With record numbers of children in England now in insecure temporary housing, the commissioner warns that poor educational prospects could leave a generation of disadvantaged children “trapped” in poverty.
The research proves for the first time the negative impact housing insecurity has on educational attainment, showing a direct relationship between the number of times a child moves home and declining GCSE pass rates.
Each additional address move was linked to a fall in achievement of the accepted standard of five GCSE passes, including English and maths, at Grade 4 (equivalent to Grade C under previous grading systems).
Only half of the children who moved three times between reception and year 11 went on to achieve five GCSE passes by the time they left school, compared to a 65% pass rate for those with one home address.
This fell to just one in 10 getting their required GCSEs among students who had moved 10 times throughout their education.
Sky News visited Surrey Square Primary School in south London, where an estimated 20%-25% of the pupils are currently in temporary accommodation, to hear about their experiences.
The children here have felt the effects of the housing crisis and are often forced to relocate, including 10-year-old Joanna who has moved seven times in her life.
According to the statistics, her chances of passing five GCSEs are already halved.
Image: Joanna has already moved seven times
“There was a time that I lived in north London, and we had to take two trains and two buses. It was one hour and 30 minutes away from school, so we had to wake up very early to get to school on time,” she told us.
Living conditions have been difficult – her last home, as well as her current one, have been infested with bed bugs. Constantly moving and living out of boxes has also made schoolwork challenging.
“I don’t really have anywhere to do my homework, and sometimes I can’t really find stuff because it’s gathered together in one place, because we don’t have room to put things,” she explained.
Image: Pupils at Surrey Square Primary School
‘It’s going to cost the health and safety of young people’
Temporary accommodation is housing provided by local authorities to those who would otherwise be homeless while they wait for affordable or social housing options to become available.
Between long journeys to get to school and substandard conditions at home, the effects on the children’s physical and mental wellbeing has a wide impact.
Housing campaigner Kwajo Tweneboa told Sky News: “It is, quite frankly, disgraceful, the number of kids stuck in temporary accommodation who are essentially homeless.
“We simply do not have enough social housing. We haven’t had enough for a very, very long time. That is the long-term solution.
“But in the short term, [the government] needs to be making sure accommodation provided to these young kids is of a decent standard and they are not living in conditions which put their health and safety at risk. Unfortunately, that isn’t the case, and standards really have to be driven up rapidly or it’s going to cost the health and safety of our young people.”
Data from the NHS National Child Mortality Database has shown that temporary accommodation contributed to the deaths of at least 74 children in England over the last five years, equivalent to more than one death a month.
Image: Housing campaigner Kwajo Tweneboa
Amirah, also 10 years old, had lived in temporary accommodation for all of her life until she recently moved into permanent housing.
In their last home, she and her mum, grandma, and two younger brothers were in a flat with just one bedroom. Amirah shared a bed with her grandma while her mum and brothers slept in the living room.
“There used to be so much mould on the ceiling. And when it was raining, there were raindrops coming from where the mould is,” Amirah said.
“It felt really hard. I have two younger brothers that I have to take care of, that depend on me to help them with their studies while I’m already trying to struggle with my own homework.
“We didn’t have a table, so we had to use the floor, or we had to use a bed to sit on and then straighten our legs out to write.”
Vermin, including rats, were a common complaint among the children, who also described feeling unsafe in their buildings or even within their homes.
Image: Ilyes is forced to live with strangers
Eight-year-old Ilyes shares a room with his dad in a private rented flat which they also share with adult strangers. He is scared to leave their room alone to go to the toilet.
“I live with people and sometimes when I’m trying to sleep, they always start shouting. That actually happened yesterday at 11pm,” he said, describing how it took his dad several attempts to get them to be quiet.
“My dad and I have been living in that flat for three and a half years, and my dad has been trying to get us a house,” Ilyes added.
‘Dickensian’ conditions
Already, at such a young age, it’s having an impact.
“When children are talking about rats, mould, not having their own bed, and having adult males in other rooms in the house they live in, shouting at them – that strikes me as Dickensian,” Dame Rachel de Souza, children’s commissioner for England, told Sky News.
Image: Children’s commissioner for England Rachel de Souza talking to students
“It’s clearly having a massive impact on [educational] outcomes. And that then is a lifetime impact. We shouldn’t mess about with children’s education,” said Dame Rachel, who leads the independent office championing children’s issues in government.
“We cannot allow them to leave at 16 without a great education and a path planned out. It truly is a poverty trap if we can’t do that,” she added, stressing the need for government to listen to the views and voices of children – who are more likely to live in temporary accommodation than adults.
“We can’t talk about solving child poverty without solving the housing crisis, especially in cities. Government needs to do better. Local authorities need to do better.
“I will be taking the voices of children I’ve heard here today, and the children I’m talking to right across the country, to explain to government what poverty really looks like in this country to children, and that is poor housing, lack of food; the kind of poverty that is life-threatening, frankly, because of both safeguarding and health issues,” she added.
