About

Lancashire Refugee Integration Team

The Lancashire Refugee Integration Team (LRIT) sits within the Policy, Information, Commissioning and Children's Health at Lancashire County Council. 

It was agreed that Lancashire would resettle 575 refugees by 2020 and that Lancashire County Council would coordinate the delivery of the schemes. The Lancashire Refugee Resettlement Programme was created as a result.

The team coordinate the arrivals and support for thousands of people who have entered Lancashire through over 10 different refugee and asylum resettlement routes.

The team has grown from one staff member in 2016, to 29 staff in 2022 and prides itself in the fact that over 50% of the team have lived experience of being a refugee or asylum seeker. Staff members originate from a variety of countries, including Sudan, Syria, Palestine and Ukraine. The diversity in cultural insight, language support and experiential knowledge that the staff team provides, really improves the quality of the work delivered.

LRIT is fully funded by grants from central government. We work with all district councils, Blackburn with Darwen Council, Blackpool Council and a range of organisations in the public and third sectors to support the integration of resettlers into Lancashire.

LRIT vision and values

The team have a shared vision of integration, equitability, sustainability, co-production, empowerment and fostering the potential and contributions of refugees and asylum seekers.

The refugee is at the heart of everything the team does. The team recognise the immense and unique traumas that refugee individuals have suffered and continue to suffer and acknowledge that the community is unique in its vulnerability and resilience. Every refugee is treated with dignity, respect and a belief in their potential. The work of the team is:

• Person-centred
• Compassionate (Trauma-informed)
• Research and best-practise based

The Lancashire Refugee and Asylum Strategic Partnership

The role of the Lancashire Refugee and Asylum Strategic Partnership (LRASP) is:

• to provide governance and oversight to the delivery of all resettlement programmes
• to provide strategic direction for the programme coordinator
• to ensure that the highest standards of service delivery are being met
• to address any specific issues raised by any council or member of the partnership
• where applicable, to ensure that delivery is complying with the terms of relevant resettlement contracts

An officer from the Lancashire Refugee Integration Team (LRIT) acts as the programme coordinator and Chair of LRASP and reports to the partnership on financial and other matters.

The partnership meet on a quarterly basis and is made up of the following partners:

• Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council
• Blackpool Council
• Burnley Borough Council
• Chorley Borough Council
• Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities
• Department for Work and Pensions
• Fylde Borough Council
• Home Office
• Hyndburn Borough Council
• Lancashire and South Cumbria Health and Care Partnership (ICB)
• Lancashire County Council
• Lancaster City Council
• Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service
• Lancashire Police
• Migrant Help
• North West Regional Strategic Migration Partnership
• Pendle Borough Council
• Preston City Council
• Ribble Valley Borough Council
• Rossendale Borough Council
• SERCO
• South Ribble Borough Council
• West Lancashire Borough Council
• Wyre Borough Council

Refugee and Asylum Seeker Multi-Agency Forums (RASMAFs)

Operational groups are held at a district level at local RASMAFs. These groups meet on a quarterly basis and consist of representatives from Lancashire County Council, the local council and commissioned organisations concerned with the day to day delivery of resettlement.

The function of these groups is to:

• maximise coordination between the officers, statutory services and relevant commissioned organisations in order to improve outcomes and where possible avoid duplication of services and resources
• to share relevant learning and information
• to foster and enhance team working and cohesion amongst officers across the participating councils and commissioned organisations
• to discuss developments in geographical areas of delivery or to highlight issues relating to refugees with a view to pooling resources to target specific or complex needs
• to highlight and address particular issues, problems or barriers to service delivery
• to consider how best to achieve consistency