Supporting families with housing and school attendance
By Zoe Dempsey, School-Home Support Practitioner
 |
Zoe is a School-Home Support Practitioner based in a secondary school in West Yorkshire. She has been with School Home Support for 5 years. During this time, she has supported many families in identifying and overcoming barriers that impact children’s and young people’s education. Prior to her role with School Home Support, Zoe supported children, young people and their families impacted by domestic abuse to ensure they had a safe space to talk and the right support and involvement from other key agencies. Zoe is a youth mental health first aider and is passionate about safeguarding and improving outcomes for children and young people. She recognises the importance of good emotional well-being as a foundation for enabling children and young people to reach their full potential in life. |
The link between poor housing and social attendance
Poor housing has a significant impact on the whole family. The impacts can be physical, emotional and financial, and have a detrimental effect on a child’s ability to attend and engage in school life.
Where a child lives can expose them to a range of difficulties. I work with families who are housed far away from school, resulting in high travel costs that many families struggle to afford. The areas where children are housed can be unsafe, increasing the risk of exposure to harmful and criminal influences. Families are living in properties that have significant damp issues, resulting in children becoming unwell with respiratory issues, directly impacting their attendance and learning. The emotional impact of poor housing on families cannot be overstated, with many children feeling isolated with nowhere safe to play, without a garden or access to a safe park.
Families across the country are living with the consequences of the housing crisis. There are severe shortages of suitable housing for families resulting in long waiting times. I work with families who have been waiting over a year to be housed, often bidding on properties with over 1000 other bidders. With such high demand for properties, families are wary of making complaints about their housing situation in case it results in their eviction.
A key consequence of poor housing is that it becomes incredibly challenging for families to prioritise school and learning. School attendance falls down the list of priorities and can be very difficult to manage.
A whole family support approach to addressing housing as a barrier to attendance
As a School-Home Support practitioner, I work directly with families through schools, to build an understanding of the challenges they are facing, and help them access the support they need to overcome any barriers to attendance and learning.
The first thing I do when a family is referred to me is to get to know the family. Often, families are not initially open about their housing situation as they may feel embarrassed or scared. There are often barriers to communication that we have to work through, before support with housing issues can start. I have the time and flexibility to build up trusting relationships with families, so they feel comfortable sharing their housing challenges with me.
The whole family support we offer is tailored to the individual needs of the family. Where there is a housing issue, this is often not the only support that is needed due to the impact this can have on physical, emotional and financial wellbeing.
Support can include advocating for the family to address their housing issues with their landlords, or simply walking alongside them and providing emotional support as they navigate the complexities of the housing system. Through the School-Home Support Welfare Fund, we can support families with essential items that ease some of the financial pressures and improve their home environment. This could be anything from a new desk so that a child has space to do homework, or a washing machine so that children’s uniforms can be kept clean and ready for school.
Families are referred to me through the school that I work in, but I am independent from the school and work off-timetable. This enables me to provide flexible, long term support for families that address the challenges they are facing outside of the classroom. With school resources incredibly stretched, I can step in and add much needed capacity to the school system. Improving attendance is often the responsibility of school leaders, but they don’t have the time to work intensively with families. Now that I am part of the school community, I can be there for the families that need this kind of support.
Working with local organisations and parents to support families in poor housing
Partnership working with other services and professionals to build a team around the family is key. I utilise the connections I have with other specialist services to access further support and advice for families. Once I have built trust with a family and identified their specific needs, I can signpost them to the right support for them.
This is particularly important when supporting families with housing issues. While we are not housing experts at School-Home Support, we are able to build trusting relationships with families that allow us to walk alongside them as they work with other services to improve their housing situation. There are no quick fixes to the housing crisis, but we can be there for families now to mitigate the impacts that poor housing can have on school attendance and learning.
Case study: Bella’s story
Bella is 12 years old and lives with her parents and three siblings in a one bedroom second floor flat. The flat was in very poor condition. The bathroom was riddled with damp, the toilet was broken and tiles were falling off the walls. The four children were sharing the bedroom, and Bella’s parents were sleeping on the sofa. The communal areas around the flat were unsuitable for a young family, with frequent crime, fly-tipping, a broken lift and dirty corridors.
The family was very isolated. Bella’s mum Nicky had no family nearby to support her. There was nowhere safe for the children to play and the family had no pushchair to take Bella’s youngest siblings to the park. With the broken lift, it was incredibly difficult managing two flights of stairs with the children. The family were struggling financially as their main source of income was financial support from the government, and their rent was expensive.
Bella and her family were initially referred to me because she was frequently ill with chesty coughs and colds, and her school attendance was severely affected. She was struggling to sleep due to sharing a room with her young siblings and she would often come to school unclean with greasy hair, in a dirty and worn out school uniform. This contributed to Bella being bullied at school, further isolating her from her peers and impacting her attendance.
When I was first introduced to the family, Bella’s mum Nicky was reluctant to speak to me. She was worried about social care involvement and was scared her children would be taken away from her. I reassured her with open and honest communication that I was there to support her, and not judge.
At first, I only met the family at school, and Nicky would be in touch over the phone. Once I had built a trusting relationship with the family, I visited them at home and Nicky invited me in. It became clear that the family needed urgent support with their housing situation, and that Nicky had been reluctant to engage with me outside of school because she was embarrassed about where she was living.
I spoke at length with Nicky about Early Help support and how we could all work together to make positive changes for her family. Again, Nicky was worried about getting other services involved, but I talked her through the process and completed the family assessment with her. From this, an Early Help worker was allocated.
To manage the family’s immediate financial needs, I used the School-Home Support Welfare Fund to purchase new beds, mattresses and a washing machine. I also bought Bella a new school uniform, a new school bag and a winter coat. Through a referral to Baby Bank, the family received a new cot, safety gates, a high chair and a double pushchair.
I supported Nicky to register with the local housing association, and supported her with the application process, as they didn’t have internet access at home. I notified housing standards regarding the property, which was then assessed and deemed unsuitable. The landlord was given a legal notice to improve home conditions and not allowed to rent the property to families causing overcrowding.
As a result of successful partnership working the family are now living in a 3 bedroom home with a garden in a safe area of the city. Due to the severe housing shortage in the area, the family have had to seek privately rented property. However their new landlady has been very supportive of the family situation and agreed to set up payment plans to support them to stay on top of their rent. Unfortunately, the new home is over 3 miles away from Bella’s school and so I completed an In Year Transfer application to move Bella to a school within walking distance. While we awaited the outcome I supported taking Bella to school and her school provided a taxi home. Bella has now been allocated a place in the new school and is able to walk there herself, enabling her to continue improving her attendance.
Bella is now much more engaged in her learning and is happier and brighter in herself. She comes to school clean, well-presented and in the correct school uniform. Bella has recently told me that she would like to be a nurse when she grows up. This is a sign of the progress the whole family has made, as this is the first time I have heard Bella talk positively about her future and what she wants to do.
Find out more about the work we do to support families with housing and school attendance.
