Unaccompanied asylum-seeking children and education: what the law promises

A child who arrives in England alone and claims asylum is not a special legal category when it comes to school. Once a council takes them into care, they are a looked-after child, and they are owed exactly what any other child in care is owed: a council with a legal duty to promote their educational achievement, a Virtual School Head, a Personal Education Plan, top priority in school admissions, and support that can continue to the age of 25.

That is the promise on paper. In practice, most unaccompanied children arrive at 16 or 17, just as school stops being automatic, and the gap between the two is where young people lose terms, sometimes years.

This guide sets out how the system is meant to work in England, step by step: who is responsible for what, how quickly a school or college place should come, what a Personal Education Plan should contain, how the National Transfer Scheme and age disputes can interrupt schooling, and what a young person can claim after 18. It is written for carers, social workers, teachers, volunteers and young people themselves.

This guide covers England only and is general information, not legal advice. For a specific child, speak to the Virtual School in the council that looks after them, and get immigration or age-dispute advice from a regulated adviser or solicitor.

How many unaccompanied children are there in England?

The Department for Education counts looked-after children every year on 31 March. Its latest release, for 2025, recorded 6,540 unaccompanied asylum-seeking children in care in England. That is 12% fewer than the year before, but still well above the pre-pandemic level, and it means unaccompanied children make up around 8% of all looked-after children, up from 5% in 2021.

The same release describes a very specific group. Some 94% are male. Ninety per cent are aged 16 or over, against 27% of all children in care. Only 38% live in foster placements; 56% live in supported accommodation, the regulated housing-with-support used for 16 and 17-year-olds. These facts shape almost every education question that follows.

Unaccompanied asylum-seeking children looked after in England

Number on 31 March each year, 2014 to 2025

Show the data as a table

Unaccompanied asylum-seeking children looked after in England

Category	Value
2014	2,050
2015	2,760
2016	4,340
2017	4,710
2018	4,560
2019	5,150
2020	5,080
2021	4,150
2022	5,680
2023	7,410
2024	7,440
2025	6,540

The Home Office measures something different: asylum claims made by unaccompanied children, across the whole UK. In the year ending June 2026 it received 4,275 such claims, 5% of all claims, and 83% of those children were aged 16 or 17. Over the same period, 2,329 unaccompanied children were granted protection or other leave at initial decision, and the grant rate for their claims was 57%, compared with 37% for other claims.

Asylum claims from unaccompanied children, UK

Claims received per calendar year, 2015 to 2025

Show the data as a table

Asylum claims from unaccompanied children, UK

Category	Value
2015	3,253
2016	3,290
2017	2,399
2018	3,063
2019	3,775
2020	2,705
2021	4,380
2022	6,295
2023	4,921
2024	4,584
2025	4,473

The two series measure different things, UK-wide claims in a year and an English snapshot on one day, so they do not match year for year. Both show a group that grew sharply after 2021 and has eased since, while remaining far larger than a decade ago.

Who is responsible for a looked-after child’s education?

Section 22(3A) of the Children Act 1989 says that a council’s duty to safeguard and promote the welfare of a child it looks after “includes in particular a duty to promote the child’s educational achievement”. Section 22(3B) requires the council to appoint at least one person to discharge that duty. That person is the Virtual School Head.

The Department for Education’s statutory guidance, Promoting the education of looked-after and previously looked-after children, explains how the duty should work in practice. It is unambiguous that an unaccompanied child looked after by a council is entitled to the same support as any other looked-after child. Separate statutory guidance on the care of unaccompanied migrant children adds that some may never have been to school, that learning English will be essential, and that plans may support literacy in their first language.

The difficulty is less the law than the number of people who hold a piece of it. The table below sets out who does what.

In 2026 the framework widened. The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Act 2026, which received Royal Assent on 29 April, makes schools and further education colleges corporate parents, puts the Virtual School Head’s wider role for children with a social worker on a statutory footing, and requires councils to provide “Staying Close” support to care leavers up to 25 where their welfare requires it. Measures are coming into force in stages.

How quickly should a child get a school or college place?

