Thousands of children seeking asylum in the UK are being denied access to education, according to organisations who work with refugees.

The children include newly arrived asylum seekers who are placed in Home Office initial accommodation with their families, unaccompanied minors who arrive here without their families, and children with their families who are dispersed to various parts of the UK by the Home Office.

No accurate statistics are collated relating to these groups of children, some of whom are unable to access a school place for up to a year, but the estimate is based on information from different organisations around the UK who try to help children get into school.

A Refugee Council spokeswoman said: “The inability for all asylum-seeker children to access a school place promptly is concerning. We have worked with children who have had to wait up to a year to get a school place.”

Responsibility for educating asylum-seeker children falls between different authorities in the UK. Those in initial accommodation do not have a legal right to attend school and local councils say they do not have a legal responsibility to provide education for them. The Home Office says only that it tries to move children on from initial accommodation as quickly as possible.

Children in initial accommodation seem to fare particularly badly because they are not allowed to go on a waiting list to get a school place, unlike other children seeking asylum.

One family whose asylum claim is pending has spent five months living in Lynx House in Cardiff, which was the centre of a row last week over wristbands residents were forced to wear to receive food. The father, who wished to remain anonymous, said they had been living in the UK for several years legally on a visa, but because he was politically active in his home country it became too dangerous for him to return and they claimed asylum.

“Our daughter had been in school before, but when we claimed asylum she was no longer allowed to go to school. She wants to continue with her GCSE courses but has not been allowed to do so. Our daughter has become worried and disturbed because she is not allowed to go to school. Her dream is to become a doctor and education is a very important part of her life. The way we have been treated is playing with our emotions.”

Another mother who spent time in Lynx House last year with her children said: “My children were out of school for about five months when we stayed in Lynx House last year. I was given a few books to read with the children, but that was all. It was so upsetting that the children could not attend school, no one wants to see their children denied education.”

Peter Hall, coordinator of Croydon Refugee Day Centre, works with a lot of families placed in initial accommodation in Brigstock House, another site for temporary accommodation, and said that at any one time there may be up to eight families placed there whose children have been denied access to school.

“Some may be there for several months. In the last four weeks, a group of lads around the age of 12 have been coming to our centre regularly and can’t get into a school because they are in initial Home Office accommodation.... If these children aren’t allowed to go to school they should at least be provided with some kind of a home educator system.”

Cardiff City of Sanctuary, an NGO that welcomes refugees, has expressed concern about the plight of children denied education in initial accommodation. In its response to a Welsh government consultation on refugee strategy, it states: “Cardiff council has advised us that it is unable to meet the need, and that it cannot ‘subsidise’ the education of children who may be dispersed by the Home Office to other cities – although many will stay in Cardiff. This is a completely unacceptable situation, and one which the [Welsh government] must take responsibility for changing.”

Cardiff council’s cabinet member for education, Sarah Merry, said: “The Home Office is responsible for initial accommodation centres, including the one in Cardiff. Their contracted provider, in this case Clearsprings, is given targets to keep the time people spend in initial accommodation to a minimum.

“There is no legal requirement for local authorities to provide education for children waiting for dispersal from initial accommodation by the Home Office, but despite this we have taken steps, with partner organisations in the third sector, to offer an education package for children and parents while their cases are being considered.”

A Cardiff council spokesman said that support includes twice-weekly educational sessions provided by the council’s Ethnic Minority and Traveller Achievement Service and the distribution of resource packs for parents to use with children covering early years, foundation and key stages 2, 3 and 4. It is thought to be the only council in the UK providing this.

A Home Office spokesman said: “We make every effort to move families with children from initial accommodation into permanent accommodation as quickly as possible so they are able to join a school.”