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.
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.
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.
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.
We provide in-person and webinar-based age assessment training for local authorities throughout the UK, helping them grow capacity and undertake case law-compliant age assessments.
Our specialist social workers undertake Merton compliant age assessments, ensuring human rights and statutory responsibilities are upheld, and providing protection from potential litigation.
We support local authorities, charities, and legal teams to ensure compliance while completing age assessments and improve provision for unaccompanied asylum-seeking children.
