Council blames ‘unfair and unsustainable’ UASC system after Ofsted downgrade

Kent County Council (KCC) has renewed calls for urgent government action over what it describes as unsustainable pressures on children’s services linked to large numbers of unaccompanied asylum-seeking (UAS) young people remaining in care into adulthood.

The warning follows Ofsted’s latest inspection, which rated the council’s children’s services as Good overall, with Outstanding provision for children in care. However, the authority’s care leavers service was judged to Require Improvement — a finding council leaders dispute, arguing it fails to reflect the unique pressures Kent faces.

Kent has been the main entry point for unaccompanied asylum-seeking children arriving in the UK for nearly two decades. While reforms to the National Transfer Scheme (NTS) now see most new arrivals quickly moved to other local authorities, the council remains responsible for thousands of “legacy” young people who arrived when the scheme was ineffective.

Between 2016 and 2025 alone, around 12,000 unaccompanied children entered Kent’s care — three times the number seen in the previous decade. Many are now care leavers and remain entitled to support until the age of 25.

Delays in asylum decisions, limited family networks and high housing costs mean large numbers continue to rely on local authority support for extended periods. Crucially, councils receive no government funding for UAS care leavers once they turn 21, creating what Kent says is a financial burden unmatched elsewhere in the country.

The council is also under pressure from out-of-area placements, currently hosting around 1,300 looked-after children placed by other authorities, more than half from London, increasing demand on schools, health services and social care.

KCC is calling on government to speed up asylum processing, reform the care leaver funding formula to reflect long-term responsibilities, improve accommodation and registration support for care leavers, develop a sustainable national model for unaccompanied children, and take stronger action against councils that place looked-after children outside their area.

Council leader Linden Kemkaran said the current system was “neither fair nor sustainable”.

“Kent has always stepped up to support vulnerable children and young people, but the pressures we are facing today go far beyond what any local authority can manage alone,” she said.

“We are carrying responsibilities on behalf of the entire country, and the current system is simply not fair nor sustainable.

“This perfect storm of continued huge volumes of UAS children, the complexity of immigration processing and the National Transfer Scheme, and high housing costs leaves us with substantial unfunded deficits which become a huge burden on the Kent taxpayer.”

She added that she had written to ministers seeking an urgent meeting to agree a long-term solution, warning that “children’s lives are too important to play politics with”.

Chris Palmer, KCC’s cabinet member for integrated children’s services, praised frontline staff while stressing the lasting impact of earlier system failures.

“While we welcome recent improvements to the Government’s National Transfer Scheme, Kent is still dealing with the long-term consequences of the period when the system failed,” she said.

“The large and rising number of out-of-county children placed here also makes it increasingly difficult for us to provide timely support for Kent children who need our help.”

However, opposition councillors have challenged the leadership’s framing of the crisis.

Richard Streatfeild, deputy leader of the Liberal Democrat opposition, told the BBC however that the council had long known the pressure was coming.

“This is a smoke screen for failure to be a good corporate parent by Reform,” he said.

"We've known this problem is going to arrive because it arrived, as was demonstrated very aptly by the leader, over 10 years ago, and has been working its way slowly through this, through the system, and now we are faced with a particular bulge."