This is the devastating impact growing up in temporary accommodation has on children’s GCSE results
Children’s Commissioner Dame Rachel de Souza has called on decision makers to talk more about what it’s like for children to grow up homeless after revealing just 11% of children who moved home 10 times earn five GCSEs
Children who live in temporary accommodation face living in poor conditions, far from their school or facing multiple disruptive moves. Image: Cottonbro / Pexels
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Children’s Commissioner Dame Rachel de Souza has called for action on the record number of children living in temporary accommodation after revealing how forced home moves are hurting kids’ GCSE prospects.
New research from Dame De Souza’s office showed just 11% of children who moved home 10 times while at school achieved five GCSEs, including England and maths, compared to 65% of children who had one home address.
Thousands of children in England face housing instability while at school with a record-high number of kids currently growing up in temporary accommodation.
Government figures show 80,530 households with children are living in temporary housing, and 164,040 individual children are experiencing homelessness – higher than at any point on record and 15.7% higher than a year previously.
It’s one of the reasons why more than 75,000 children – 12% of all leaving-age children – have moved at least three times while at school.
“Housing instability is a striking example of why the ways children experience the world must be reflected in solutions. Too often, their views are excluded from conversations about issues impacting their lives because as a society we have forgotten how precious and short childhood is,” said Dame De Souza.
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“To put it bluntly, children are paying the price of growing up in poverty – they are more likely than adults to live in cold, damp or overcrowded homes. I want decision makers to talk more about what it feels like for a child to be in temporary housing: that might mean having to share a bathroom with strangers, not feeling safe to go outside alone, having no space to study or play, or living miles out of town without access to public transport.
“Children have told me about homes that are in disrepair, damp, dirty, sometimes with no running water or toilet – in 2025 that’s shameful. Some find it hard to concentrate at school because of unfit housing, while others are forced to move school in the middle of the year – so it’s no surprise their education is paying the price of this disruption.”
The Children’s Commissioner research analysed Department for Education data on pupil postcode changes and GCSE exam results to dig into how home moves impact exam success.
They found that the more home moves a child makes during their school life, the less likely they are to achieve in their GCSEs.
Only half of those with three home moves achieved five GCSEs, including English and maths, compared to just over one in 10 of those who moved home 10 times.
A chart showing how home moves impact childrens’ GCSE results. Image: Children’s Commissioner
Homelessness can be one of the many reasons a family is forced to make a move, with children facing living in cramped temporary accommodation that can leave them with little space to study, living in damp and mouldy homes or facing longer travel times to school.
Stephen Elder, national prevention manager at youth homelessness charity Centrepoint said more prevention work is required to stop the impact on children before they lose their home.
While more social homes could keep children from facing eviction or multiple moves, the charity is piloting another project to identify children at risk of homelessness in Manchester and London schools.
Upstream England follows the model used in Wales by Llamau. That was based on a survey created at Cardiff University following a successful approach in Australia.
“Too many children grow up without knowing the stability of a home. The consequences are as well-documented as they are devastating, and central government can and should do more to ensure thousands of childhoods and teenage years are not blighted by uncertainty of not knowing where your bedroom will be from one month to the next,” said Elder.
“The cost to the government of placing children, young people and families in temporary accommodation is enormous and there are seemingly no quick wins or cheap fixes. Given the sheer number of families in this position and the number of new affordable and social homes needing to be built, it is easy to be fatalistic. But proactive steps can be taken that would ease the burden on public spending – and efforts need to be put into prevention, not just dealing with the issue once people have already lost their homes.
“At Centrepoint, for example, we have been successfully piloting early prevention work in schools that identify students at risk of homelessness who might otherwise have slipped under the radar and then – along with partners – engage them in wellbeing and family support to prevent it happening.”
