Over half of teachers in England have worked with children who are homeless in the last year, new research shows – with those pupils are arriving at school exhausted, missing school days, and experiencing poor mental health.
The number of children living homeless in England has reached an historic high, with more than 172,000 children living in temporary accommodation – a measure of homelessness. This equates to around 2 per cent of the nine million pupils in state and independent schools.
In a new Teacher Tapp survey, commissioned by homelessness charity Shelter, 52 per cent of more than 7,100 teachers in England said that in the last 12 months they had worked with children who are living in temporary accommodation, such as a B&B or hostel.
This included 31 per cent who said they personally taught or interacted with a child experiencing homelessness.
Figures were highest in London, where 73 per cent of teachers said children in their school were homeless.
Second-highest was the south west with 56 per cent, followed by the Midlands and north west, both with 53 per cent. Lowest was Yorkshire and the north east, with 41 per cent.
Survey shows impact on children
Further research for Shelter by teachers’ union NASUWT, of 263 members who have worked with homeless children in the last year, has revealed the impact on pupils.
Three-quarters (76 per cent) of respondents said homelessness had led to children performing poorly in tests and exams. Three-quarters (75 per cent) said it has “very much” had a negative impact on their pupils’ mental health.
Meanwhile 83 per cent said children experiencing homelessness had missed days of school, and 92 per cent said they had arrived at school tired.
Chief executive Sarah Elliott said: “The housing emergency is infiltrating our classrooms and robbing children of their most basic need of a safe and secure home. Children shouldn’t have to try and balance their studies with the horrific experience of homelessness.
“Feeling cut off and isolated, children are showing up to school exhausted after long commutes from accommodation that is many miles away. Others are struggling to concentrate whilst dreading another night in a cramped B&B room where they have no space or privacy to study for crucial exams.”
Shelter explained families are often placed in temporary accommodation outside of their local area and can be moved at short notice between B&Bs, hostels and flats. Meanwhile cramped conditions mean children are often forced to share beds with parents or sibling.
Teachers ‘pulling out all the stops’
Elliott called on government to “ramp up the delivery of genuinely affordable social rent homes by setting a national target for delivery”. “We need 90,000 social homes a year for ten years,” she said.
NASUWT general secretary Matt Wrack warned homelessness “is taking an enormous physical and emotional toll on children and young people, which is adversely affecting their education and ability to learn”.
He said teachers and school leaders “are pulling out all the stops to help mitigate the effects of homelessness on these pupils”, but warned “they cannot fix our national housing crisis”.
“The government needs to go further and faster to make sure that no child’s opportunities in life are blighted by the lack of a safe and secure place to call home.”
The new research follows the recent publication of the government’s child poverty strategy, which will place a new legal duty on councils to “notify” schools, health visitors and GPs when a child is placed in temporary accommodation.
The government also last week announced a “national plan to end homelessness“, aiming to halve long-term rough sleeping, end the unlawful use of B&Bs for families, and prevent more households from becoming homeless.
Paul Whiteman, general secretary at school leaders’ union NAHT, said while the government’s new child poverty strategy includes “some welcome measures” these figures “show the scale of the challenge”.
“We hope these policies will be built upon in the government’s upcoming homelessness strategy, and that ministers, across all relevant departments, will have a laser-like focus on ensuring these strategies are aligned, implemented and supplemented with further measures to tackle the cause and symptoms of poverty wherever necessary.”
A spokesperson for the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government said: “No child should be trying to learn without the security of a settled home.
“That’s why we’ve made changes to ensure schools can now support pupils experiencing homelessness at the earliest possible opportunity, while our comprehensive homelessness strategy, backed by record funding, will addresses the root causes of homelessness and set us on a path to ending it for good.”
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