The Council's policy to visit a Homes for Ukraine sponsor - Find a freedom of information request

1. Is it the Council's policy to visit a Homes for Ukraine sponsor's home to check on the guest's welfare after the guest has begun living with the sponsor? Please provide a yes or no answer only.

2. How many Homes for Ukraine scheme matches have lasted two months or more but the Council has not visited the match at their home address?

3. How many Homes for Ukraine scheme matches have lasted four months or more but the Council has not visited the match at their home address?

4. How many Homes for Ukraine scheme matches have lasted five months or more but the Council has not visited the match at their home address?

5. Have any of the Council home visits resulted in further action taken? Where possible, please specify what this further action was.  

1. Yes

2. 9 houses were not visited within two months Councils are expected to make at least one in-person visit once the guest(s) has arrived. A timescale for the post arrival visit is not defined within the HfU guidance for councils.

Although the vast majority of post arrival visits have been conducted within 2 months, there is no central government mechanism to notify councils when guests arrive with their sponsors - we have to rely on sponsors volunteering this information to us in order to trigger next steps. In Lincolnshire we have taken steps to proactively check in with sponsors who are awaiting guests to find out if circumstances have changed or if an anticipated arrival date is known at that point. Very occasionally this contact has resulted in a sponsor advising that their guest had already arrived but they had not notified the council thus delaying the timescale of our initial visit. This happens very rarely by exception.

For additional context, that is out of around 389 visits that have taken place.

3. 0

4. 0

5.Yes