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) worked in partnership 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 aimed 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 had the following objectives:

• Set up bespoke family learning with language support for 34 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 other fostering agencies 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 has:

• Mapped the language needs of women and children in Hertfordshire;
• Set up and deliver Family Learning and support for 50 women refugee women and their children
• Develop Family Learning and Language support resources
• Developed and delivered ESOL for Fostering to 20 refigee women in London

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 ran for 2 years from 01/07/2010 - 30/06/2012

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

• 34 refugee women access family learning and support in Hertfordshire.
• Family learning and language support resources and a scheme of work for refugee families developed.
• 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.
• A briefing paper for local authorities and other fostering and adoption agencies on engaging refugees as foster carers

The resources developed through the porject will be disseminated through our local, regional and national networks.

They will also be available from the NIACE website.

The LARF project ended on 30th June 2012 with thte following outputs:

29 refugee women living in Hertfordshire accessed family learning and support

 A Scheme of Work for family learning practitioners to use with refiugee families

A list of resources for practitioners in family learning has been developed and tested with family learning practitioners.

A Briefing Paper - Engaging refugees as foster carers - aimed at Local Authorities and other Foster Care and Adoption Agencies has also been produced

2 information and awareness raising events for refugee women interested in foster caring

ESOL for Fostering course developed and delivered to 20 refugee women in London

Documents
	The paper looks at how these agencies can engage refugees as foster carers
	This is a list of family learning resources for practitioners supporting families with young children
	The scheme of work can be used by FL practitioners working with marginalised families
	These cards support the scheme of work
	A brief explanation of the ORIM framework
	Briefing paper on engaging refugees as foster carers
	Cards to be used during the session on volunteering from the scheme of work
	Prompts to support role play activity from scheme of work
	Case study from refugee woman who recived family learning and support through LARF
	Case study from refugee woman who recived family learning and support through LARF

(A) Group sessions of family learning not appropriate for Refugee women in Hertfordshire because:

• Refugee families are dispersed across the county and many rely on (limited) public transportation; there were no central venues which all of our learners could access.
• There are far fewer refugee women living in Hertfordshire than originally envisaged; this hindered our efforts to recruit and engage up to 50 women.

(B) Family learning is an effective way of engaging newly arrived refugee families and the refugee women engaged in the project were able to:

• Improve their relationships with their children's school
• Better support their children at home and in school 
• Identify and access other learning opportunities
• Better navigate the system of social and public services
• Build social relationships and reduce isolation.

(C) Cross sector working presented a unique set of challenges:

• Foster care is managed and delivered in a variety of formats dependant on the local authority or foster care agency; there is no 'one size fits all'
• Partners have varying degrees of knowledge and expertise which can be challenging especially for new partnerships
• Local authorities struggled with the logistics of employing people without some form of permanent resident status, such as Indefinite Leave to Remain or British Citizenship; this hampered our efforts to find agencies that would engage with the project
• The complexities of different immigration status and the related rights and entitlements hindered our progress with learners; this was compounded by the restricted definition of 'refugee' as defined in  the ERF eligibility criteria which meant that many  refugee women and their families were not eligible for this project.

• Refugee women are more aware of family learning provision in Hertfordshire
• Refugee communities and organisations are more aware of adult learning provision in Hertfordshire
• Refugee communities and organisations are more aware of opportunities in foster care
• Local Authorities and other fostering agencies are more aware of the eligibility and suitability of refugee women to become foster carers
• Family learning practitioners have access to good quality, relevant learning resources and materials for refugee families.

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