Officials at the Department for Education have had numerous and repeated meetings this year with the radical arm of a pro-migration charity. These meetings included discussions over taxpayer funding…
The meetings took part with the Schools of Sanctuary Network, which is part of the City of Sanctuary organisation. Schools can sign up the the network by signing up to the City of Sanctuary ‘Charter‘. The organisation’s aims and beliefs are, as spelled out in official documents:
- “Promoting the counter-narrative to negative rhetoric and celebrating the contribution of people seeking sanctuary.”
- “To promote the embedding of a culture and practice of welcome in local authorities.”
- “Facilitating and inspiring more people to become involved in promoting welcome, which builds public support for policy and practice changes.”
- “Advancing the education and training of people who are refugees or asylum seekers.”
- “A fairer, faster and more efficient system to decide whether people will be granted protection.”
- “Current policy and legislation is actively creating a hostile environment, a very real barrier to our vision.”
- “People can seek safety in the UK, no matter how they came here.”
Schools of Sanctuary drew criticism over the summer after it was revealed that schoolchildren as young as five in Birmingham had been tasked with writing Valentine’s Day cards for asylum seekers. The organisation complained on its website that this was a “a simple act of welcome”…
Since Labour came to power, Guido’s FoI Unit can reveal Department for Education officials have met with the Schools of Sanctuary on three occasions, all this year. On 23 January, 12 February, and 22 August…
After the first meeting in February DfE staff wrote up the points raised. One included: “It would be useful for the curriculum to include something about the experience of asylum seeker children to help avert the ugly scenes of summer 2024.“ At a second meeting in February a DfE official noted:
“I asked how any hypothetical funding could support charities like theirs… The programme manager said that around £45k per year would pay for another full time member of staff and help expand the network from around 50 areas to 75-80 areas, as well as potentially supporting FE colleges.”
At a third meeting in August this year government officials discussed the ongoing work of the organisation in “challenging misinformation” and its efforts promoting how to “Speak up for sanctuary,” including subsections on “How to talk about asylum” and “How to explain to parents and others about taking on asylum children.” It was noted at this meeting that the organisation “would need more capacity to grow” and the matter of government funding was raised again…
