Application process
Considering a family referral
Once approved as a sponsor, you will be sent personal information about a refugee family that you will potentially support. It is critical that you read this information carefully and assess whether your group can accommodate the needs of the family.
Post Arrival Support Visits
As part of your Sponsor Agreement with the Home Office, you will have consented to participate in follow up calls through your first year of support of the family you welcome. These will provide an opportunity to reflect on the support you are offering and to bring up any challenges you may be having. Reset will…
Available sources of funding – key things to do
As you plan your budget you will be looking into how your group will fund the delivery of your resettlement plan. Alongside your fundraising activities, you should consider the other sources of funding that are available to sponsorship groups and to Local Authorities and GPs that provide services to resettled refugee families. You may find…
Carrying out Police Board Consultation
In order to protect the refugee family you will be welcoming from harm, and to ensure their new neighbourhood is safe to live in, the Home Office ask you to have your local police check the area you find accommodation in. Your Safer Neighbourhood Policing Team (or equivalent) will be able to provide a view…
Experts by Experience: registering as a CIC
In order to be approved by the Home Office as a Community Sponsorship group, your application must be made through a registered charity or Community Interest Company (CIC). This Charity, or CIC, is known as a Lead Sponsor. In some cases we are seeing Community Sponsorship groups looking to register themselves as a CIC, rather…
Fundraising
As part of your approval to be a community sponsor, you will need to raise £9,000 to cover any of the project expenses. This resource aims to provide ideas and approaches to help you raise money to support the resettled family you will be welcoming. As you produce your resettlement plan, you will be able to build…
Getting Local Authority consent
Community Sponsorship is a partnership involving your group, the Home Office and your Local Authority (Local Authorities, if you are in a two-tier authority area). Not only will your Local Authority be able to signpost you to local services and organisations who will be able to provide assistance, but they must give their consent (otherwise known…
Home Office feedback opportunities
As a Community Sponsorship group, you will have several opportunities to provide feedback on your experience of welcoming a family to the UK. The Home Office have created a brief on their reporting requirements to make the process as simple as possible for you to follow. Listed below are details of the opportunities for you…
Pre-Approval Meetings
Once you submit your application to the Home Office, the Community Sponsorship team will check to make sure you’ve submitted all of your additional documents. They may come back to you with some clarifying questions (this is perfectly normal and happens to most Community Sponsorship groups). They will then get in touch to schedule your…
Preparing a complaints handling policy and procedure
In order to gain approval as a Community Sponsorship Group, your application will need to have a clear complaints policy that outlines how you will handle a complaint that may be made by the refugees you are supporting. It should outline how the complaint will be handled and the timeline for action. If you are working with…
Principal Sponsor Application Process (PSAP)
Lead Sponsor Organisations who have been designated by the Home Office to be a Principal Sponsor are able to submit applications that use a different format to the traditional Community Sponsorship application. Groups will still need to research how they will support a refugee family, and will be able to welcome a family either through…
Sponsor obligations and requirements
In Community Sponsorship, you will have requirements and obligations between the organisation acting as Lead Sponsor and the Home Office, which will be outlined in your sponsor agreement. You can see a sample sponsor agreement on gov.uk, however, you should ensure that you read your sponsor agreement carefully prior to signing it, and ask your Home Office…
The Community Sponsorship process
You can access the application form and guidance notes from gov.uk. The application form is a word document which you should download and save to work on together. Once you have formed your Community Sponsorship group, decided on how you will apply (whether this is through an existing organisation or by setting one up yourself) you’ll…
Working with your SMP
Each of the nine English Regions and Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland has a Strategic Migration Partnership (SMP) which is equipped to provide the full range of services required with regard to migration issues in their Region. SMPs in England, Wales and Scotland* coordinate a number of programmes including refugee resettlement under the Government resettlement…
Charitable status
In order to be approved by the Home Office as a Community Sponsorship group, your application must be made through a registered charity or community interest company (CIC). This organisation will be your Lead Sponsor. The charity must be registered with the Charities Commission in England and Wales, the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR)…
Partnering with a Lead Sponsor
Your Community Sponsorship application must be made by Lead Sponsor Organisation. The organisation must be a charity, community interest company or an exempt charity registered with the appropriate body in the relevant nation of the UK. There are many experienced Lead Sponsors who have a process and a system in which your group could operate, or you may…
Producing a safeguarding policy
Alongside your application, you will also need to submit a Safeguarding policy for your group in order for the Home Office Community Sponsorship team to assess your suitability to resettle refugees. This policy should outline your approach to protecting vulnerable adults and children, and how you plan to manage safeguarding concerns once a family have…