6. Statement by the Minister for Social Justice: Update on Ukraine

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 5:02 pm on 25 October 2022.

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Photo of Jane Hutt Jane Hutt Labour 5:02, 25 October 2022

Diolch yn fawr, Sioned Williams, and thank you for those important questions. I think that, what I'm signaling, I suppose, is that we're working with not only our Ukrainian guests but our local authority partners to find a way in which we can ensure that we can provide that initial support through our supersponsor scheme in our welcome centres across Wales, and, also, help them with their engagement, because this is about working together in collaboration to move, as you say, in an appropriate way to enable them to move forward into more independent living.

So, some of our guests who come, they've said, 'Can we contribute?', because they see that there's been this welcome. They've come, they haven't had to be matched—they've literally come and they've been welcomed into a welcome centre or, indeed, other temporary initial accommodation, and they're saying, 'We want to become independent'. If, of course, they then get into work, into jobs, they're using their skills and, also, beginning then—because we have every agency at hand to help them access benefits like universal credit, they are willing and wish to make a contribution. But, also, we consider the fact that they would, perhaps, prefer to be more self-catering in terms of diet and access to appropriate food and provision for their lives, rather than, perhaps, depending on a set arrangement or a menu that has been provided in a welcome centre.

Of course, when we started along this route, and that's why we work very closely with our Scottish Government colleagues, we were supersponsors to provide that welcome, that wraparound support. That includes the support that, obviously, is crucial, in assessing health needs, educational needs of the children, and I've talked about access to benefits and also to skills and jobs. So, you know that, through our website and through our work, we have free personalised careers advice, coaching and employment support from Working Wales for every—of course, they come to every welcome centre, so people are encouraged and supported into work.

Many of our Ukrainian guests have independently moved on, but there's a real pressure in terms of availability of housing, in terms of that move-on opportunity. So, we want to avert any threat of homelessness—we want to avert that. We know that every Ukrainian guest who comes through the supersponsor route, or, indeed, supporting hosts, and funding—substantially funding Housing Justice Cymru, Asylum Justice Cymru, the Welsh Refugee Council and the British Red Cross to ensure that they're all engaged in supporting the refugees who are either with hosts or in our welcome centres.

What I would say is to thank you for your recognition that we need to have a response from the UK Government, not just in terms of the £350, and lifting that up for hosts, but also the fact that we've called on them to give more support for discretionary housing payments and for local housing allowances, so that local authorities can use their discretion to help people move on into the private rented sector. Indeed, as I've mentioned, this letter from refugee charities in England, they are actually saying help refugee families find homes—this is the letter to the Prime Minister—a rental scheme for refugees arriving through a Government-backed scheme. Of course, local authorities are using their discretion, their powers, in order to try and help people get into long-term accommodation.