The FE Colleges of Sanctuary network has experienced remarkable expansion over the past three years, with our college membership tripling in size. This growth has occurred against a backdrop of significant global and national changes: we’ve witnessed the arrival of displaced people from Ukraine, Afghanistan, Hong Kong and other regions, alongside the implementation of the Illegal Migration Act and its profound implications for those within the asylum system. The summer of 2024 brought a concerning rise in racist and xenophobic rhetoric and violence, with sanctuary seekers often becoming targets.
In recognition of our rapid evolution, we initiated a comprehensive review process this year, engaging with key stakeholders including our awarded colleges, specialist partners, and individuals with lived experience to evaluate our practices and objectives.
We have three fundamental goals for our streams of sanctuary:
– To raise awareness about the realities of people seeking sanctuary within institutional communities – reaching individuals who might not otherwise engage in these educational initiatives to foster understanding, connection, and solidarity.
– To ensure that mainstream institutions effectively welcome and address the needs of people seeking sanctuary, creating environments where people feel safe, develop a sense of belonging, and can lead fulfilling lives.
– To facilitate connections between mainstream institutions and others working with people seeking safety to better connect the dots in services and support and build a cohesive movement of welcome
Based on these aims, we have revised the FE Colleges of Sanctuary minimum criteria in order to:
Clarify expectations for both applicant colleges and appraisal team members;
Shift the focus of criteria from specific actions to desired impact and intention, maximising positive change within colleges and their communities;
And strengthen alignment with the City of Sanctuary UK Theory of Change to better support the achievement of our vision.
In line with the feedback received, we wanted to clearly define our focus around people seeking sanctuary, distinguish between different criteria and emphasise the goal to drive positive development. We have also reduced the number of criteria to streamline activities around those that drive forward the achievement of our overarching goals.
FE Colleges of Sanctuary Criteria
LEARN
Staff Awareness Raising and Training: The college trains and raises awareness about the experiences of people seeking safety in the UK amongst all college staff and leadership. This is used to build sensitivity towards learners seeking sanctuary and build staff expertise to effectively support new arrivals from sanctuary seeking backgrounds.
Student Learning: The college teaches all students about forced migration and the experiences of people seeking sanctuary to correct misconceptions, reduce prejudice, and foster connection and empathy. This may be through subject-based schemes of work, in tutorials, personal development sessions, workshops, college wide activities and student orientation.
EMBED
Designated Sanctuary Lead: The college has a designated expert staff team/staff member as a named point of contact for sanctuary seeking students. This contact information is: clearly displayed on a designated webpage for refugee and asylum seeking learners; shared during induction and is present at enrolment days. The designated lead conducts a yearly review of how well the college is serving these students, focusing on their access, progress and overall experience.
Educational Access: The college seeks to widen access to FE for people seeking sanctuary and has developed activities and processes to ensure learners seeking sanctuary can pursue meaningful education pathways.
Supportive Environment: The college adapts college provision and practice to ensure learners from sanctuary seeking backgrounds feel safe, can succeed in their studies, receive comprehensive support and can participate in extra activities and enrichment programmes.
Community Celebration: The college recognises and participates in Refugee Week and similar celebratory events to connect with the wider movement of welcome and show solidarity with people seeking safety.
Student Engagement: The college enables the participation of all staff and students in welcoming activities, such as befriending and/or exchange activities, community outreach; charitable actions; or acts of solidarity and encourages student ownership and leadership of sanctuary activities.
SHARE
Public Commitment: The college openly shares its dedication to sanctuary by…
Signing the City of Sanctuary UK supporting organisation pledge
Communicating its commitment & how it upholds it with the college community i) in a public space in college, ii) on the website, iii) in other spaces.
Community Partnerships and Outreach: The college collaborates with local refugee organisations, forums and partner organisations to build a culture of welcome in the local area beyond the college.
Network Engagement: The college engages with and supports wider sanctuary networks, including their local City of Sanctuary group (if present), other local sanctuary awarded organisations and the FE Colleges of Sanctuary network. This participation helps strengthen and sustain collective efforts to support people seeking sanctuary.
Other things to note
At the bottom of the application, we have long had a section titled:
‘Please identify how people seeking sanctuary have been involved in helping you achieve these principles’.
Moving forward, within this section we want colleges to demonstrate efforts to ‘co-produce’ this process with students and staff with lived experience of (forced) migration. This is in line with City of Sanctuary UK’s values and Theory of Change where we understand that it is not possible to meaningfully develop sanctuary efforts without the voices and contributions of those with lived experience at the heart of shaping and implementing them.
Rather than being a separate criterion, as in the previous wording, colleges should endeavour to have co-production as a cross-cutting priority that can be visible within each criterion. In this section the college can briefly outline the structures, processes or efforts developed to enable this, such as initial focus groups/consultations, a Sanctuary officer role, etc.