ubu support for the European Union Settlement Scheme

As a caring organization, ubu has at its heart, a commitment to the people we support and our colleagues, to live with greater personal choice and control ensuring that we are all safe and secure in the way we choose to lead our lives and where we choose to live.

Following the outcome of our vote to leave the European Union, the subsequent difficulties encountered by our politicians in negotiating and securing an agreement about how we will depart have become senseless. One result of this dissonance is uncertainty, anxiety and actual fear on the part of those, from many European countries, who work so hard in, and for, our country and in particular for some of the most vulnerable people within our communities.

This week the Home Office have been remonstrated by the Advertising Standards Agency for promoting a misleading radio advertisement about its registration scheme for European citizens who want to apply for permanent residency in the United Kingdom beyond ‘Brexit’. It hasn’t helped people to feel confidence in our Governments’ ability to deliver what it says it will especially when it might itself imagine no one is looking.

ubu is a vociferous supporter of the European Union Settlement Scheme. It is a programme instituted by that same Home Office to provide EU citizens and their families with a route to living and working in the UK beyond December 31st 2020.

United at ubu, we are fully engaged in supporting our Team Member colleagues in offering advice and when requested, appropriate guidance, sign-posting to relevant professions wherever necessary, so that our European colleagues can successfully complete their applications for ‘Settlement ‘or ‘Indefinite leave to Remain’.

Bob Dylan sang about how “the times they are a-changing“ in 1963. There is something literally timeless about the sentiments expressed in this song which has been reinterpreted continuously since by people who find it is an anthem to unite around. I believe that we have to accept optimistically that the “the times they are a-changing” and be excited and inspired by the possibilities rather than filled with fear and loathing.

Our culture, ubu’s Culture, is steadfast in its adherence to the Values we have taken to our hearts and are pragmatic in the way, and in what, we deliver by every action we take, even when no one is looking. We are determined to face the future with a level head on us and the humanity to ensure that our European colleagues and their families are released from the stress and uncertainty that has come from this path we have as a Nation have chosen to take. We would encourage all colleagues who need to, to openly speak to their line managers and to find out how best to safeguard their future during the forthcoming months!