A guide to commissioning migrant and refugee community organisations

A new guide has been published by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation to help commissioners, migrant and refugee community organisations (MRCOs) and the bodies that support them to deliver services that meet the needs of refugees and new migrants, while simultaneously promoting the role of MRCOs.

More Responsive Public Services? A guide to commissioning migrant and refugee community organisations, by John Perry and A. Azim El-Hassan for the Housing Associations’ Charitable Trust (hact) can be downloaded for free from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation website.

It includes chapters on:

• Accommodation and related support
• Housing related support through Supporting People
• Providing integration and employment services to refugees
• Legal aid services, access to healthcare services for young people
• ESOL training and job-related training.

Many organisations have already endorsed the guide.

Arten Llazari, manager of the Wolverhampton Refugee and Migrant Centre and Chair of the Migrants’ Rights Network said: "The guide will make statutory bodies realise that many MRCOs are properly equipped to deliver services and will help MRCOs to understand how to better ‘sell’ their hard work."

Sandy Buchan, chief executive of Refugee Action said: "This guide should be read by every central and local government official, so that when they commission services they are able to draw on and include the energy and ideas of the migrant and refugee communities."

Donna Covey, chief executive of the Refugee Council, added: "It's an invaluable and timely guide for both MRCOs looking to develop services and bodies seeking to commission them."