Unaccompanied children
Children and young people under the age of 18 who arrive in Scotland without parents or guardians are defined as unaccompanied asylum seeking children (UAS children).
Asylum is a matter reserved to the UK Government. Many of the services, which are essential to supporting UAS children to settle into communities, are devolved and are the responsibility of the Scottish Government and Scottish local authorities. This includes health, education and accommodation.
UAS children are the responsibility of the local authority in which they are found and require to be accommodated and supported under section 25 of the Children (Scotland) Act 1995. They are entitled, as any other child, to the full range of supports that can be made available to children under this and associated legislation and provisions.
We are working with COSLA and the UK Government to deliver the National Transfer Scheme (NTS). The NTS is a mechanism that enables the safe transfer of UAS children between local authorities. The scheme operates on a rota basis and enables the safe dispersal of UASC across the UK and was mandated in November 2021.
Guardianship Scotland
Unaccompanied asylum seeking children (UAS children) arriving in Scotland may have been a victim of, or may be vulnerable to becoming a victim of, human trafficking. It is often difficult to establish directly if an unaccompanied child presenting in Scotland has been a victim of trafficking.
The statutory Independent Child Trafficking Guardian (ICTG) service, Guardianship Scotland, launched April 2023 as set out in our Programme for Government 2021 to 2022.
Guardianship Scotland provides specialist support to unaccompanied asylum seeking children, such as:
- Accompanying children and young people when they claim asylum or are trafficked and are cared for by health, education and welfare services.
- Helping a child or young person to be actively involved in decisions that affect their life and to get the help they need, when they need it.
- Supporting professionals working with a child or young person to provide them with expert advice and guidance.
More information on Guardianship Scotland is available on their website.
Age dispute and age assessment
Local authorities should use the Age assessment practice guidance. It provides good practice guidance to support social workers, their managers and others in undertaking and contributing to age assessments in Scotland.
The Human Trafficking and Exploitation (Scotland) Act 2015 requires relevant authorities to presume that a victim of human trafficking is a child in any circumstance where their age is uncertain, when there are reasonable grounds to believe that they are under 18 years of age.
In these circumstances the victim is presumed to be a child for the purpose of receiving immediate age-appropriate support and services until their age is formally established.