Dear Ms Rudd

As leaders of charities and voluntary groups large and small, serving children, families and communities right across the country, we are writing to express our deep dismay at the suspension of the ‘Dubs Scheme’ for child refugees, and to press upon you our hope that this decision could still be reversed and the programme resumed.

MPs of all parties demonstrated that they share our sense of duty and compassion for refugee children when they voted on the Dubs amendment last year. Parliament made the right choice, to do the right thing, and across the communities and nations of the UK many people have been volunteering to help with delivering on that promise. Many charities have worked closely with councils, commissioners and civil servants to prepare for their arrival and care.

We believe that what is really at issue in the scheme’s suspension is not the 'pull factor' you argue it exerts on refugee children but the failure of central government to provide councils who are close to breaking point with adequate resources to look after all children in need of our care and protection – whether those children are at risk here in Britain or from beyond our shores. Many councils, far from being unwilling to help, have publicly committed to take in more children. It is therefore essential that the government reviews its steep cuts to local authority budgets and, instead of abandoning councils to increase taxes on already-struggling families, provides services for all vulnerable children with the central investment they so urgently need.

Among our number are many organisations who have stepped up to serve children, at home and abroad, during great wars and economic depressions throughout our nation’s history – from organising child evacuations to the Kindertransport. All of us are committed to show the same compassion today for every child in need of safety, sanctuary and kindness.

We ask that you reverse the decision to cap the number of children helped through the Dubs Scheme at 350 and that you respect the spirit and the letter of the amendment Parliament approved by continuing to offer sanctuary to unaccompanied refugee children in Europe as long as these children need our help. We call on the government to honour Parliament’s commitment last year to these children.

We work with children every day. We know that when adults break their promises to them, children learn to distrust the words we say. When a nation breaks a promise to care for children, to keep them safe, and instead leaves them at risk and in danger simply to 'send a message' to others, it is an unforgivable betrayal.

We will be ready to meet and to work with you, and to bring all our passion and pragmatism to avoid that outcome.

Yours sincerely,

Kathy Evans	CEO	Children England
Debbie Ariyo	CEO	AFRUCA
Norman Goodwin	CEO	Adoption Matters
Carolyne Willow	Director	Article 39
Javed Khan	CEO	Barnardo’s
Natasha Finlayson	CEO	Become
Ruth Allen	CEO	British Association of Social Workers
Brian Douieb	Co-Chair	British Association of Social Workers London
Robert Templeton	Co-Chair
Amanda Forshaw	CEO	Caritas Care
Pauline Leeson CBE	CEO	Children in Northern Ireland
Jackie Brock	CEO	Children in Scotland
Jeremy Cripps	CEO	Children North East
Martin Houghton-Brown	CEO	Depaul UK
Brendan O’Keefe	Managing Director	Epic CiC
David Holmes	CEO	Family Action
Cathy Ashley	CEO	Family Rights Group
Maggie Jones	CEO	Foundation UK
Mark Davis	CEO	Middlesbrough Voluntary Development Agency
Keith White	CEO	Mill Grove
Ann  Haigh	Chair	NAGALRO
Anna Feuchtwang	CEO	National Children's Bureau
Sharon Long	Strategic Director	Partnership for Young London
Ruth Ibegbuna	CEO	RECLAIM
Professor Neena Modi	President	Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health
Dr Geoff Debelle	Officer for Child Protection
Delma Hughes	Founding Director	Siblings Together
Ross Hendry	CEO	Spurgeons
Lee Dema	Founder	St Matthew’s Project
Andy Elvin	CEO	TACT
Mark Lee	CEO	Together Trust