Shropshire Council’s response to the refugees from the Syria crisis

Shropshire Council’s Cabinet met informally today (Wednesday 9 September 2015) and, amongst other things, our response to the refugees from the Syria Crisis was discussed.　

Cabinet members were unanimous that the UK and Shropshire should do what we can to help. It was recognised that individuals and communities are already organising themselves to provide aid, and we thoroughly endorse and support this.

Refugees are not a new phenomenon, and we anticipate that there will be helpful records and evidence on how to deliver maximum benefits to refugees. The council’s Public Health Forum has been asked to record how best to support refugees based on previous experience.

As has previously been stated, an officer within the council now has full-time responsibility to co-ordinate our efforts and communicate with voluntary support and aid. This will also provide a crucial Shropshire link into the Government and regional agencies. Partner agencies such as health, Department for Work and Pensions, police and the fire service have now also nominated staff to support this group. The group will gather information, formulate a plan and identify costs ready for implementation.　

The Cabinet are also promoting that a cross political party governance group is established to ensure that in Shropshire we focus on how we might best help rather than make a political issue of refugees. So far Opposition Leaders have added their support for this and we hope to achieve assembling this group by the end of this week. Councillor Karen Calder (Cabinet member for health) will lead for the Conservative Administration. Partner agencies and potentially independent people will be invited to be part of this governing group.　

In terms of ‘what will Shropshire do’, the council are keeping all options open. As we have said, we want to be as certain as possible that early good intentions are likely to have good outcomes. We are considering how we can bring refugees to Shropshire – house and support them and, more than this, how the skills refugees will bring can boost our economy. We are also considering if we could be a point of distribution of refugees for other parts of the UK, but it is too early to say if this is feasible. However, it is important that nothing is ruled out at this stage.

Shropshire Council wants to support refugees, and we support the position of the Local Government Association that the Government must fund the aid and support we provide.

Keith Barrow

Leader, Shropshire Council