'Children have been put at risk' - Charity hits back at Reform's 'widely debunked misinformation campaign'

At an education committee on September 22, David Burgess-Joyce, a former councillor and chairman of Wirral’s Reform UK branch, said he had seen a list of Wirral primary schools signed up to values promoted by City of Sanctuary UK, a Yorkshire-based charity supporting asylum seekers.

He asked whether councillors on Wirral Council’s education committee supported the charity. He claimed the charity promoted “small children writing Valentine cards, pledges, and letters of affection to undocumented, male, illegal immigrants.”

However a spokesperson for the charity has strongly hit back, telling the LDRS: “This is a widely debunked misinformation campaign that has put school communities at risk.”

Cllr Stephen Bennett, who chairs the education committee, said individual schools could choose which charities they worked with and neither Merseyside Police nor the council told them what to do. He said police had been made aware of misinformation being circulated nationally and “reassured the authority that there are currently no known risks to Wirral”.

He pointed to a statement put out by the charity rejecting the claims arguing “the programme aims to foster compassion, understanding, and safety within school communities”.

Cllr Bennett added: “The committee reaffirms its support for Wirral schools in making autonomous decisions about charitable partnerships, provided those decisions align with safeguarding standards and educational values.”

In August, the charity said there had been “false and inflammatory material” posted about their Schools of Sanctuary programme, adding: “Whilst we are not directly involved in the delivery of activities in schools, we know that the activity in question, undertaken in a very small number of schools, did not involve children writing personal Valentine’s cards to adults in the asylum system.

“It was a simple act of welcome – pupils wrote short, anonymised messages to show support and solidarity. These were expressions such as ‘Welcome to our town’ or ‘We hope you feel safe here’.

“The vast majority of these were displayed within the classroom, in a small number of cases, schools gave them to local refugee support groups. No personal information was shared, and the activity was age-appropriate, teacher-led, and in line with rigorous school safeguarding policies.

“We take safeguarding extremely seriously and operate in line with all statutory guidance. These incredibly dangerous misrepresentations of our work are putting schools and our team in danger. We are pursuing legal advice and are reporting all threats to the police.”

The charity said being a School of Sanctuary was about promoting a welcoming environment for all children and the programme was voluntary and self-led by the school, adding: “We do not promote a political perspective.

“In an increasingly divided climate, we encourage schools to lead with kindness and compassion. In doing so, we hope to build kinder, safer communities – for everyone.”

A page on their website said: “With recent events in Ukraine and Afghanistan, vulnerable children have joined schools across the UK, with many of these schools having never supported refugee children before.

The Schools of Sanctuary programme not only helps these schools to understand the challenges refugee children might be experiencing and support them to thrive but ensures that these children’s experiences are recognised and represented.”

Despite the push back from Cllr Bennett, Mr Burgess-Joyce continued to claim he was “aware of photographs having been taken in school that clearly prove the point that has been made by myself and some of my colleagues”. He said he had responses from four schools, one of which he described as “reasonably abusive”.

Mr Bennett said he would provide a written response.