More than half of teachers in England have worked with homeless children in the last year, as figures show record numbers of young people living in temporary accommodation.
A survey of just over 7,000 teachers, carried out by Teacher Tapp for the charity, Shelter, found that 175,000 children did not have a permanent home – about 2% of the nine million school-aged children.
Respondents reported that children came into school exhausted, with poor mental health. Many were living in B&Bs or hostels, and sharing beds with other families members in cramped conditions.
Almost a third of teachers said they taught or interacted with a child who was homeless, with the highest figures in London, where 75% of respondents said they had pupils in their school who were homeless.
The second-highest figures were reports in the south-west, 56%, followed by the Midlands and the north-west, both 53%. The lowest was in the north-east, 41%
Physical and emotional toll
A separate survey for Shelter by the teachers’ union, NASUWT, showed that three-quarters of teachers said homelessness was leading to poor test and exam outcomes, with a similar number citing mental health problems among homeless children.
More than eight out of ten – 83% – said homeless children were missing school and 92% said they arrived in lessons tired.
The housing emergency is infiltrating classrooms and robbing children of their most basic need of a safe and secure home
NASUWT general secretary Matt Wrack said the problem was “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 “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.”
No privacy to study
Sarah Elliott, chief executive of Shelter, 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.
She added that families were often moved to different areas at short notice, into cramped accommodation.
“Feeling cut off and isolated, children are showing up to school exhausted after long commutes from accommodation that is many miles away,” she said.
“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.”
Elliott called on the 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.
Cross-departmental focus needed
Paul Whiteman, general secretary of the headteachers’ union NAHT, said while the government’s new child poverty strategy contained “some welcome measures” the new 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.”
