Learning & Refugee Families (LARF)

The Learning and Refugee Families (LARF) project is funded by the European Refugee Fund.  The National Institute of Adult Continuing Education (NIACE) is working with Hertfordshire County Council and the Refugee Women's Association. 

 The project background:

• Children from refugee families where the parents speak very little English are starting school at a disadvantage. Hertfordshire County Council has identified 300 refugee families in Hertfordshire who are not accessing adult learning and where the children are likely to be in this situation.
• There is a national shortage of foster carers and in particular, foster carers from a BME background.

 The LARF project aims to:

• Develop and deliver family learning provision for refugee women and their children
• Provide information, advice and guidance to refugee women who wish to become foster carers.

 To achieve these aims, the LARF partners have the following objectives:

• Set up family learning courses with language support for 50 refugee women and their children in Hertfordshire
• Develop a model of family learning and language support which can be used with other refugee women and children
• Promote fostering as a career opportunity to 50 refugee women
• Identify 20 refugee women who wish to become foster carers
• In partnership with Local Authorities and the British Association of Adoption and Fostering (BAAF), offer these 20 women information, advice and guidance (IAG) and signpost them to initial assessment and Local Authority training for foster carers, offering language support as appropriate.

The LARF project will:

• Map the language needs of women and children in Hertfordshire;
• Set up and deliver Family Learning provision for 50 women refugee women and their children; and
• Develop Family Learning and Language support resources.

The LARF project will also work in London to raise awareness of fostering as an opportunity for refugee women and identify and support 20 refugee women who wish to become foster carers.  The project will offer appropriate information, advice and support and signpost refugee women to the local authority or fostering services for further support and foster care training.

The primary target groups are:

• Refugee women who have been granted refugee status or humanitarian protection and their children.

 The project will also benefit:

• Family learning practitioners, who will use the newly developed family learning and language support resources;
• Practitioners in Looked After Children's provision, who will be able to access guidance for recruiting refugee women as foster carers
• Refugee families and the wider refugee community

 The LARF project runs for 3 years from 01/07/2010.

The yearly outputs of the project are:

Year 1

• Scoping paper mapping the language needs of refugee families in Hertfordshire.
• Two family learning courses with language support set up for 16 refugee women in Hertfordshire.
• Draft family learning and language support resources developed for refugee women and families.
• Mapping activity to identify refugee women interested in becoming foster carers completed.

 Year 2

• Four family learning courses with language support set up for 34 refugee women in Hertfordshire.
• Draft family learning and language support resources for refugee families tested.
• Information event for 50 refugee women who wish to become foster carers held.
• Twenty refugee women receive ESOL and IAG support and register with local authorities to become foster carers.

 Year 3

• Family learning and language support resources for refugee families finalised and published.
• Dissemination event held to publicise key findings and lessons learned.

This year the Scheme of Work will be piloted alongside the list of resources. The project will also be recruiting and supporting Refugee women who wish to become foster Caerers and offering family learning opportunities to Refugee families.

To date the project has enjoyed a productive first year, producing a Scheme of Work and a list of resources for practitioners in family learning. A Briefing Paper, aimed at Local Authorities and other Foster Care and Adoption Agencies has also been produced looking at how these organisations can successfully engage Refugee women as Foster Carers.

The work of the project continues to be supported by an Advisory Group of experts in family learning, fostering, refugee integration and ESOL.  The advisory group has representatives of BAAF (British Association for Adoption and Fostering), the Fostering Network, Croydon Adult Learning and Training and NATECLA (National Association for Teaching English and other Community Languages to Adults) and research specialists from the University of York and University of London.

The impact of this project on refugee women will be improved English language and other skills that will support their integration.  The improved confidence in communicating with their child's school and understand of the school system in England will result in refugee children making better progress in school and fulfilling their potential. 

The refugee women who become foster carers will have employment, whilst the local authorities will have an increased, more diverse pool of foster families in which to place children, including unaccompanied asylum seeking children. 

The project is working mainly in Hertfordshire and London but resources developed by the project will be relevant for family learning provision and local authorities across the country.  In addition to ongoing dissemination, the newly developed materials and resources will be launched at a special dissemination event in June 2013.  The project outputs will be sustainable as each local authority will be better equipped to support refugee families and refugee children coming into their care and each will be able to incorporate elements of the pack into their foster care training and induction programmes.

Ama Dixon                                                                                                                                                NIACE
21 De Montfort Street
Leicester
LE1 7GE

Tel:  07826 952274
ama.dixon@niace.org.uk

Chris Taylor
NIACE
21 De Montfort Street
Leicester
LE1 7GE

Tel: 0116 204 4267
chris.taylor@niace.org.uk