Ms Tanya Ward:

I would add one more point on the mental health solution. The research and best practice models from other countries are useful. Some children in the refugee population will actually be very resilient and will not need any support, and some will be very damaged by what they have gone through. It seems that in-school provision is best. This means a psychologist is present within the school system. The child can go and have sessions and get that kind of support. We need to be thinking about what the school is doing in respect of a refugee child and what extra supports are set up. Generally, when a special refugee mental health service is set up, it always gets defunded in recession times and the expertise is lost in the system. We really need to equip the National Educational Psychological Service and the existing services to take on the needs of refugee children. There is a significant gap. In one part of the country, the service is good while it is bad in another.