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Bad housing wrecks lives

Shelter’s Children’s Service

Improving Joint Working between Housing and Children’s Services

How can Scrutiny help?

Peta Cubberley Regional Children’s Coordinator (London/SE)

Aim

To inform Scrutiny Officers in London of Shelter’s Children’s Services in London and nationally.

To highlight the issue of children’s homelessness in London and the impact on children’s well-being and life chances.

Objectives:

To encourage scrutiny and overview functions to consider local authorities’ joint working between their housing and children’s services.

To urge that children’s housing (homelessness, bad housing, overcrowding) is considered as a cross-cutting issue across all policy areas.

Aims and Objectives

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Principal areas of work:

Children’s Centre Work•To coordinate the delivery of Shelter’s housing advice services to children’s centres in England

Good Practice Work•To facilitate the wider take up of more effective models of service delivery to children

Policy Influencing Work•To influence policy and implementation at national, regional and local levels where they relate to children and housing

Regional Children’s Policy Coordinators

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The extent of the problem in London

As at end September 2008, CLG reported statistics (P1E data) from Local Authorities in London show:

49,955 households living in temporary accommodation.

Of these, 39,568 had dependent or expected children.

The total number of dependent or expected children in these households was 76,429 . (This is 2/3 of the total figure in England - 104,635).

Overcrowding:

Over 200,000 households are living in overcrowded conditions in London – the majority of whom are social sector tenants.

How the ECM outcomes are undermined by bad housing

Being healthyIncreased risk of ill health, disability, mental and emotional health problems and a wide range of respiratory problems.

Staying safeIncreased risk of accidents in the home; higher risk of isolation and fear in community.

Enjoying and achievingHigher risk of lower educational achievement, as homeless children miss more days of school through lateness, truancy, exclusions, bullying.

Making a positive contributionIncreased instances of behavioural problems such as aggression, hyperactivity & impulsivity, also impacting educational & social outcomes.

Achieving economic well-beingIncreased risk of family being caught in a cycle of poverty, unemployment and social exclusion, due to lower levels of educational achievement and poorer heath.

Every “Homeless” Child Matters?

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Guidance for strategic managers in Housing Services, Children’s Services and their partner agencies.

Published May 2008

Thematic areas: 16 & 17 year olds Care leavers Children of families living in

temporary accommodation Children of families found

intentionally homeless

Shelter involved in development of document.

www.communities.gov.uk/publications/housing/goodpracticeguide

Government guidance

Where are the Interfaces between Children’s Services and Housing? Inter Agency GovernanceClear commitment from DCS, Housing, Children’s Trust Boards, LSPs, Lead Members, LSCBs on joint up working.

Integrated StrategiesCYPPs & Homelessness Strategies - thorough involvement in development, implementation and monitoring of policies.Opportunities for joint funding identified & shared resources.

Integrated ProcessesJoint Protocols & Pre-action protocol arrangementsUse of CAF by housing officers.Information Sharing – housing department informs CYPS where families in TA have been placed.

Integrated Front Line Delivery Co-location of staff between housing and CYPS.More outreach, more shared training, more understanding in schools & children’s centres of risks to outcomes for homeless children.

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Opportunities to consider housing issues

Example:Provision of 0-5 Services in Hackney

Report included a section on housing which identified the formal and informal links between housing and children’s centres. However, the report also identified gaps, and made two recommendations to the commission:

Involvement of housing providers on children's centre steering groups to foster mutually beneficial working relationships between them.

Undertake analysis of where and when a housing advice surgery might be offered to parents as part of the universal services provided to children’s services.

This report provides an excellent “hook” for my engagement with Hackney’s CYP and Housing services on this, and ultimately other,

areas of joint working.

Other opportunities….housing is a cross-cutting issue

Joint working between housing & children’s services – Using the ‘checklists’ in the joint CLG/DCSF guidance, to scrutinise to what extent is your authority meeting these recommendations?

Information sharing/partnership working – To what extent are arrangements in place to share information across

housing and CYPS (children’s centres, schools, youth services, health services)? Links to child mobility; child protection; no child ‘slipping through the net’.

Child Poverty Agenda – To what extent are housing and CYPS working together to: Improve

access to housing advice/debt/benefits advice?; Mitigate the impact on children of bad housing/overcrowding/TA.

What other examples/opportunities can you think of?DISCUSSION

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Outcomes to date – Children’s Centres

Children’s Service Advice Line available to all Children’s Centres in England.

575 cases opened by Children’s Service Advice Line

Developed partnership with ‘Home-Start’ providing access of our advice line to further 275 schemes nationally.

Shelter Advisers providing Housing Advice sessions from Children’s Centres in all regions – subject to capacity.

Shelter Advisers delivering ‘Housing Information Workshops’ – in London alone over 120 Children’s Centre workers reached.

Many Children’s Centres ‘linked in’ to Shelter’s local offices and building relationships & improving effective signposting to them.

More Housing Departments agreeing to share details of families placed in Temporary Accommodation with Children's Centres.

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Outcomes to date – Policy Influencing

Audited a two tier authority’s Joint Protocol on 16/17 Year Olds

Promoted pooled funding to provide TA outreach workers in Children’s Centres

Influenced bid for DCSF Child Development Grant pilot to be targeted at children in temporary accommodation

Influenced planned refurbishment of a family hostel which will provide Children’s Centre and Extended School outreach.

Influenced Homelessness Strategies including aims to reduce children’s school moves; introduce 16/17 year old protocol; develop peer education; introduce systems for information sharing; use of Notify by children's service staff.

Secured commitments to deliver CAF training to Housing Officers

Involvement in Government Offices , JISPs, Child Poverty strategies and local children’s centre networks.

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For more information

please contact:

Peta Cubberley – London & South East

0844 515 1272

peta_cubberley@shelter.org.uk

Bad housing wrecks lives