A safe place of one’s own? Exploring practice and policy dilemmas in child welfare practice with families waiting for adequate and secure housing

Figures & data

Table 1. Respondents: setting and job roles.

Type of setting	Number	Job role	Number
Local authority children's social services	34	Main Grade Social Worker	16
Other	3	Other	6
Voluntary sector	1	Locality manager/other middle manager	4
		Team leader/practice consultant	4
		Senior Manager	3
		Newly qualified social worker	2
		Student social worker	2
		Principal social worker	1
Total	38		38

Table 2. Is family homelessness a major factor or a contributory factor to children’s entry into state care?.

	Major factor	Contributory factor
Much of the time	5%	13%
Sometimes	42%	58%
Rarely	39%	16%
Very rarely	11%	13%
Never	3%	0%

Table 3. Reasons for family homelessness.

	Yes %	No %
1. The lack of appropriate social housing available	82	18
2. Domestic violence	82	18
3. Deemed ‘intentionally homeless’	79	21
4. The impact of No Recourse to Public Funds	76	24
5. Poor tenancy management by the parents	76	24
6. The lack of support in finding alternative accommodation which exists	74	26
7. Parental alcohol or substance misuse	74	26
8. Parental mental health difficulties	74	26
9. Problems accessing adequate welfare benefits	66	34
10. Anti-social behaviour by the family	63	37
11. Private landlord ending tenancy (not due to family behaviour)	55	45
12. Child behavioural problems including youth offending	47	53
13. Community harassment of the family	39	61

Data availability statement

The survey questions used are made available. Participants were not asked to give consent for their data to be shared publicly, so supporting data themselves are not available.