The East of England LGA is running a series of free roundtable discussions in 2024 and 2025. These sessions are open to all councils in the East of England and their partner organisations. At the EELGA roundtable, you will hear from a guest speaker on each theme and have an opportunity to learn from, and share your own examples of, best practice, opportunities, and challenges.
Following on from our previous roundtable on housing and health inequalities, this roundtable will focus on the impact of the UK’s housing crisis on children. We will explore how issue of housing supply, affordability and quality are impacting children’s health and life chances.
Between July and September last year, there were 109,000 households in temporary accommodation in England, including 142,490 children. There are a growing number of families living in overcrowded, insecure and poor-quality homes which are increasing children’s risk of ill health.
Recognising the importance of a good quality, stable and safe home for children to support future healthy communities, this roundtable will explore:
- The ways in which housing can impact on children’s health and need for other services.
- The specific housing needs of children with special educational needs and disabilities.
- Good practice examples of partnerships addressing housing problems affecting children’s health.
- Actions that Integrated Care Systems can take to mitigate the health risks that housing problems can cause for children.
- Recommendations to Government on why and how we need to focus on housing to ensure children get the best start in life.
At the roundtable, we will hear from Andrew Phillips, Senior Researcher at the cross-party think tank Demos, who will be presenting on Demos’s recent research report Wall to Wall Support: Joining up public services and housing for vulnerable children, young people and families, which was launched in December last year at an event in Parliament with the Children’s Commissioner. The report investigates the experiences of children, young people and families as they relate to public services and housing, based on a mixture of in-depth qualitative research, a quantitative survey, roundtables with policy stakeholders and economic analysis.
The Demos report argues that siloed services stuck in ‘firefighting mode’ are missing the opportunity to take the joined-up and holistic approach which would improve long-term outcomes. The research shows how too often vulnerable children, young people and families are in such a difficult housing situation that it is having a negative impact on their quality of life and increasing their need for other services such as the NHS. Andrew will present on the research findings and the policy recommendations.
This roundtable will form part of EELGA’s research for a report on ‘Healthy Homes in the East of England’. This report will bring together data, strategies and case studies to illustrate what needs to be done to tackle housing problems impacting people’s health. If you are interested in sharing your area’s experience, please contact Kate O’Driscoll, Policy and Programmes Manager, kate.odriscoll@eelga.gov.uk.
Who should attend: Local councillors and officers working in housing and children’s services, registered housing providers, the health and VCSE sectors.
Please note: if this session is oversubscribed places will be limited to 2 – 3 people per authority.
If you have any queries please contact Matthew Stewart, Policy and Programmes Manager, East of England LGA, email; matt.stewart@eelga.gov.uk
Please see below for a copy of the presentation:
Andrew Phillips Presentation - 16.05.24
