EG AGE ASSESSMENTS
Why is age important?
Adult asylum seekers and families are entitled to support, including accommodation and essential living needs from the Home Office. By contrast, support for children seeking asylum should be provided by the local authority in which they are physically present.
The exact age of a young person therefore has significant implications to the level and type of care and education they receive. Young people judged to be adults may miss out on vital support and protection they are entitled to as children under UK law.
Why is it difficult to establish the age of many children and young people?
However, a young person may not know their date of birth, may look and act older than they are, or may be traumatised and/or illiterate and therefore unable to provide information in a coherent manner. It is important age assessments are undertaken only when necessary and should not be a routine part of a local authority’s assessment of unaccompanied or trafficked children.
Who can complete an age assessment?
Age assessments must be conducted by experienced, trained social workers and all the safeguards to ensure fairness must be in place. If the decision-maker is left in doubt, the claimant should receive the benefit of that doubt. A young person has a right to be accompanied during the assessment by an appropriate adult
What is assessment age?
Age assessments generally refer to any social work assessments used to establish an individual’s chronological age. The age from the day that person was born.
Or as the European Commission states – Process by which authorities seek to establish the chronological age, or range of age, of a person in order to determine whether an individual is a child or not.
