Refugees and asylum seekers are among the most marginalised people in the UK. They endured unbearable circumstances that compelled them to flee and seek protection in another state, however, the UK’s operant ‘hostile environment’ polices make life as difficult as possible for them upon their arrival. It is internationally recognised that high quality early childhood education can help alleviate adverse childhood experiences, however refugees and asylum seekers face a number of barriers when trying to access early childhood provision for their young children. The Covid-19 pandemic exacerbated pre-existing barriers to accessing early childhood provision and created additional challenges. Fortunately, schools and local organisations were proactive in their response to the Covid-19 and its impacts on refugee and asylum-seeking families. This report identifies the barriers asylum-seeking and refugee families faced in accessing early childhood education, and describes the solutions schools and local organisations proactively came up with to overcome such barriers.
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It is widely recognised that a strong foundation in the Early Years leads to improved child development and learning, increases attainment and outcomes, and helps protect against subsequent social and economic disadvantage (Papatheodorou, 2012). In parallel, Vandekerckhove and Aarssem (2020) identify a range of barriers young asylum-seeking and refugee children face in accessing early childhood education and care, and point to the lack of specific policies to address these challenges. The coronavirus pandemic has further exacerbated pre-existing barriers, and created additional ones, having had a disproportionately negative impact on asylum-seeking and refugee children.
During the Covid-19 pandemic, nurseries closed briefly for a few months during the first wave of infections, but then they were open again for children under the age of 4. As such, families whose only children were under the age of 4 during the pandemic were the least affected by the national lock downs. However, schools closed from March 2020 till September 2020, then again in January 2021 till March 2021, meaning that children who were enrolled at school, in reception (age 4-5) or above, were educated at home. Schools did remain open to children of critical workers and vulnerable pupils. Many refugee and asylum-seeking families are vulnerable, and therefore their children could have attended school, however, schools and families explained that many eligible families preferred not to take this options as there was concern about sending children to school as they did not want them to contract Covid-19. Thus, the question of how to provide high-quality education to children who were not attending schools was a significant challenge throughout periods of national lockdown.
This report presents the finding from a year-long research project that aimed to uncover the barriers that asylum seeking and refugee children experienced in accessing education during the Covid-19 pandemic, and to identify the ways in which different professionals have worked towards supporting children and their families. In order to achieve these aims, interviews were held with staff from eight different organisations, head teachers from three primary schools and members of eleven asylum- seeking and refugee families with children under the age of eight.
The findings indicate that digital inclusion is a key component of successful support, underpinning all areas of access to education. Furthermore, strong relationships between families, organisations and schools were essential in supporting young children’s education. An additional important finding was that local organisations were particularly well positioned to be able to respond to the diverse range of needs as they are smaller and, typically, can make decisions at a faster pace than larger, statutory services with fixed remits. As such, local organisations formed an essential layer of support that filled in the gaps between support provided by statutory services.
This project was funded by Sheffield Hallam University
Special thanks to the families, schools and following organisations for their contributions to the report:
Family Voice
City of Sanctuary Sheffield
New Beginnings Project
Learn for Life
Health Inclusion Team
Refugee Council
The Good Things Foundation