The statutory guidance says an education placement should be arranged at the same time as the care placement. Where a child is placed in an emergency, the council “should secure a suitable new education placement within 20 school days”. The social worker should start a Personal Education Plan even if the child does not yet have a school place, and where the child is placed in an emergency, within 10 working days of their becoming looked after. The guidance also says education provision “should mean a full-time place”, and that the choice of school should be based on “what any good parent would want for their child”.

What the School Admissions Code adds

The School Admissions Code 2021 applies to maintained schools and academies, including free schools and school sixth forms.

A footnote to the Code is especially useful: where a looked-after child has been refused a place, it is “likely to be more appropriate” for the council to use its power of direction than to lodge an appeal. The statutory guidance asks Virtual School Heads to make sure the council does not tolerate “drift and delay”, including protracted negotiation before a direction is issued.

What the evidence says about delays

The best national evidence on this is now dated, which is itself telling. Research by Refugee Support Network for UNICEF UK in 2018 found that no region of the UK had met the 20 school-day target for all of the unaccompanied children in its care. In its sample, 27% of children entering secondary education waited more than three months, almost all of them entering Year 10 or Year 11, the age at which most unaccompanied children arrive.

More recent work by Refugee Education UK on late arrivals, published in 2023 and drawing on more than 400 people, mostly practitioners, found the same pattern: young people who arrive during their secondary years can stay out of education for long periods, it becomes harder the later they arrive, and schools are unlikely to accept young people of Year 11 age. We described the consequences for 15 and 16-year-olds in The GCSE vacuum.

What should a Personal Education Plan contain?

Every looked-after child must have a care plan, and the Personal Education Plan, or PEP, is part of it. The guidance calls it “an evolving record” of what needs to happen for the child to make at least expected progress, and it applies from pre-school to 18. It is jointly owned by the council and the school, and the young person should be involved in writing it.

Drawing on both pieces of statutory guidance, a good PEP for an unaccompanied child should:

• Record what the young person already knows. Years of schooling, subjects studied, languages spoken and written, and any certificates, even partial ones. The guidance on unaccompanied children says a period in a setting where full educational needs can be assessed may be appropriate, as long as it feeds into the PEP.
• Set English language targets. Learning English is described as essential. The plan may also include support to keep literacy in the child’s first language.
• Include short-term and long-term targets. The guidance asks for specific targets for progress and longer-term plans covering exams, further and higher education, work experience and careers, with named people and deadlines.
• Address wellbeing. Plans should identify developmental needs, including those related to past trauma, and say what mental health support is in place. Our guide to trauma-informed teaching covers what that looks like in a classroom.
• Plan transitions. Moving school, moving from school to college, and, for this group especially, moving council under the National Transfer Scheme.

Virtual School Heads should arrange for PEPs to be reviewed every school term, and the plan should be available for each statutory review of the care plan, chaired by the Independent Reviewing Officer. If a PEP has not been updated in a term, or still says “awaiting school place” months after arrival, that is a reason to ask questions.

Pupil Premium Plus, and why most unaccompanied children never see it

Pupil Premium Plus is extra funding for the education of looked-after children, managed by the Virtual School Head and tied to the PEP. For 2026 to 2027, the Department for Education’s technical note sets the rate at £2,690 per looked-after child, against £1,550 for a primary pupil and £1,100 for a secondary pupil eligible for free school meals. A child who qualifies for both gets the looked-after rate only.

The catch is age. Pupil premium covers pupils from Reception to Year 11, and allocations are based on looked-after children aged 4 to 15. With 90% of unaccompanied children in care aged 16 or over, most will never generate Pupil Premium Plus at all. For them, extra help with costs is more likely to come from the 16 to 19 Bursary Fund described below.

What happens at 16 and 17?

A young person in England can leave school on the last Friday in June if they will be 16 by the end of the summer holidays. After that, the law in England requires them to stay in education or training until their 18th birthday. GOV.UK sets out the options: stay in full-time education, for example at a college; start an apprenticeship; or spend 20 hours or more a week working or volunteering while in part-time education or training. Under statutory guidance on participation, councils must make sure enough suitable provision exists and track young people who are not participating.

Unaccompanied children in care remain looked-after children, and the PEP should be kept alive alongside the pathway plan. The statutory guidance is direct: the duty to promote educational achievement “extends to looked-after young people aged 16 or 17 preparing to leave care”.

