On Thursday, 11th December 2025, the Government has released its Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Strategy, committing to support for households in Temporary Accommodation.
Over the past few years, Shared Health Foundation has been campaigning hard to improve Temporary Accommodation for children and families. We are delighted to see that our campaign asks have been implemented in both the Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Strategy and the Child Poverty Strategy released last week.
1. Recognition of the risk of child mortality in Temporary Accommodation. The APPG for Households in TA’s report on Child Mortality in Temporary Accommodation quoted throughout the Homelessness Strategy, with a commitment to reducing mortality.
2. Ending the use of B&Bs for families unless absolutely unavoidable.
3. Introduce the SAFE protocol to alert GPs and schools of a child’s homelessness.
4. Shared Health pilots of the SAFE protocol recognised as a success.
5. Introduce a clinical code for all children living in Temporary Accommodation to better identify and prevent incidents.
6. Commitment to reducing educational impact and children being off-rolled through better data collection and best practice.
7. Recognition of ‘The Debt Trap’ findings around the impact of domestic abuse on families in Temporary Accommodation. Commitment to address the barriers faced by survivors of domestic abuse when applying for social housing.
We have been calling for these policies for a long time, and it’s heartening to see the Government’s commitment to improving Temporary Accommodation for children and families.
We also welcome and support the following additional changes announced in the Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Strategy:
1. Set a new national target to prevent homelessness for more households and to help more people into stable homes quickly, this parliament.
2. Place new legal duties on public services to identify, act and collaborate to prevent and address homelessness.
3. Require every council to publish an action plan to accompany their local homelessness strategy.
4. Publish progress reports at least every two years to track progress at a national level against our actions and targets.
Dr Laura Neilson, CEO of the Shared Health Foundation, said:
“It is heartening to see that Ministers have heard the plight of the record number of children and families who are homeless. Alongside the Child Poverty Strategy, this Homelessness Strategy is ambitious in reducing the impact of homelessness on families.
We urge the Government to continue to show brave leadership and look forward to working together to go faster and beyond what is outlined today.
Homelessness should be rare, brief and non-recurring and not be detrimental to the life chances of children and young people.”
We look forward to working closely with Ministers and the sector to ensure that all actions announced in the strategies are implemented with urgency.
