Educating Young People about Homelessness

1. Questions to the Minister for Education – in the Senedd on 23 October 2019.

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Photo of David Melding David Melding Conservative

(Translated)

4. What action is the Welsh Government taking to inform and educate young people about homelessness through the education system? OAQ54595

Photo of Kirsty Williams Kirsty Williams Liberal Democrat 1:54, 23 October 2019

Thank you very much. Preventing homelessness requires a holistic approach across all public services. However, within education, the youth service is playing a key role in tackling and preventing homelessness. This is supported through our wider education reform, including our new curriculum and the introduction of a whole-school approach to mental health and well-being.

Photo of David Melding David Melding Conservative

Thank you for that encouraging answer. I'm sure you'll be encouraged by the Youth Parliament also calling for a greater focus on skills in our educational system. The skill of living, the skill of keeping a tenancy going, and the skill of knowing where to go for help when things break down is an essential one, I would say. In those classes that promote citizenship, social awareness and health and well-being, as you referred to, I really do think we need to focus on this great scourge, because one of the worst things that can happen to you is that you're homeless or, indeed, end up on the streets as a rough-sleeper. I think this is where we need to start to tackle the problem, just making people more aware of what to do, and schools and colleges have a great part to play here. 

Photo of Kirsty Williams Kirsty Williams Liberal Democrat 1:55, 23 October 2019

I couldn't agree with you more, David; I'm sure all of us with an interest in these issues will have been impressed by the strength of the call from members of our Youth Parliament for reform of the education system, and the need to balance their education system, yes, with subject knowledge and qualifications, but also with those essential skills that they feel they need to be the successful adults that they want to be when they leave school. And I look forward to joining with members of the Youth Parliament on Friday of this week to discuss the contents of that report, and how our reform journey can respond as positively as possible to that call from young people themselves about what they see to be the current deficit in the education model that we have.

We also know, David, that the warning signs of potentially becoming NEET are also a good indicator of a warning sign of a young person that is in danger of becoming homeless. So, there is work that we need to do within schools about ensuring that children are participating in school, attending, and not in danger of dropping out, because that is a very good warning sign to us that they potentially could go on to be homeless. So, there are many things, as I said, that we're doing at the moment, including additional investment, specifically in the youth service, to work alongside schools and young people on a preventing homelessness agenda, which I think will deliver real benefits for children and young people, as well as our wider curriculum reform and the opportunity that affords us to address the issues of skills. 

Photo of Leanne Wood Leanne Wood Plaid Cymru 1:57, 23 October 2019

Like austerity, homelessness is a political choice; it's a political choice made by politicians and by Government, and some people are of the view that homeless people themselves choose to be in that predicament, which is obviously complete rubbish. But that view is reinforced by authorities who clear homeless people out of the way, remove their belongings when they want to, and treat people generally with very little understanding and empathy. The only way to change attitudes is through education, and one of the best ways to educate is through direct experience. So, how can homeless people's direct experience help to inform young people to learn about this social disease, and do you think that links with direct experience will help people to become more sympathetic? 

Photo of Kirsty Williams Kirsty Williams Liberal Democrat

First of all, Leanne, can I say I have never believed, and I will never believe, that homelessness is a choice? It is the result of a set of circumstances that many of us in this Chamber hopefully will never know, but all of us could potentially be. A critical illness, a relationship breakdown, a drug or alcohol misuse problem can lead to this, so we should be very careful when we make those kinds of accusations and assertions about what leads to homelessness. It can happen to everybody regardless of where their starting position in life is, but we do know there are some people who are potentially more vulnerable to homelessness. And you're right that education can be a powerful tool in preventing homelessness, but also developing understanding of that problem for people who experience it. 

There is a reason why in our new curriculum we talk about areas of learning and experience, because my expectation of the curriculum is that it will afford the space in the school day for children to exactly experience what you have talked about—to be able to meet with people and to discuss with people who have that direct experience of what it is to live without a secure home, what it is to live out on the streets. And I believe our new curriculum creates that space and the expectation that we can work with voluntary organisations, organisations of survivors of all types of issues, that we can work together in our schools to deliver that broad education that our Youth Parliament is calling upon us to do.