a developing partnership with the Universities of Durham, Northumbria, and Teesside, the Forum organised a joint consultation with the universities (part-financed by the Ministry of Justice) on race, crime and justice. The consultation, which involved 30 members from 16 refugee community organizations, fed into a wider piece of work around issues affecting BME communities in the North East and was presented to the Ministry of Justice at an event at Durham University.
• One of the Forum’s strategic aims for the future is to network with the refugee diaspora in Europe. An invitation was secured from the office of Fiona Hall, MEP for the North East, for the Forums’ Trustees to have meetings at the European Parliament and the European Commission, including with the European Council on Refugees and Exiles (ECRE). The Trustees found that NGO s dominated the ECRE and have made suggestions for more effective inclusion of refugee voices.
• Refugees in the North East, who have obtained community development experience and skills, are increasingly interested in taking part in debate on development and aid issues and the Forum is involved in Newcastle City Council’s ‘International Newcastle’ initiative. Refugees are also interested in opportunities to become more actively involved in local politics.
• As part of an exchange programme for civil servants and third sector workers (brokered by the National Council for Voluntary Organisations), the Coordinator spent a day at the Department for Communities and Local Government shadowing a civil servant and meeting heads of departments.

© The Millfield House Foundation 2010. Registered Charity No. 271180.