Arrange journey practicalities

Top tips

— Enable clients to return with dignity by providing additional payments for food and clothes for the journey home.

Ensure you plan the journey in advance, for example: purchase travel tickets, make arrangements to collect documents from the relevant consulate. Where support has been put in place in the home country, remember to notify staff of the client’s expected date of arrival and check other requirements. Where the reconnection is to family, make sure that the relevant person is contacted and given the details of the plane/coach arrival time and asked to be there to welcome the client. Other points to remember are that clients on medication will need to be provided with a sufficient supply for the journey. For clients on methadone or any other controlled substance, it is important to have a letter of support from a health professional to show to security staff.

The attached journey checklist may help in planning journey tasks.

It’s worth considering if clients can be provided with payments for additional items, eg: food for the journey, a small amount of cash and clean clothing (new or second hand depending on resources).

Whilst these amount to a relatively small amount of expenditure, they enable clients to return home with greater dignity. This can have a very positive impact on clients’ self-esteem and also increase their motivation to complete the journey home.