In practice, many 16 and 17-year-olds join a further education college, often starting on English for Speakers of Other Languages. That can be the right first step, and a dead end if nobody plans the next one. Our guide to ESOL for 16 to 19-year-olds looks at how to make sure a college place leads somewhere, including GCSE English and maths.

Three practical points matter at this age:

• Colleges do not follow the School Admissions Code. Priority admission applies to schools, including school sixth forms, but not to further education colleges. Enrolment windows and entry assessments vary, and a young person who arrives mid-year can be told to wait for a later start. The Virtual School should be involved at that point.
• Money for course costs. Under the Department for Education’s 16 to 19 Bursary Fund guide for 2026 to 2027, unaccompanied asylum-seeking children are treated as looked-after children and can receive the bursary for vulnerable groups, worth up to £1,200 a year, if they are in financial need. Unlike other asylum seekers, they can receive it as cash.
• Supported accommodation is not a school. With 56% of unaccompanied children in care living in supported accommodation, often without a foster carer to chase attendance or homework, the key worker and personal adviser become important education contacts. Make sure they are named in the PEP.

How does the National Transfer Scheme affect schooling?

Unaccompanied children tend to present themselves at points of entry into the country, which concentrates pressure on a few councils. The National Transfer Scheme exists to spread responsibility more evenly. It has been mandatory for councils since February 2022. Under the current protocol, version 8.0, a council looking after unaccompanied children at or above 0.1% of its general child population can refer a newly arrived child for transfer, and transfers should be completed within ten working days of referral.

The scale is significant. In the year to 31 March 2025, the Department for Education recorded 2,460 unaccompanied children who stopped being looked after by one council because their care transferred to another. On 31 March 2025, Kent was looking after 451 unaccompanied children, more than any other council.

For education, a transfer can mean starting school or college twice in a month, or losing a place just secured. The protocol’s referral form records whether the child has attended school and for how many years, but it is the receiving council that owes the education duties once the transfer takes effect.

Three things help:

1. The entry council should still start the PEP. The ten-working-day rule for emergency placements applies wherever the child is placed.
2. Education history should travel with the child. Anything the young person has told staff about their schooling, languages and ambitions should go into the transfer paperwork.
3. The receiving Virtual School should be told early. An education placement should be planned alongside the new care placement, not after it.

What happens to education when age is disputed?

Many unaccompanied children arrive without accepted documents. When their claimed age is doubted, the outcome of the dispute decides whether they are treated as a child, with a school or college place and a Virtual School Head, or as an adult, with neither.

The Home Office’s own guidance, Assessing age, now at version 13.0, published in June 2026, applies what it calls “the benefit of the doubt”. Where there is still uncertainty, the person should be treated as a child pending further consideration of their age. Home Office staff can only treat someone as an adult at the initial stage in limited circumstances, such as where two officials independently judge that their appearance and demeanour “very strongly suggests” they are significantly over 18. The council guidance agrees: where age is in doubt, a person must be treated as a child until a lawful assessment shows otherwise, and assessments should not be routine.

The Nationality and Borders Act 2022 created a National Age Assessment Board of social workers who carry out assessments that are binding on the Home Office, and regulations in force since January 2024 allow scientific methods using X-rays and MRI scans. Councils still carry out many assessments themselves, and assessments must comply with case law, often described as being “Merton compliant”.

The Home Office’s age assessments dataset records age assessments raised for 6,409 people in the year ending June 2026. Of the 6,265 cases closed in the same period, 3,512, or 56%, ended with the person assessed as 17 or under.

A child wrongly treated as an adult is not referred into council care, so they have no looked-after status, no PEP and no Virtual School Head. Coram notes that access to education at an appropriate level is “highly age-dependent”, which is why getting age right matters well beyond the asylum claim.

What are care leavers entitled to from 18 to 25?

Leaving care at 18 does not end a council’s responsibilities. For young people who were looked after for at least 13 weeks after their 14th birthday, including some time after 16, the Children Act 1989 provides a set of leaving care duties. The Children and Social Work Act 2017 extended the right to a personal adviser up to age 25 for former relevant children who want one.

