Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of the potential impact of living in temporary accommodation on the educational attainment of children at each of the key stages between early years and key stage 4.

Too often opportunity for children and young people is defined by their background and we know that disadvantaged young people face barriers to engagement with education, which can include practical barriers like insecure housing. If children are unable to engage with education, it doesn’t matter how good teaching and learning is, they will not benefit.

The Opportunity Mission will break the link between young people’s backgrounds and their future success, ensuring family security and providing the best start in life, with all children achieving and thriving and building skills for opportunity and growth.

The Ministerial Taskforce jointly chaired by my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, and my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education will use all available levers to drive cross-government action on child poverty, starting with overseeing the development of our ambitious Child Poverty Strategy, which will be published in spring 2025.

From April 2025 we will be rolling out Family Help Services that will prioritise supporting the whole family and intervening at the earliest opportunity to prevent challenges escalating.  Lead practitioners will undertake assessments of all the needs of the family, including those who are experiencing, or at risk of experiencing, homelessness, and will work to support families where this may be part of a more complex set of needs.

The government has set up a dedicated Inter-Ministerial Group which my right hon. Friend, the Deputy Prime Minister chairs, bringing together Ministers from across government to develop a long-term strategy to put us back on track to ending homelessness. As announced at the Autumn Budget 2024, funding for homelessness services is increasing next year by £233 million compared to 2024/25. This increased spending will help to prevent rises in the number of families in temporary accommodation and help to prevent rough sleeping. This brings total spend to nearly £1 billion in 2025/26.

More widely, we want a school system in which all children can achieve and thrive, no matter their background. This is why we have begun work to recruit an additional 6,500 expert teachers and launched an independent, expert-led Curriculum and Assessment Review that will look closely at the key challenges to attainment for young people, in particular those who are socioeconomically disadvantaged.