The Committee considered the Notice of Motion referred by Full Council on the 17 January 2024 regarding joining the City of Sanctuary initiative (circulated previously).

The Chief Executive highlighted the following:

• 60 Local Authorities had already joined the initiative, which was designed to act as a network to share resources and ideas around refugee resettlement. It was noted that North Devon Council (NDC) already engaged with a number of similar organisations and initiatives.
• The City of Sanctuary (COS) required partners to work towards and aim to complete a series of pledges and that in the Chief Executive’s opinion there was nothing in these pledges or the COS charter that NDC should be concerned about agreeing to should Members wish to go forward with the scheme.
• That only 12 of the 60 Local Authorities who have signed up with COS have achieved the Full Award Status, which required a minimum criteria outlined in the COS pledges. These requirements included dedicated staff, sharing website spaces, and committing to learning/education schemes. It was noted that the resource implications of achieving the Full Award Status were not yet known but could be investigated if Members wished to register interest in the COS scheme, and that agreeing to be part of the COS scheme did not mean having to aim or achieve the COS Full Award Status.

In response to a question as to whether or not NDC was already doing most of the work outlined in the COS pledges and whether or not NDC required the validation of COS to continue the work they already do, the Chief Executive advised that NDC already does good work around refugee resettlement thanks to already established connections, but that the matter of whether or not partnership with COS was desirable was up to Members.

In response to a question regarding resource implications, the Chief Executive advised that the recommendations within the Notice of Motion were to consider working towards the pledges, and once the first steps have been taken a full report would come back to a future meeting of the Committee detailing the resource implications, as only then would they be known.

RESOLVED that the Council:

A)   Join the City of Sanctuary Local Authority Network;

B)   Work to implement the City of Sanctuary pledges through its actions and policies, and with its partners in the statutory and voluntary sectors;

C)   The contribution of refugees and people seeking sanctuary in North Devon be acknowledged,