The higher education bursary is set at £2,000 by the Children Act 1989 (Higher Education Bursary) (England) Regulations 2009, and the statutory guidance says each eligible care leaver should receive it when going on to a recognised higher education course. Ask about the council’s published local offer for care leavers too, and check whether the university runs its own care leaver bursary.

National figures for all care leavers, not only former unaccompanied children, show why this support matters. Among care leavers aged 19 to 21 in 2025, the Department for Education reports that 27% were in education, including 6% in higher education, and 40% were not in education, employment or training, against an estimated 15% of all young people of that age. The same release notes that a growing number and proportion of 19 to 21-year-old care leavers were formerly unaccompanied children.

Where immigration status changes the picture

For former unaccompanied children, leaving care entitlements sit alongside immigration law.

• Refugee status or humanitarian protection. Young people granted protection can generally study, work and access public funds. The Home Office confirms that unaccompanied children granted protection continue to receive five years’ permission to stay, and were not included in the March 2026 change to 30 months for other groups.
• UASC leave. Children who do not qualify for protection but cannot be safely returned may get UASC leave, granted for 30 months or until they turn 17 and a half, whichever is shorter. Planning an education route around a short grant needs care, and the young person will need immigration advice well before it ends.
• Claim outstanding or refused. The statutory guidance on unaccompanied children says pathway plans should take immigration status into account. If a care leaver’s claim is finally refused, continued support may depend on a human rights assessment by the council.
• Student finance. Fee status and eligibility for loans depend on immigration status and residence, not care history. Our guide to home fees and student finance explains the rules, and our guide to sanctuary scholarships covers the funding that exists for students who are not eligible.

Because these rules change, confirm fee status in writing with the institution before a young person commits to a course, and ask the personal adviser what the council’s local offer includes.

Putting it together: a checklist for carers and key adults

The duties above only work if someone notices when they are not being met, usually a carer, key worker, teacher or volunteer who sees the young person every week.

An illustrative example

The following is a composite scenario built from common patterns, not a real person. A 16-year-old boy claims asylum on arrival in October. Ten days later he is transferred under the National Transfer Scheme to supported accommodation in another council. He has nine years of schooling in Arabic and some English.

Under the framework, the entry council should have started his PEP within 10 working days, and the receiving Virtual School should plan a college place alongside his accommodation, record his previous schooling and involve his key worker. At 16 he generates no Pupil Premium Plus, but he should be told about the 16 to 19 bursary, and his pathway plan should consider GCSE maths and what his immigration status will mean for university. If nobody does these things, the first warning sign will be a PEP that still says “education placement to be confirmed” in January.

The checklist

For a fuller sequence covering the first year, from assessment to college applications, see our practical guide to supporting a young refugee into education. If qualifications from home cannot be evidenced, our guide to overseas qualifications and missing documents explains what UK ENIC can and cannot do.

Where Bridging the Future fits

We are a small, volunteer-led charity, and nothing we do replaces a council’s statutory duties. We try to fill some of the gaps between them for young people aged 16 and over.

Our free STEM and English summer school runs for two weeks each August in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at UCL, with 30 places a year for 16 to 22-year-olds and travel (TfL Zones 1 to 6), food and materials covered. In 2025 we received 315 applications for those 30 places. Summer School 2026 has finished, and details of how to apply for Summer School 2027 will be announced on our application page.

Since 2022 our online mentoring programme has supported 32 students through more than 250 hours of volunteer mentoring, running from October to March. Our students have come from 23 countries. We have also started a work placements and internships programme for young people ready to take a next step towards employment.

If you are a social worker, personal adviser, Virtual School officer or carer, please tell eligible young people these programmes exist.

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Figures compiled in September 2026 from the sources listed below. Department for Education figures relate to 31 March 2025 and Home Office figures to the year ending June 2026 unless stated. Rules and figures change — if you spot something out of date, please tell us.

Keep reading

• A practical guide to supporting a young refugee into education — the first twelve months, step by step, for professionals and carers.
• The GCSE vacuum — why young people who arrive at 15 or 16 fall through UK education.
• ESOL for young refugees aged 16 to 19 — making a college English course lead somewhere.
• Home fees and student finance for refugees and asylum seekers — who pays what, and how status changes it.