When I first became a school governor, one of the things that struck me most was how quickly teachers notice when something in a child’s life shifts. Schools hold an extraordinary amount of relational knowledge. Often, they are the first place where stress shows up: in attendance, behaviour, tiredness, or a quiet withdrawal from friends. Yet until now, schools have not always been told when a child has been moved into temporary accommodation because their family is at risk of homelessness. That meant teachers were working hard to understand changes in behaviour without knowing the full story – and without knowing whether anyone else was already coordinating support around that family.

The change announced in the Government’s new Child Poverty Strategy marks a significant step forward. For the first time, councils in England will have a legal duty to notify schools, health visitors and GPs whenever a child enters temporary accommodation, through an amendment to the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill. The intention is simple but important: to ensure that the professionals who know a child best can respond earlier and more confidently, and that education and health services can work in a more joined-up way with councils when families face housing instability.

It is one measure in a wider strategy that also seeks to reduce the numbers of families trapped in temporary accommodation and scrap the two-child benefit cap, with the ambition of lifting more than half a million children out of poverty by 2030. At a time when a record 170,000-plus children are already living in temporary accommodation in England, this kind of systemic focus is overdue.  

But information alone does not change outcomes.

If this new duty is to make a real difference, we also need to be clear about the corollary question: what should happen even earlier, when school staff notice risk before a family reaches temporary accommodation at all?

We know from other countries how powerful this kind of information can be when it is used well. In the United States, the McKinney-Vento Act requires every school district to designate a homelessness liaison officer whose core job is to protect a child’s education when their housing becomes unstable. These liaison staff help ensure that pupils can stay in their original school even if they are moved miles away, arrange transport, secure access to school meals, uniforms and equipment, coordinate referrals to mental-health and social services, and make sure children can be enrolled immediately even when paperwork is missing.  

It is a system built on a simple insight: if you keep education stable, you keep at least one part of a child’s world stable. Emerging evidence from districts that invest in these roles suggests that they can help maintain attendance and continuity for students experiencing homelessness, even when everything else around them is shifting.  

Other countries reinforce the same lesson in different ways. In parts of Australia, state and federal programmes fund wellbeing staff directly in schools: from mental health practitioners in secondary schools in Victoria to wellbeing nurses and student wellbeing officers in New South Wales, so that families can be linked to health and social care support before stress and disruption spill fully into the classroom. The details differ, but the principle is consistent: notification only really matters when it unlocks support beyond the school gates, not when it leaves schools carrying even more.

This is where England now has an opportunity to go further – carefully, and with humility. Teachers often spot the warning signs of housing instability before anyone else does: repeated lateness linked to long journeys, exhaustion, anxiety, or conversations that hint at financial strain. This raises a critical question: what should a teacher do with that information?

Emerging ‘upstream’ approaches point to one possible answer. These models support schools to use simple, structured tools to identify children whose families may be at risk of homelessness earlier on, and - crucially - to have a clear route for escalating concern. The aim is not to turn teachers into housing officers, but to trigger early connection to housing advice, family support or financial help while problems are still solvable.

Seen this way, schools are not just recipients of information from councils. They are part of an early warning system. One grounded in trusted relationships and day-to-day observation rather than formal thresholds alone.

Joining up support across public services 

At the school in south London where I’m a governor, where a high proportion of pupils are eligible for the pupil premium, I see what stability in school can mean for a child living with uncertainty. Many pupils are growing up in households that face additional financial or social pressures. And yet the school delivers exceptional outcomes, year after year, not only because of high expectations in the classroom but also because of a quiet, steady culture of care.

But care alone is not enough, and schools cannot become mental-health hubs, social services and educators all at once. So if we want this new duty to translate into better results for children, we will need more than a flow of emails. We will need:

• A clear pathway out of the school, with a named lead in housing or family services who takes responsibility for coordinating support as soon as a notification, or early concern, is raised.

• Stronger local arrangements between housing, education, health and family support services, so that when a child enters temporary accommodation, or is clearly at risk of doing so, transport help, pastoral support and specialist advice can be put in place quickly and predictably rather than after months of chasing.

• Investment in pastoral and wellbeing capacity, so schools can respond to the information they receive without being overwhelmed by it, drawing on models where social workers, counsellors or youth workers are integrated with school life.

• Shared accountability for what success looks like: not just test scores, but stability, attendance, wellbeing and long-term prospects for children who experience homelessness.

If we get this right, the new duty can become more than a technical change. It can be the beginning of a more honest and hopeful way of working: one where a child’s housing situation is not treated as a private misfortune, but as a signal for the system to come together around them early enough to make a difference.

I am hopeful because I see what is possible when people pull in the same direction. I see it in schools, in local authorities and practitioners who are already trying to build more integrated responses under immense pressure. And I see it in this new recognition, written into law, that no child’s housing situation is just ‘background’ to their education.

This latest change is not the destination. But it is a beginning: a thread we can pull to weave a stronger safety net. What we choose to build around it: the partnerships, the follow-through, the care will decide whether this moment simply adds information, or whether it truly helps more children to feel safe, stay in school, and thrive.

‍

• Lígia Teixeira is Chief Executive of the Centre for Homelessness Impact

‍