CSO6 gave the following example of inconsistent service provision between local Jobs and Benefits Offices with regard to English language classes: “ So there’s not a joined-up approach… we have different … attitudes from different geographical areas around approaching the language classes” (CSO 6). CSO8 agreed that consistency could be a problem in the benefits system: “It’s a real hit and miss because some officers, same as some GPs, do it really, really well and some just don’t want to put the effort into doing it really well” (CSO8). As well as variation between services being based on practices at an individual level, CSO5 suggested that the Department for Communities had placed less attention than others on asylum seeker and refugee issues: “[The] Department for Communities would also have, like, overarching responsibility to be dealing with things like poverty and exclusion and all of that. And communities just do not want to touch this at all, like, they don’t… they just actually even don’t really want to acknowledge they have any W1, W2 and W3 participants highlighted the general lack of trauma informed capacity for services working with asylum seekers and refugees. There were areas of good practice, with the Belfast Health and Social Care Trust highlighted as a leader in this area. PB3 commented: “I do feel that there’s a lack of probably trauma-informed practice consistently through public services” (PB3). PB3 noted that it was important that trauma- informed approaches were rolled out not only to specialist teams but everyone in an organisation especially at the frontline, where asylum seekers and refugees were first coming in contact with public services: “trauma-informed training, that needs to be from our receptionists right through to our directors and…it needs to touch everybody… ” (PB3). The need for trauma informed approaches was not only in relation to public services but also in the community and voluntary sector. In the healthcare context, there was a perceived need to develop services from focusing on development trauma to the kind of situational trauma more likely to be experienced by asylum seekers and refugees: “… a lot of our systems for, our current, or our non-asylum-seeking population are geared towards developmental trauma, whereas it’s a slightly different, kind of, range” (PB8). responsibility at all with this group” (CSO5). Lack of trauma informed service provision CSO8 pointed out that while trauma informed approaches were welcome, there was a danger that trauma could be used as an excuse not to provide other services. They gave the following example: “I’ve seen sometimes services maybe saying, ‘oh, but this child as experienced a lot of trauma, do you know, we don’t need to put a referral for autism or for learning difficulty services because they’ve been through trauma’. So, I think sometimes that’s nearly being used as like an excuse to not put in referrals” (CSO8).
Lack of consistency in service provision W3 participants noted that pressure on public resources was a key barrier that affected the ability of people to access public services, with resources also distributed unevenly across Northern Ireland. Often there was some additional capacity (for example in housing, schools, GPs) but this was not in areas that asylum seekers and refugees wished to move to. Asylum seekers and refugees often had established provision and cultural connections in Belfast, meaning that individuals often sought to stay in Belfast culminating in excess demand and pressure points in addition to the demand from the local population. W3 participants highlighted the Northern Ireland New Entrant Service (NINES) as an example of good practice which involved a wrap around, one stop approach which included specialist screening. However, only the Belfast Health and Social Care Trust and the Southern Health and Social Care Trust currently offered this service. Another example of access to service and treatment varying within Trusts and across Northern Ireland was the availability of a ‘cultural liaison midwife’ in the Belfast Health and Social Care Trust – other trusts did not have this specialist role. PB3 pointed out that there could be a lack of consistency between health and social care trusts with “really good pieces of work going on in pockets around the region” but “it’s not consistent in each trust area, which is difficult” (PB3). CSO8 commented that good practice often came down to individual members of staff going above and beyond: “the examples of good practice are when individual practitioners, individual teachers, individual social workers, GPs go the extra mile…” (CSO8). W1 participants said that most of the drive to improve delivery in public bodies was being pushed by a very small number of people who were working very hard and were at risk of being burnt out, with nobody to replace them should they move on. Public service staff were being forced to be “creative” often with little support and to find “work arounds” to existing policy in order to find solutions to help asylum seekers and refugees. This was not a sustainable approach. CSO5 commented in similar terms about staff going “above and beyond” but ultimately being thwarted by wider systems: “… the systems aren’t in place to facilitate that. It’s almost, kind of, what an individual will raise their head above the parapet and do on behalf of somebody else” (CSO5).
Final report of the of Ombudspersons and the Protection of Refugees and Asylum Seekers (OPRAS) project | 25
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