This report draws on CCLC’s legal casework representing children facing exclusion, alongside case studies from Coram’s Child Law Advice Service. It highlights how children with the greatest level of need can lose access to education through informal exclusionary practices with little transparency or independent scrutiny.
Ahead of the Government’s upcoming inclusion reforms, the report calls for clearer national guidance on exclusionary practices operating outside, or on the margins of, the statutory framework and sets out a series of recommendations to ensure strengthened IRPs and greater transparency and accountability across the exclusions system.
Read the report here.
The Government’s pilot to offer families up to £40,000 if they leave within seven days raises concerns amongst organisations working with families in the asylum system. For families seeking asylum there can be a number of barriers preventing return such as governments refusing to issue travel documents or nationality being disputed. Serious medical needs, risks…
05/03/2026
R (Kone) v Secretary of State for the Home Department concerned a Home Office decision to grant limited leave to a child instead of settlement, because although her father was a British citizen living in the UK, her mother only had limited leave. The Court of Appeal held that the Home Office view was incorrect.…
05/03/2026
The Home Secretary has announced implementation of sweeping changes to the asylum system, first announced in November in its policy paper Restoring Order and Control. We have previously welcomed the Home Office’s statement that the government would consider the appropriate pathway for refugee children in families at the time of publication. However, we are now…
02/03/2026
At least one in every ten children in care has an unresolved immigration or nationality issue, according to new research published by Coram Children’s Legal Centre and the South London Refugee Association and endorsed by many major children’s organisations.
The report, Taking Care: How local authorities can best address immigration issues of children in care, also finds that delaying help on immigration and nationality issues could be costing local authorities hundreds of thousands of pounds per year. A citizenship application for a child costs £1012; by contrast, waiting until the young person leaves care can cost as much as £130,000 in Home Office fees and support with living.
Coram Children’s Legal Centre and other charities are working with local authorities, asking them to sign a pledge to: