Bristol Sanctuary Strategy 2025-2030 consultation
Overview
In this consultation, we asked for your views on the draft Bristol Sanctuary Strategy 2025 to 2030 and the Sanctuary Action Plan.
The strategy and action plan set out Bristol City Council’s approach to supporting sanctuary seekers who call Bristol their home. A sanctuary seeker is someone who is any of the following, regardless of their background and immigration status:
- a refugee
- a person seeking asylum
- someone with No Recourse to Public Funds
‘No Recourse to Public Funds’ means the person cannot claim most benefits, tax credits or housing assistance that are paid by the state.
To ensure sanctuary seekers can integrate with existing communities, it is essential to give them support so they can:
- find jobs
- learn about life and culture in the UK
- access housing and health services
We are aware that people may have a diverse range of views on supporting refugees and asylum seekers. Bristol City Council is responsible for fulfilling the legal and statutory obligations set by national government. These are things we must do by law.
Funding for actions set within this strategy comes from national government grants, not Council Tax. The amount of money each local authority gets in grants is based on the number of asylum seekers living in a local authority area on 30 March each year. We do not believe supporting sanctuary seekers comes at the expense of existing communities.
What are we proposing
Our vision is that Bristol is a city of safety, a welcoming place where people seeking sanctuary are provided with the support, services and opportunity to rebuild lives and thrive in our communities from the day they arrive.
The strategy has 3 priorities:
- Meeting Basic Needs. This means that Bristol is a place where all sanctuary seekers have access to essential services to foster stability and security from the day they arrive.
- Promoting Opportunity. This means that Bristol is a place where all sanctuary seekers can build independent lives through suitable homes and health services and access to education, training and skills.
- Compassionate and Resilient Communities. This means that Bristol is a place where all sanctuary seekers feel accepted, thrive and participate fully in life in the city as part of friendly and welcoming communities.
These 3 priorities have been developed from the pdf Strategic Needs Assessment of Asylum Seekers and Refugees(4.11 MB) . In Spring 2025, we engaged with 81 sanctuary seekers through focus groups and 166 online survey responses to provide feedback on these priorities. There was at least 78% approval for each priority in the survey responses.
We have now identified a range of actions which support the 3 priorities under 11 focus areas. This consultation will provide more information on the focus areas and actions for each priority. We ask you for your views on these.
If you would like to read the full strategy and action plan, you can do so here:
We asked
The Bristol Sanctuary Strategy 2025-2030 consultation took place between 9 September and 21 October 2025.
An online consultation survey was available to respondents. An Easy Read version of the survey and translations in Arabic, Pashto, Kurdish Sorani and Ukrainian were also available. Alternative formats such as braille, large print, printed surveys, and translation to other languages were available on request.
You said
There were 330 responses to the consultation. The Bristol Sanctuary Strategy 2025-2030 consultation report summarises the public consultation feedback.
We Did
The consultation feedback was presented to the Committee for Children and Young People on 27 November 2025.
The Committee approved the Sanctuary Strategy 2025 and Sanctuary Action Plan.
The Action Plan sets out 51 actions against the three priority areas (Meeting Basic Needs, Promoting Opportunity, and Building Compassionate and Resilient Communities). These actions provide support for sanctuary seekers in areas including health, housing, safeguarding and legal support, education, ESOL classes, cultural awareness and removing barriers to accessing wider services.
The Action plan will be delivered in house by Bristol City Council and the voluntary sector. The actions will be funded through central government funding (the Asylum Fund, Homes for Ukraine and resettlement funding). Funding is allocated until March 2027.
Key dates
- Start date: 9 September 2025
- End date: 21 October 2025