Liverpool > Advice & Services

Advice & Services

In Liverpool, we provide independent, high quality and impartial advice to refugee and asylum seeking families through our One Stop Shop advice service, which has been awarded the Legal Services Commission Quality Mark. 

This includes advice on accommodation, education and health issues, racial harassment and domestic violence, support difficulties (including difficulties with the National Asylum Support Service) and destitution, community care needs and social services issues. We provide both in-depth advice and signposting and referral services to individuals and agencies.

Key Worker Pilot

Funded by the European Return Fund, Liverpool is piloting a key-worker programme for asylum seekers. 200 randomly selected asylum seekers in the Liverpool area have been met with from the very beginning of their asylum journey to ensure that their support needs are effectively identified and met and that they fully understand the status of their asylum application, the determination processes involved, outcome implications and realistic options at each stage of the asylum process. Its hoped that through meeting with key workers, asylum seekers will be more able make better decisions about their futures, whether that involves better integration, or eventual return, and reduce the emotional and physical stress associated with being in the asylum process.

Training

Our frontline work with asylum seekers and refugees in Liverpool enables us to prove high quality and up-to-date training to external organisations. We have over 8 years experience of providing training for a plethora of organisations such as;

• Citizen's Advice Bureaux
• Youth organisations
• Refugee community organisations
• Jobcentreplus
• Merseyside Police
• Teams of health professionals
• Local PCT's
• Schools, colleges and universities
• Local authority staff

Our training is delivered by highly motivated advice workers, ensuring that each training session is grounded in the real experiences of our clients and the expertise we have gained as one of the leading UK refugee and asylum support agencies. Our training sessions are designed to be engaging and interactive, and are updated constantly in response to changes in legislation and support frameworks for asylum seekers and refugees.

We aim to support agencies by assisting their learning on asylum issues to ensure that their services are accessible and appropriate to asylum seekers and refugees and can provide courses in Refugee and Asylum Awareness, Basic Asylum Advice and Intermediate Asylum Advice. However, if you have specific training needs, we are happy to work in partnership with you to design a bespoke training package that best suits your needs.

To discuss our training in more detail, contact Susan Aitken, susana@refugee-action.org.uk.

Wraparound Advice Service

Our Wraparound Service provides a service supporting newly arrived asylum seekers to access the limited benefits and housing to which they are entitled, and acts as an independent advocate for them. The service is based in initial accommodation provided by Liverpool City Council and Metropolitan Resources and briefs clients about their rights and responsibilities, the asylum process and aspects of life within the UK.

REIS

The Refugee Integration and Employment Service is delivered in Liverpool as part of the North West RIES. The service provides support for refugees in the first year after they get a positive decision to help them access housing, benefits and other mainstream services and to get employment. It is funded by UK Border Agency and started on October 1st 2008. The service comprises of three elements: Advice and Support, Employment and Mentoring.

Advice and Support is provided for 6 months, the principal role of the Case Manager is to ensure that each client has a plan in place, has further sources of further support and has accessed mainstream services.

Employment Caseworkers work with clients for 12 months, they carry out detailed employment assessment and help clients to access other employment support, career plan, prepare a CV, job applications and interview skills and find work experience or volunteer placements.

The Mentoring service works alongside the Advice and Support and Employment services, by matching skilled mentors with refugees, who assist towards independent living.

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