Guest support: Homes for Ukraine scheme
Information, support and help for Ukrainian guests in the Homes for Ukraine scheme.
How will you keep me and my family safe?
Translations
- To read this section in Ukrainian, please see Google Translate: Читайте цю сторінку українською
- To read this section in Russian, please see Google Translate: Читать эту страницу на русском
Disclaimer: as the translations linked above are provided by Google Translate, Oxfordshire County Council cannot be held responsible for their accuracy.
We are putting in place two safety checks to make sure the people you are staying with and the accommodation you will be living in is safe. These will be carried out before or immediately after your arrival.
If there are vulnerable adults or children in your group, the checks we do will be more in depth for added security.
Translation services
Should you need translation services, Opora and Charity Translators offer a translation service nationally, but Asylum Welcome, based in Oxfordshire, are also able to help.
Accommodation
You will be guaranteed at least six months of accommodation. This could be an empty room in a family house or an unoccupied home. You may receive a welcome pack of essentials on your arrival.
The accommodation will meet certain standards to ensure it’s safe for you to live in. This will include having:
- adequate kitchen and bathroom space
- smoke and carbon monoxide detectors
- heating, gas safety checks
- safe and working electrics and lockable doors and windows.
These are all essential requirements and will be checked.
If the outcome of your accommodation check or any of the safeguarding checks raises any concerns, the person conducting the check will discuss these with you and talk through the options.
If something goes wrong
If for any reason you need to end the sponsorship arrangement early, you should inform the housing team at your local city or district council as soon as possible.
- Cherwell District Council: 01295 227001 or email customer.service@cherwell-dc.gov.uk
- Oxford City Council: 01865 249811
- South Oxfordshire District Council: 01235 422600 (option one) or email communitysupport@southandvale.gov.uk
- Vale of White Horse District Council: 01235 422600 (option one) or email communitysupport@southandvale.gov.uk
- West Oxfordshire District Council: 01993 861000 or email ukraine.support@westoxon.gov.uk
Rematching when arrangements break down
The priority, along with our partners, is to support both guests and hosts to ensure that arrangements do not break down in the first place.
But sometimes they do. Where it is unviable or unsafe for the sponsorship relationship to continue, or when a DBS or accommodation check has failed, rematching with another host could be an option. This is in line with government guidance issued on 6 May.
By keeping rematches to a minimum, we and our partners will be able to maintain capacity for re-housing for those most in need.