7. What arrangements are in place to ensure that there is adequate support for pupils facing or experiencing homelessness? (OAQ51093)

Wales’s progressive legislation on homelessness prioritises households with children and requires all local authorities to find them a home. Homelessness constitutes a significant adverse childhood experience. The establishment of the ACE support hub will help ensure that schools are equipped to provide the most appropriate support to these very vulnerable learners.

Thank you for that response, Cabinet Secretary. You’ll probably be aware that in 2016-17, 16 and 17-year-olds made up around 3.33 per cent of households that were regarded as homeless in terms of the priority groups that we have, and, of course, we know that that age bracket is a very tough time because they’ve got exams, very often, falling in that period. Can I just ask you whether you’ve considered actually issuing guidance to local education authorities and indeed to schools on how to support people in those sorts of situations, because, clearly, they need some additional support, over and above that which is provided more generally to pupils in their classes, at that particular junction? So, I wonder whether you’ve considered issuing statutory guidance on this particular issue.

As I said, Darren, the establishment of the ACE hub is to help support schools to support children who are suffering from ACEs, and homelessness is a significant ACE. I’ll tell you what, Darren, maybe we could have a deal. I’ll, perhaps, consider issuing statutory guidance when your Government in Westminster stops taking such a draconian view of housing policy towards 16 and 17-year-olds, often which drives them into vulnerable situations because they are not regarded as having the same homelessness rights and benefit rights as older people, and you do something to pause universal credit.

I was wondering how you could tell us more about how young people are engaged with the issue surrounding homelessness in school. I’m obviously aware of the Shelter Cymru toolkit, which is widely used across schools in Wales, but I wonder how that can be enhanced upon, because we had a debate only last week from young people in Wrexham—not Wrexham, sorry—Ynys Môn, who came down to the National Assembly, and they were saying quite clearly that there are issues, if they are made homeless, that they find studying very difficult because they don’t have an environment where it’s comfortable, and they often don’t have Wi-Fi. So, how are you looking at those potential issues from young people who are at the coalface of this?

The Member makes a very worthwhile point, and we need to consider, always, how we can break down barriers that affect people’s ability to learn. We have, as a Government, developed our youth homelessness pathway, which was launched by the Cabinet Secretary for Communities and Children late last year, which sets out a comprehensive approach for helping young people to avoid homelessness, and the Cabinet Secretary for Communities and Children has announced earlier last month an additional £2.6 million for new projects, which will particularly focus on tackling rough sleeping and youth homelessness.