Ever-increasing numbers of homeless children
The number of children in temporary accommodation has reached a record high of 164,040, equivalent to one in every 100 children in England. This is based on the latest government data which is a snapshot from September 2024.
Mr Tweneboa has been working with Sky News to uncover the scale of the issue and submitted Freedom of Information requests to councils across England for updated figures.
Among the 181 councils that responded to the request, the number of children in temporary accommodation had increased in 55% of areas (more than half) since their last official figures were published, indicating numbers may not yet have peaked.
This included Southwark Council, the area in which Surrey Square Primary School is located, which disclosed that there were 4,916 children in temporary accommodation in November, equivalent to nine children out of every 100 in the area. The number had increased by more than 40% since they last published figures of 3,442 in June.
Inner city areas where affordable accommodation is particularly scarce are worst affected, with the highest rates of children in temporary accommodation concentrated in London, Manchester, and Birmingham.
Worsening inequalities
There is an established “disadvantage gap” in education, with inequalities at key educational benchmarks for more socioeconomically deprived students.
In the summer of 2023, only 43% of students eligible for free school meals passed both their English and maths GCSEs, compared to 72% of other students.
This 29-point percentage gap is the largest it’s been in at least 12 years – driven by the pandemic and a worsening economic climate, though the gap has been stubbornly persistent for decades, according to an assessment by the Institute for Fiscal Studies.
Tweneboa warns that, while there is already a disadvantage gap between better-off and more deprived students, the unprecedented rate of child homelessness could further embed inequalities.
“These kids are often from disadvantaged backgrounds as it is. And not only that, but they also now do not have a place to call home, a place where they can go back to do their homework. And that number is growing,” Tweneboa told Sky News.
“If this is their foundations, we’re not setting them up to prosper in the future. If we don’t break that cycle, then it’s going to cost these kids well into adulthood too and could potentially throw their whole lives away,” he added.
School provides specialist support
One of the main reasons that Surrey Square Primary School has such a high rate of pupils in temporary accommodation is because of their proximity to a housing estate which is in the process of being demolished, where unoccupied units are sometimes used for temporary housing.
Image: The housing estate where many families are located in temporary accommodation is visible from within the school
This makes the staff particularly experienced with housing issues, and the school provides a range of support services from partnering with charities and a food bank, to direct advocacy in housing cases.
In their weekly newsletter, there is a regular item about housing repairs and contact details for support.
Fiona Carrick-Davies,the school’s family wellbeing lead, told Sky News: “Families feel that the school is a safe place to come and share concerns and that we will actually listen and care, and do something about it.”
While the school provides specialist support, not all schools have the experience or resource to advocate directly for families experiencing homelessness.
“Teachers’ role is to educate children and young people. Their timetables are absolutely full. The curriculum is full. If you don’t have a family worker or pastoral team that supports directly with housing issues, then I think it would be very hard to fulfil that difficult role,” Ms Carrick-Davies said.
Image: Fiona Carrick-Davies, Surrey Square Primary School’s family wellbeing lead, and Mr Tweneboa
Hope for ‘a better life’
Despite the school’s best efforts to support students, many of the children we spoke to were acutely aware of how their situation is “not fair” and expressed their hope for safe and secure housing in the future.
Eleven-year-old Muneeba was recently moved out of her family’s Housing Association flat for six months due to extreme mould, damp, and disrepair.
“When I was younger, I always used to want to bring friends over. I did not understand the situation,” she said.
“But mum said one day, we’ll have a big house, and you’ll have a better life. Now I understand the situation. I don’t want [my friends] to see how I am in the house.”
Image: Becky Johnson, Sky News’ social affairs correspondent, talking to students
‘Urgent action to fix broken system’
Homelessness minister Rushanara Ali said:“We have inherited a devastating housing crisis that is leaving families and their children facing an uncertain future. We will continue working closely with councils to ensure families receive the support they need and minimise the impact on children’s education.
“We are also taking urgent action to fix the broken system. This year alone we are providing nearly £1bn for homelessness services, including the largest ever investment in preventive services, to stop families becoming homeless in the first place. On Tuesday, we announced a £2bn injection to deliver up to 18,000 new social and affordable homes to support more families into secure housing.
“This is alongside tackling the root causes of homelessness by building 1.5 million new homes, delivering the biggest boost in social and affordable housing, and abolishing section 21 no-fault evictions.”
The Data and Forensics team is a multi-skilled unit dedicated to providing transparent journalism from Sky News. We gather, analyse and visualise data to tell data-driven stories. We combine traditional reporting skills with advanced analysis of satellite images, social media and other open-source information. Through multimedia storytelling we aim to better explain the world while also showing how our journalism is done.
A 7.7 magnitude earthquake has struck Myanmar, with the impact felt as far away as Bangkok. In the Thai capital, hundreds of people poured out of buildings after the tremors, with many buildings evacuated. Footage on social media showed water spilling out of infinity pools in Bangkok.The epicentre of the 7.7 magnitude earthquake, at a shallow depth of 10km, was in neighbouring Myanmar near the city of Mandalay, United States Geological […]
Post comments (0)