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WEBINAR: The Role of the Social Service Workforce in Supporting Children on the Move – A European perspective

Tuesday, October 22, 2019

View the full recording and download the presentations.

With an estimated 50 million children on the move worldwide, migration is seen as a key challenge within the European Union (EU). Some 40% of Europeans consider immigration to be one of the two most important issues facing the EU. Of particular concern is the increase in the number of child refugees in the last ten years and the number of migrant deaths, including an estimated 700 child deaths in 2016 on the Central Mediterranean route.    

This webinar will offer an introduction the European context, the ground-breaking work of Safe Passage, which combines operational delivery, litigation, and political advocacy to help unaccompanied children access safe legal routes to asylum, and the support children on the move receive once they arrive in England as their final destination. Through the webinar the skills needed by social service professionals in working with children on the move will be highlighted.

Speakers:

Katy Tolman, Social Worker, Children and Families Across Borders
Katy is a HCPC registered qualified social worker, graduating with an Master's Degree in Social Work from the University of Manchester, UK. She has worked in UK Statutory Children’s services with unaccompanied asylum seeking children in care, kinship foster carers, and privately fostered children, as well as having experience of Court social work for private family law. She has worked in various roles with people who are seeking asylum or have refugee status, as well as with people who are survivors of torture. Katy joined CFAB in February 2019 and leads the Post-Placement Support Project for families reunited under the Dublin III regulation. 

Laura Griffiths, Head of Programmes and Casework, Safe Passage
Laura a co-founder and the Head of Programmes for Safe Passage International. She spent 1.5 years working in Calais to operationalise the Dublin III family reunion route and Dubs and developing Safe Passage’s work across Europe. Laura has worked in previous roles to support internally displaced people and refugees in Turkey and India. She is a qualified community mediator and completed a Master's Degree in International Peace studies from the UN University For Peace in Costa Rica. 

Stefania Tomasini, Caseworker, Safe Passage
Stefania has been working for the last 10 years as a children’s adviser and caseworker with unaccompanied minors seeking asylum in Italy and in the UK for organisations as the British Refugee Council and The Children’s Society. She has acted as a Responsible Adult, Independent Observer and Litigation Friend with the Home Office, Immigration Tribunals and Local Authorities children’s services. She has recently joined the Safe Passage team in Greece. She provides one-to-one casework support and advocacy, advising young people on the asylum process and Dublin family reunification process in Greece, in close collaboration with Safe Passage legal capacity, ensuring that young people are able to access their full rights and entitlements. 

Moderator:

Carolyn Housman, CEO, Children and Families Across Borders (CFAB)
Carolyn leads CFAB, the only UK charity with a children’s international social work team, and the UK’s only member of the International Social Service network. CFAB alerts social services and professionally assesses long-term care options for children in the UK and over 120 countries. She is also the Chair of the Cross Border Child Safeguarding Working Group, sits on the Kinship Care Alliance, the BME Migrant Advisory Group and is a Steering Committee member of the Global Social Service Workforce Alliance. She has previous experience at Amnesty International, the International Centre for Migration Policy Development and the Washington Office on Latin America as well as for the UK and American governments.