Local Government Ombudsman criticises Liverpool City Council over asylum-seeker age assessment

The Local Government Ombudsman has found Liverpool City Council guilty of maladministration causing injustice over its failure to follow proper procedures when assessing the age of an asylum-seeker.

The Ombudsman found that the social workers failed to follow long-established guidance when social workers they first assessed the age of an unaccompanied asylum seeking girl. The social workers, the ombudsman said, had not received specific training on conducting age assessments leading them to omit important aspects of an age assessment procedure. Consequently, the council was unable to give adequate reasons for its decision that the child was over 18 and so not entitled to support and services as a child in need.

The Ombudsman found faults in the way that the Council conducted the assessment:

• Miss T’s ethnicity, culture and customs were not a key focus;
• the assessors did not consider whether a medical opinion might have been helpful when Miss T claimed to be under 15 and the assessors thought she could be as old as 23;
• no consideration was given to whether other professional input was needed;
• apparent inconsistencies in Miss T’s story appear to have influenced the judgement without her having the opportunity to clarify matters; and
• the assessors speculated about matters but did not ask Miss T for further information.

Subsequently, the girl was assessed by a different council using the correct procedure and assessed to be 16 years of age, which was later proven to be accurate by official papers obtained from her country of origin. By this time, the child had been without care services for over 15 months, was pregnant and receiving therapy for sexual abuse and having been subjected to witchcraft practices.

The Ombudsman found that Liverpool City Council’s maladministration in the way that it conducted the assessment caused the child the injustice of:

1. Loss of care services that she needed and was entitled to receive; and
2. Stress and uncertainly in making appeals whilst she was a child against decisions to deport her.

Liverpool City Council has agreed to pay the girl £5,000 in recognition of this injustice and to review a sample of 10% of its age assessments of unaccompanied asylum seeking children.

A copy of the Ombudsman's findings can be accessed by clicking here