In response to the Syrian refugee crisis, the government introduced the Vulnerable Persons Resettlement Scheme for Syrian nationals (VPRS) in 2014. The scheme was significantly expanded in September 2015 when the then Prime Minister, David Cameron, pledged that Britain would take in 20,000 Syrians via the VPRS by 2020. (This was later expanded further to include another 3,000 places for vulnerable children and their families from the Middle East and North Africa region).

Citizens UK took a lead in pressing the government to allow local groups to play a bigger role in resettling refugees. One idea being urged on ministers was sponsorship of refugees, through which community groups take on the responsibility of welcoming, supporting and settling refugee families. Canada was the main inspiration. Through its Private Sponsorship of Refugees program, Canada has resettled more than 300,000 refugees since 1979.

In October 2015, the then Home Secretary, Theresa May, announced that the government would look into developing a refugee sponsorship scheme. A unique and powerful aspect of building the scheme was that civil society organisations, like Citizens UK, and pioneer sponsors worked closely with officials from the government’s resettlement team on its design and implementation.

In July 2016, the Community Sponsorship scheme was officially launched at Lambeth Palace, with the Archbishop of Canterbury welcoming a family to live in a house in the grounds of the palace. In November of that year, the first community group – in Flixton, East Manchester - welcomed a refugee family through the scheme, with more pioneer groups piloting the programme through 2017.

Citizens UK launched it's project Sponsor Refugees in October 2017 and has since worked in partnership with a number of other organisations to promote and support Community Sponsorship. Groups started across the country, with hot spots in the South West of England, South Wales and London. Pioneer groups in Scotland, Northern Ireland, Newcastle, Yorkshire, Leicestershire and the West Midlands were established or welcomed families.

By March 2020, 449 refugee men, women and children had arrived in the UK through sponsorship and more than 200 groups had welcomed families or were in the pipeline to be sponsors, in every region and nation of the UK.

But the question still remained – what will happen after 2020? We campaigned to #ExtendtheWelcome, and in June 2019 Caroline Noakes, then Minister for Immigration, announced that resettlement would continue for at least one more year.

Just as the UK was about to reach its target of resettling 20,000 people by 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic struck.

Fridges were stocked with food, beds ready made, and a number of families were about to step on planes – when all flights to the UK were cancelled.

It was devastating news for the families, and the communities who had worked so hard to welcome them. But we were not deterred. We brought together the movement and worked with the wider refugee sector to lobby the government to urgently restart the scheme.

Thankfully, in November, they announced that they would welcome 242 people, who would meet the target of 20,000.

This was great news, but 242 people was not enough. So, Citizens UK convened hundreds of people for the Refugees Still Welcome Assembly. We invited the new Minister for Migration, Rt. Hon Chris Philp MP, and asked that he urgently extend the scheme.

Starting at the faces of hundreds of people, including many resettled families, he announced that the UK would continue to resettle refugees, and that a new UK Resettlement Scheme would replace the VPRS once we reached our target of 20,000.

In the first few months of 2021, families started to arrive again to the UK. We reached our target of welcoming 20,000 people by February.

Resettlement continued without pause, through the new UK Resettlement Scheme (UKRS) - a permanent global resettlement route open to refugees from a broader range of countries.

Through this new scheme, families welcomed through Community Sponsorship were now additional to government resettlement. That means that Community Sponsorship groups directly increase the number of refugees who can resettlement to the UK.

Later in 2021, following the fall of Kabul, Operation Pitting evacuated around 15,000 people from Afghanistan to the UK.

Following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the UK launched the Homes for Ukraine scheme, which drew on the success of Community Sponsorship scheme.

Citizens UK launched “Communities for Ukraine” in partnership with Ukrainian Sponsorship Pathway UK (USPUK) as a Government-recognised provider under the Homes for Ukraine scheme. Through the generosity of hosts, community organisations and Resettlement Partners across the UK, the programme helped over a thousand Ukrainians find safety, homes and work.

Overall, the Homes for Ukraine scheme has enabled over 270,000 people to find safety in the UK.

We also co-founded and co-chaired the Community Sponsorship Alliance. The CSA brings together representatives with lived experience of resettlement, Community Sponsorship Groups and support organisations to drive forward and improve sponsorship in the UK.

Hundreds of Afghan families who had been evacuated in 2021 still remained in temporary accommodation, and many more still needed evacuation. Citizens UK, the Community Sponsorship Alliance and government partners worked together to develop the Communities for Afghans scheme.

The programme enabled community groups to secure housing and provide practical support to Afghan families rebuilding their lives in the UK. Citizens UK piloted the first phase of the programme, helping demonstrate how communities can play a central role in refugee integration. From 2023 – 2025, we supported 146 people across 29 communities.

For years, sponsorship groups and resettled families had argued that communities should also be able to welcome specific people they know, or feel connected to, as happens in Canada's Private Sponsorship Programme.

Over time, Citizens UK has worked with refugee leaders and Community Sponsorship group members to campaign for this change through assemblies, listening campaigns, meetings with ministers and parliamentary engagement.

In November 2025, the Government confirmed that Named Community Sponsorship would become a central part of the UK's future resettlement offer. This commitment was reconfirmed in June 2026.

For the first time, communities will be able to identify and support specific people to rebuild their lives in the UK, creating a powerful new route to safety while strengthening community welcome.

Citizens UK and our partners are now part of a Core Delivery Group to co-design the scheme. We are building the capacity of civil society organisations ensure that communities across the country are ready to make Named Community Sponsorship a success.