Accommodation for children should be top of social housing concerns, not just an addendum
By Deborah Stainforth, Community Engagement Officer, at private social housing provider Abode Living
Last month, housing minister Rachel Maclean issued a statement saying that councils should consider including accommodation for children in care in their assessment of local housing need.
The move would be part of the Government’s commitment to ‘support the development of accommodation for looked-after children’.
As private social impact conscious social housing providers, this seems like a step in the right direction, but it’s not nearly enough.There are plenty of families on housing waiting lists, and plenty more in social housing that rely on support or, if they’re lucky, private providers and RPs that take an extra step.Despite the platitudes behind the statement, in 2023, ‘considering’ those in care and in social housing just isn’t a commitment of any kind.
There’s a lot being said about the benefits or otherwise of being a For Profit Registered Provider of Affordable Housing but with our portfolio of social housing schemes, our thoughts were more on the extra support we could offer tenants as part of helping them to live better lives. And one of our priorities centres around their children.The family unit is a key focus of our largest scheme in Crawley West Sussex, and it was with this in mind that we hired a community engagement officer to help accelerate our support for Early Years Education, around which we now have a full action plan.
Many of our families moved away from their previous living locations and have had to start fresh. Some have missed out on nursery places, some simply can’t afford it, even with Govt help and ‘free hours’.
So we plan to deliver this crucial early years support in our own way. Some of it is delivered in-house, some in tandem with the brilliant educational resources or businesses locally. This is voluntary and with no added service charge, it’s part of our investment in our communities. My point is that this is what families are relying on – the investment by private companies. In the midst of an affordability crisis where 1m families are on housing waiting lists and 40 councils in the UK haven’t delivered any new units in over five years, why are we only considering including children in our local development plans?
This is absolutely not a slight on local authorities, many of whom we work closely with and who have numerous resource and funding challenges, but rather a mark of disappointment with a wider housing strategy that just doesn’t work. Why we, and others like us, are happy to provide services, it’s not nearly enough for the many, many families who need better help. And, as the Duchess of Cambridge has campaigned: the early years form the latter.
We must all do so much more, but together, not individually.