Refugees - How will our finances cope?

Imagine wanting to send your child to a school that would turn away vulnerable traumatised children.

JaneJudge

Children pick up foreign language really quickly and there are already courses both online and in colleges that teach English as a second language.

As everyone else is enjoying a good game of whataboutery, our village school will close unless we get more pupils

I can't for the life of me understand how the relatively small number of refugees this country will take will make any difference at all.

If you want to be angry, be angry at our wasteful government not people who cannot help themselves.

Good post !
Children do pick up languages very quickly.

Some say charity begins at home. Well yes, but it doesn’t have to stop there.

And haven’t the government promised Councils £10k anyway towards schooling & healthcare for each Ukrainian family who reside in the borough? Seems fair to me.

I'm not sure how the fee paying parents would feel about free places being offered to host children and refugees.
Private schools should offer free places to any families at the school who have chosen to accommodate refugee children Marmadroit. They have a moral duty as a charity.

Can those fee paying schools offer free places to all the kids who might benefit from them as well? We could have a system whereby everybody gets the education that they need, not dependent on how much money mum and dad have.

Oh, wait....

Who would win in a fight? the feelings of the fee paying parents or the feelings of child refugees fleeing a war torn country?

Some of the comments on this thread are amazingly crass, even for Gransnet

Galaxy

Imagine wanting to send your child to a school that would turn away vulnerable traumatised children.

The schools won't turn them away! But once schools are full children will be transported out of their home village because it's full. It's already happening even before the Ukrainian families come.

Yes I know it's the greedy developers and local councilors who are to blame, but none of this helps the families who already struggle. Libraries have closed, banks have closed, public transport is all but none existent. Even if parents have cars (not all do) the price of fuel will make transporting children to a school miles away very difficult.

I can only reflect on the Syrian refugees who have settled here in the middle of Scotland as our Council pulled out all the stops to welcome them, as did the local communities. The children went to the local primary schools and my DGS was a mentor for one of them in his class. Now at secondary school , they remain friends and he reports that she is doing very well at school and is totally fluent in English with the same accent as the local folks.

Meanwhile the adult refugees appear to be all working or stay at home mums. We have gained a Syrian bakery, a restaurant/take away serving delicious food and a barbers, taking up empty shops in the High street. Some of the local people were quite concerned about their arrival, in particular about the shortage of Council Housing. There was a small new build Council estate ready for letting. but the Council sensibly allocated these homes to locals already on the waiting list and housed the refugees in the scattered houses that these tenants vacated. This was because they did not want to create a 'Ghetto', with all the Syrians housed together.

Finally under the government scheme the Council received funding to provide one new Council House per each refugee family. These houses have now been built and added to the Council's stock. Some of the Syrians are now in a position to buy their own houses, meaning that even more Council Houses are available for rent.

The local authority has a duty of care under law to transport children to school who do not get a place at their catchment school. There are specific laws and guidelines regarding pavements and miles to school too wrt school transport.

I cut ans pasted this off the government website

Free school transport
Children of compulsory school age qualify for free school transport if they go to their nearest suitable school and any of the following apply:

the school is more than 2 miles away and the child is under 8
the school is more than 3 miles away and the child is 8 or over
there’s no safe walking route between their home and school
they cannot walk there because of their special educational needs or disabilities or a mobility problem
If your child does not qualify for free school transport for these reasons, they may still qualify if you have a low family income.

Find out more about applying for free school transport from your local council.

If your child is 16 or over and still in education, ask your local council if they offer any help with transport.

If you have a low family income
If your child does not qualify for free school transport for another reason, they may be eligible if either:

they are entitled to free school meals
you get the maximum Working Tax Credit
Your child will get free school transport if they’re:

aged 8 to 11, go to their nearest school and it’s at least 2 miles away
aged 11 to 16 and go to a school 2 to 6 miles away - if it’s one of their 3 nearest suitable schools
aged 11 to 16 and go to a school 2 to 15 miles away - if it’s one you chose because of your religion or belief
Find out more about applying for free school transport from your local council.

Granny23 that sounds like a complete success for everyone. Thanks for posting such an uplifting story.

What a heartwarming post Granny23. I nearly scrolled past this thread as the title sounded mean minded.

Mamardoit

volver

Gelleh

Companies like Bupa, and Aviva should offer free private health care to any household accommodating refugees. That would be a start.

No Gelleh, because that would be weird.

You don't get preferential healthcare just because you're kind hearted. Any more than you should miss out on it because you have a small home.

