Poor housing is a big issue for social work
Published by Professional Social Work magazine, 14 February 2023
More than a million people are on waiting lists for social housing across England.
Government spending currently falls far short of the £14.65 billion a year recommended by the National Housing Federation to build enough new homes.
Up to 160,000 social homes in England are impacted by “notable” mould and damp, with 8,000 posing a serious risk to health, according to new figures by the Regulator of Social Housing.
Meanwhile, the number of people forced out of their homes reached 5,409 in the last three months of 2022.
For families facing eviction, their local authority is often unable to offer them alternative housing due to a nationwide shortage. A government pledge to end no-fault evictions has stalled. The fifth housing minister in twelve months has just been appointed.
The charity Housing Matters reports increasing numbers of suicidal callers to its helpline. Crisis warns thousands of renters are left “with nowhere to go.”
And there are fears more children are ending up in care.
The Expert View
Dr Robin Sen is co-author of recent BASW guidance on working with families with housing needs.
He is campaigning to change the data returns on family contact with children’s services in England so that “family homelessness” and “inadequate housing” are captured as reasons for children’s service contact and entry into care.
“Currently, the national returns do not capture this data,” Dr Sen explains, “so the influence of homelessness and poor housing on contact with children’s social care services is not recorded.”
Dr Sen, co-editor of the journal Practice: Social Work in Action, believes the profession needs to keep up the pressure, and make sure there is better recording of the reasons why children come into contact with social services – particularly around housing issues.
“The ‘Children Looked After’ (CLA) return captures a point in time which includes information on how many children are in care, and how many are in need as of 31 March each year.
“There is a checklist of seven categories, and the biggest category recorded tends to be abuse or neglect. The government data currently only reports on one category - ‘the primary need’.
“In the majority of cases where a child comes into care the reasons are not reducible to this one primary need or reason.
“Homelessness is not specifically mentioned on the list at all. When I contacted the team that compiles the Department for Education figures for CLA returns, they said that issues of family homelessness should be included in the ‘family in acute stress’ category.
“However, the category of ‘family in acute stress’ will include other things besides homelessness and there is no way of telling how often homelessness, or risk of homelessness, is a primary need/factor.
“We are asking that government takes the easily achievable step of encouraging social workers to record both primary and secondary issues and that they themselves report on these in returns for children’s services. We are also asking the government to introduce two new categories:
- Family homelessness/severe risk of homelessness
- Inadequate or very poor quality housing
Practice Implications
The BASW guidance places the needs of children first and aims to make social workers more conscious of the fact that placing a child in care purely because of housing issues or homelessness is to be avoided.
“We didn’t want to say ‘never’,” Dr Sen explains, “as cases can be complex and there can be other issues impacting on a family’s ability to care for a child. There can be financial issues, domestic violence, mental health factors, parenting concerns, child behaviour.
“Where housing is a primary factor, we are recommending that social workers have explored other options and that if a child is placed in care, it needs to be a temporary measure while the family are helped to find appropriate housing so the child can return.”
Dr Sen is aware that social workers are under overwhelming pressure in their day-to-day jobs but adds: “We need to remind people of what our profession is about, and how people need to be adhering to the rules. There also needs to be better recording of how housing needs are unmet.
“At the moment that data isn’t there, but we get anecdotal information from organisations like Project 17, Shelter and Crisis, so we know social workers would agree with what we are saying.
“Social workers should record in their notes that housing is an issue, so that it can be highlighted by managers and brought to the attention of funders, and bodies like the Association of Directors of Children’s Services (ACDS).
“It’s about advocating together and fighting for people’s rights, rather than being fearful of getting other agencies involved.”
The BASW Branch View
Alan Dean is a member of the Black Country branch of BASW, who tabled an AGM motion last year also flagging up the fact that housing and homelessness are key reasons for children coming into care. With 40 years of experience in the sector, he has sat on a housing association board and has worked with multiple agencies on housing issues over the years.
He believes there needs to be better interagency working between housing and social services and said: “Good housing is the equivalent of having good sewers and clean water. And the fact that we've let that slip is shameful. Part of the problem is that social services and housing don't quite understand each other. And so housing slips off the social care agenda and then it slips off the housing agenda.”
Alan, like Dr Sen, sees housing insecurity and the threat of homelessness as one of the dominant issues facing social workers who are trying to assist families.
“A critical part of the problem remains families in bed and breakfasts, in temporary accommodation, which scars people’s lives. It beggars belief that we have an astronomical number of people living in a single room in multi-shared accommodation, often for long periods.
“It has a particularly scarring effect on children. Then there is the group of people who live in insecure tenancies. That can lead to homelessness, mental health issues and problems with health.
“We have to have a system that’s fair in terms standards of accommodation and the rights of people who are being asked to move on. It’s clearly not a good position at the moment.
“Housing has to become one of our top priorities, for the people who live in temporary accommodation, the people forced into it, and the people forced into homelessness, all of which is scandalous.”
Alan believes continued lobbying is one of the main ways that BASW and its members can try to effect change.
“People in housing know less about social care than the people in social care who in turn know less about housing… the levers are different. You have to get into the housing lobby as much as you get into the social care lobby and get them talking to each other.
“It may be helpful if BASW were to lobby the ADCS and ADASS about the centrality of housing in terms of community and individual need: to go to the directors and flag up the number of people living in temporary accommodation and the damage it is doing to our young people.
“They will all claim, of course, that they are taking it seriously… but you have to test how far that claim goes.”
Housing Facts
- 94,870 households were in temporary accommodation in England on 30 June 2022
- 62.7 per cent included dependent children, with a total of 120,710 dependent children living in temporary accommodation
- The number of households in B&Bs with dependent children increased 65.7 per cent to 2,320 households between June 2021 and June 2022
- Of the households with children in B&Bs, 1,020 had been resident for more than the statutory limit of six weeks - up 108.2 per cent in a year and up 52.2 per cent from the previous quarter (DLUHC 2022)
- 23 per cent of private rentals in England failed to meet the decent home standards in 2021-22, compared with 13 per cent of owner occupied homes and ten per cent of social housing (English Housing Survey)
- 64.3 per cent of households were owner occupiers in 2022, 19 per cent were private renters, and nearly 17 per cent were social tenants (Statista)
Ongoing Campaigns
The authors of BASW’s reflective guide for social workers working with families in housing need make the following demands of government:
- We suggest that the government should consider amending the ‘SSDA903 - Children Looked after Return’ and other national data returns on family contact with children’s services in England such that they capture family homelessness and inadequate housing as reasons for children’s service contact and children’s entry into care. For the SSDA903 return, this will entail allowing social workers to record multiple reasons as to why a child is entering care.
- We urge the government to implement one of its Conservative predecessor’s promises to end 'no-fault' evictions in England and Wales under s.21 of the Housing Act (1988). These evictions have been prohibited in Scots law since 2017. Such a development would help provide greater security of tenure for private sector tenants