Improving outcomes for families at the intersection of social care and housing

There is a structural housing crisis in England that is pushing more families into acute housing need and homelessness. 

To this end, in 2022, the Families and Homes Change Project was established. This brought together strategic leaders and practitioners from housing, children and families services, and adults social care, along with academics and people with lived experience of the issues to explore the challenges and develop responses.

Official government figures show that the number of households with dependent children living in temporary homelessness accommodation is at its highest level in 20 years, with the number housed in B&Bs more than doubling (129% increase) in the final quarter of 2022 compared with 2021.

An increasing proportion of families are living in the private rented sector where the poorest housing conditions are found (up from eight per cent in 1997 to 21 per cent in 2019), this includes two thirds of children who are living in poverty, and one in six of all children in England live in overcrowded housing.

This is a shocking picture, not least because there is clear evidence that inadequate housing conditions and homelessness have a devastating impact on people’s physical, emotional and mental health, on children’s cognitive development and education, and on family relationships, potentially leading to chronic family stress (Murran and Brady, 2022; Croft et al., 2021; Kull et al, 2019; Bradley et al, 2018).  A lack of access to alternative suitable housing can also prevent women and children escaping domestic violence and abuse. 

Not surprisingly therefore, many families who experience housing deprivation are also in contact with social care professionals, and there is evidence that the housing crisis is generating increased demand for social care services (Association of Directors of Children’s Services, 2018; Cross et al., 2021; Sen et al., 2022). Despite this, housing and social care policy and practice is not always sufficiently aligned, which can have significant detrimental consequences for families. 

Although inter-agency working between housing and social care is legislated for under the Care Act 2014 and the Homelessness Reduction Act 2017, efforts to support families are fragmented across the two sectors, with professionals unsure of each other’s powers and duties. Such ‘siloed’ working can result in conflicting and contradictory policies (NICE, 2022; Hester, 2011; Bimpson et al., 2020) where the implementation of a policy by one professional group (in relation to housing allocation, for example) has detrimental impacts on the work of another (in relation to family wellbeing or reunification, for example). It also leaves families having to navigate a complex system of disjointed services and, sometimes, being unable to access the support they need.

It is therefore vital that new ways of inter-agency collaboration are introduced to develop a more holistic response so that social workers in adults and children’s services can better address families’ housing needs, and, likewise, housing professionals’ decision-making can support family welfare.

The Families and Homes Change Project aims to embed change and improve practice to enable better outcomes for families at the intersection of social care and housing. This brought together strategic leaders and practitioners from housing, children and families services, and adults social care, along with academics and people with lived experience of the issues to explore the challenges and develop responses.

The group developed new resources including a strategic briefing, practice tool and podcast, to support joint working across these statutory services. These resources seek to:

• Help improve knowledge about the intersection of families’ housing and social care needs.
• Facilitate a deeper understanding about how each sector works.
• Enhance professional confidence and curiosity.
• Support greater legal literacy across services.
• Empower professionals to develop and enhance effective inter-organisational collaboration in this area thereby improving connectivity in the system.

We hope that these resources are utilised to embed change and improve practice to enable better outcomes for families at the intersection of social care and housing.