Yes agree this would be unfair. It's not just healthcare that will be affected. How about the schools. Around us the primary schools are all full to bursting already with children from the new build estates. They can't cope with another influx of children. I'm not sure how the fee paying parents would feel about free places being offered to host children and refugees.

Of course the state schools will just have to cope with the traumatised children who speak little/no english. I worry about the just managing families we have already. Space will be made at the local schools because the refugee children's immediate needs are greater. This will mean other children will be taxied out to other areas. These will 4/5 year olds not getting places at their local primary, or families with siblings at primary schools miles apart.

Why do you worry about this so much, Marmadoit? We have seen what a country - not one as rich as ours has been - can do if it's determined. What makes you think we will not cope.

Who would you hold responsible if the country does not act in everyone's interest, I wonder?

I worry because my grandchildren (siblings) are already split between primaries miles apart. Any extra pupils in this area will cause much more of this.

Yes the council are obliged to 'sort it'. See someone's copy and paste above. How many on here would rather send a four year old off to school in a taxi (not always the same driver), or walk them down the road to school.

Who do I blame? Probably Mrs T was the start of most of what is wrong. Selling off council homes and not replacing them, selling off the utilities, maybe back then they should have invested in nuclear power too.

Sorry if that's bit garbled. I really can't grans net and mind DGC who wants to make cake.

Mine had transport to school, including from 4 years old. They always had the same driver and escort apart from on rare occasions - all are DBS checked and trained. All mine were all at different schools at one point! I had no family to rely on, so this was how it was. They made friends with the other children in the taxi/bus. It was not really hardship.

Its good that some posters on this thread are asking the hard questions, such as where are the money and resources to come from, given that we are probably on the edge of a worse recession than that of 2008.

Better than sinking into a miasma of mawkish sentimentality prompted by the romance of taking in refugees.

If you want to be angry, be angry at our wasteful government not people who cannot help themselves.

This, exactly.

Granny23, what a lovely success story.

I dont think its romantic biglouis. I think its quite hard work. We (I am using the royal we, I mean my husband) have sourced legal advice, language support, housing advice, etc erc for those who may come to our area. He did this after a full days work from a tiny room we have had to concert into an office. If there was romance or sentimentality going on I missed it.

He is the least sentimental man I know. Its why I like him. Sometimes.

Coastpath

Granny23 that sounds like a complete success for everyone. Thanks for posting such an uplifting story.

Just what I thought.
It can be done

biglouis

Its good that some posters on this thread are asking the hard questions, such as where are the money and resources to come from, given that we are probably on the edge of a worse recession than that of 2008.

Better than sinking into a miasma of mawkish sentimentality prompted by the romance of taking in refugees.

What a horrible post,

Before I rip most of your post apart, can I firstly take offence at your accusation of mawkish sentimentality, then I was going to point out that .....you know what, I can't be bothered, I don't need to justify myself to people like you

Lucca

Coastpath

Granny23 that sounds like a complete success for everyone. Thanks for posting such an uplifting story.

Just what I thought.
It can be done

Yes of course it can be done. It has been done many times. My home city is Leicester and I well remember the early 1970s and the influx of Ugandan Asians to the city. That and later people from eastern Europe has made it one of the most diverse cities in the UK second only to London? That is good in many ways, but surely anyone can see that there was an impact on poorer host communities. It may be just short term but school places cannot just be magicked up out of thin air. And there is bound to be an impact on the NHS too.

I'm not against these people coming because the chances are most will want to go home anyway. Of course everyone instinct is to want to help.

* JaneJudge
Mine had transport to school, including from 4 years old. They always had the same driver and escort apart from on rare occasions - all are DBS checked and trained. All mine were all at different schools at one point! I had no family to rely on, so this was how it was. They made friends with the other children in the taxi/bus. It was not really hardship.*

So did mine all on double decker buses with the driver the only adult. For mine it was only from 11 and maybe it could be called 'character building' or simply survival of the fittest. There is no alternative for rural children. Not something I want my four year old DGC to go through thanks very much.

‘Mawkish sentimentality’
concerns about ‘fit young men arriving in rubber dinghies’

It’s a relief these mean minded posters don’t dominate threads like this. Most of us want to help refugees, fleeing war torn countries. Including young men, women and children who arrive in rubber dinghies

We are a rich country, our public services including the NHS have been deliberately run down by 12 years of Tory misrule

Actually I am more worried about the impact we might have on those coming from Ukraine rather than the other way round. The safeguarding risks for in particular women and children are a bit of a worry.