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14 July 2025
David Troy, Senior Research Associate at NIHR ARC West, is working on the Supporting research and evidence-informed decision making in children’s social care (SEEDS) project. It aims to improve how research evidence informs practice and decision making in children’s social care. Thanks to a University of Bristol Knowledge Mobilisation Catalyst Award, David ran a workshop with social care practitioners to explore how housing is a barrier to their work with children and families.
Everyone deserves a safe and secure roof over their heads. I recently ran a workshop discussing the current crisis in housing in the children’s social care sector and exploring some possible solutions. A 30% increase in the number of children in care over the last 15 years, many with more complex needs, alongside difficulties recruiting and retaining foster carers, has contributed to a shortage of suitable placements in the sector. This is contributing to several issues, including:
The workshop brought together Bristol City Council and Gloucestershire County Council housing officers based in children’s social care departments and academics from the Applied Research Collaboration (ARC) West with an interest in children’s social care.
Also joining us was the project manager of the Tackling Root Causes Upstream of Unhealthy Urban Development (TRUUD) Project that is seeking to influence policy and practice for healthier urban development to reduce non-communicable diseases.
From the workshop, I learned that housing officers are working within a system that is overstretched and under resourced. They are trying their best on a daily basis to place young people in the most suitable accommodation for their needs but there are not enough placements in the system. Placements require varying levels of support in terms of staffing levels and multidisciplinary professional support for the young person.
I learned that how the system works needs to be modernised. Housing officers currently have to ring their list of temporary accommodation providers every morning to ask what capacity they have available. Some providers operate a policy that if a bed is not occupied for a night, the young person loses it. This has resulted in a young person who had to spend a night in hospital losing their place in temporary accommodation.
Lastly, I learned that housing affordability has to be improved across the board and I presented some low cost housing solutions that have been used elsewhere in the UK that could help the situation.
I am using what I learned to develop a funding bid to carry out research to further explore the problems raised during the workshop with the involvement of attendees as expert advisors. The research will aim to generate evidence about policy alternatives for decision makers who are currently using private providers that don’t offer value for money.
From conversations with local policymakers, I am of the view they would choose alternative housing solutions that could reduce costs and allow them to provide more placements for their current spend if presented with a comparison to current policies/provision. This belief was strengthened from reflections during the workshop that local decision makers are relying upon providers of temporary accommodation as a short term fix but realise it is not a sustainable solution.
Reflecting on the workshop, it was such a privilege to be in a room with such passionate people who care deeply about the young people in their care. They were full of ideas on how to improve housing in children’s social care and my job now is conduct research that will make a compelling case for change. Although, it is a lot of work to bring busy professionals together, the insights you gain are completely worth the effort.
I would like to thank the University of Bristol Population Health Science Institute for funding my workshop, the Watershed for hosting the workshop and most importantly the participants who shared so honestly and passionately their ideas and experiences.
I am currently working on the Supporting research and evidence-informed decision making in children’s social care (SEEDS) Project seeking to improve how research evidence informs practice and decision making in children’s social care. Discussions with practitioners during this project alerted me to the fact that housing is a consistent barrier to their work with children and families. For example, a lack of adequate housing options can restrict a family’s ability to be reunified with their children in care or block a care leaver’s ambition to live independently. This was the impetus behind the workshop.
The Knowledge Mobilisation Catalyst Awards were funded by the University of Bristol Population Health Science Institute (PHSI). Over 2 funding rounds 13 research teams were supported to organise stakeholder engagement workshops and events. These involved a wide range of professionals, industry partners and members of the public on diverse topics including:
Blogs from all the award holders describing the outcomes of their work are available on the PHSI website.