Bad housing wrecks lives

1. 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)

2. Aims and Objectives • 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.

3. Regional Children’s Policy Coordinators • 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

4. The extent of the problem in London • As at end September 2008, CLG reported statistics (P1E data) from Local Authorities in London show: • 49,955households living in temporary accommodation. • Of these, 39,568had dependent or expected children. • The total number of dependent or expected children in these households was 76,429. (This is 2/3of 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. 4

5. Every “Homeless” Child Matters? • How the ECM outcomes are undermined by bad housing • Being healthy • Increased risk of ill health, disability, mental and emotional health problems and a wide range of respiratory problems. • Staying safe • Increased risk of accidents in the home; higher risk of isolation and fear in community. • Enjoying and achieving • Higher risk of lower educational achievement, as homeless children miss more days of school through lateness, truancy, exclusions, bullying. • Making a positive contribution • Increased instances of behavioural problems such as aggression, hyperactivity & impulsivity, also impacting educational & social outcomes. • Achieving economic well-being • Increased risk of family being caught in a cycle of poverty, unemployment and social exclusion, due to lower levels of educational achievement and poorer heath.

6. Government guidance • 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 6

7. Where are the Interfaces between Children’s Services and Housing? • Inter Agency Governance • Clear commitment from DCS, Housing, Children’s Trust Boards, LSPs, Lead Members, LSCBs on joint up working. • Integrated Strategies • CYPPs & Homelessness Strategies - thorough involvement in development, implementation and monitoring of policies. • Opportunities for joint funding identified & shared resources. • Integrated Processes • Joint Protocols & Pre-action protocol arrangements • Use 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.

8. 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. 8

9. 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

10. 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. 10

11. 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. 11

12. Bad housing wrecks lives For more information please contact: Peta Cubberley – London & South East 0844 515 1272 peta_cubberley@shelter.org.uk