Supporting separated migrant children to thrive during COVID-19

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Almost 14,000 separated migrant children (SMC) applied for asylum in the EU in 2019 (Eurostat 2019). Without parents/caregivers close by, their connections to support networks, to social work, education and legal services, and to peers are vital. The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on these networks and services poses urgent risks for SMC's well-being and ability to thrive, socially and educationally in the UK.The project aims to examine how SMC (aged 12 -18) experience the COVID-19 crisis and how it has impacted on their connectivity to networks and services. It will identify how services have adapted to meet their needs and will disseminate good practice throughout the UK. An intervention which gives SMC the opportunity to articulate their feelings about this and other crises, while developing English language skills, will be introduced and evaluated. The interdisciplinary research team will adopt a mixed methods design. It combines online interviews with children, their carers, guardians, social workers and teachers; interactional data from the intervention alongside children's blogs/narratives/poetry, and online discussions with stakeholders. Findings will inform the development of an online resource, comprising briefing and working papers and young people's work and commentaries. The project team will work with CoramBAAF (to ensure findings are relevant to others working with SMC in England, Northern Ireland and Wales), Hands Up Foundation (to deliver an arts-based intervention), Scottish Guardianship Service (to support SMC during the project) and Terre des Hommes (to develop the impact of the project Europe-wide). On-going collaboration with these partners and online workshops and conferences will accelerate impact and build resources that will be available to all in order to support work with SMC during the current and future crises.