The Government has introduced a new Temporary Accommodation Notification Duty to strengthen information sharing between housing, education and health services when children are placed in temporary accommodation. The duty is intended to improve outcomes for children by ensuring that schools, GPs and health visiting services are aware of circumstances that may affect a child's health, wellbeing, development and education. 

This is particularly significant given the record number of children currently living in temporary accommodation and the well-established evidence that temporary accommodation can negatively affect children's educational attainment, physical and emotional health, and overall wellbeing.

What is the duty?

Under the new Temporary Accommodation Notification Duty, the local housing authority must notify a child's school, GP and health visiting service when a family with children is initially placed into temporary accommodation.

The purpose is not simply administrative. It is intended to:

• Improve multi-agency information sharing.

• Enable earlier identification of need.

• Support educational continuity.

• Improve access to health services and developmental support.

• Reduce the risk that vulnerable children become "invisible" when families move into temporary accommodation. 

What should partner agencies do when they receive a notification?

Schools and Education Settings

Schools should consider whether the child may require:

• Additional pastoral support.

• Monitoring of attendance and punctuality.

• Support with transport or access to education.

• Consideration of the impact of housing instability on learning and wellbeing.

• Safeguarding assessment where wider vulnerabilities are identified. 

Schools should ensure that temporary accommodation is considered as a potential indicator of vulnerability alongside other known risk factors.

GP Practices

GP practices should:

• Ensure registration arrangements are maintained.

• Consider whether the family's housing situation creates barriers to healthcare access.

• Be alert to unmet health needs and wider safeguarding concerns.

• Support continuity of care where families have moved area.

Health Visiting Services

Health visiting services play a particularly important role for children under five.

Health visitors should:

• Maintain contact with families living in temporary accommodation.

• Deliver the Healthy Child Programme.

• Monitor child development and wellbeing.

• Support infant feeding, parental mental health and parenting confidence.

• Provide advice on accident prevention and safe sleeping arrangements for babies. 

The guidance emphasises that all children under 5 and pregnant women should have a named health visitor, including when living in temporary accommodation.

Key Points For Professionals

1. Temporary accommodation should be viewed as a vulnerability factor

Whilst homelessness or temporary accommodation does not automatically indicate significant harm, it may increase vulnerability and compound existing risks.

Partners should consider:

• Adverse impacts on physical and mental health.

• Educational disruption.

• Social isolation.

• Increased stress on parents and carers.

• Potential barriers to accessing universal and specialist services. 

2. Early Help may be appropriate

Notification should prompt consideration of whether:

• Additional support is needed.

• Existing plans need reviewing.

• A Team Around the Family approach would be beneficial.

• Information should be shared with other practitioners already involved with the family.

3. Information sharing remains everyone's responsibility

The duty reflects the wider expectations set out in Working Together 2026 and the Information Sharing Duty, reinforcing that agencies should actively share information that supports children's welfare and outcomes.

Notifications should be used to strengthen coordinated multi-agency responses rather than operate as a standalone process.

Additional local opportunities

Although the statutory notification is required only at the initial placement, the guidance encourages local authorities and partners to consider agreeing additional notifications where this would support continuity of care or education, for example:

• When a family moves to another temporary accommodation placement.

• When a child is placed in a different local authority area.

• When there is a need to maintain ongoing education or health support.

The guidance also suggests that local areas may wish to consider arrangements for notifying health visiting services when a pregnant woman is placed into temporary accommodation, even though this is not a statutory requirement.

Implications for Croydon Partners

CSCP member agencies should:

• Ensure frontline staff understand the new duty.

• Recognise temporary accommodation as a potential safeguarding and welfare vulnerability.

• Review local information sharing arrangements.

• Strengthen links between housing, education, health and safeguarding services.

• Pay particular attention to the needs of children under five and pregnant women.

• Use notifications as an opportunity for early intervention and coordinated support.

Key CSCP Message

A notification of temporary accommodation should not simply be filed; it should trigger professional curiosity and consideration of what additional support may be required to help a child remain safe, healthy, engaged in education and able to thrive despite the challenges of housing instability.

Source: Temporary Accommodation Notification Duty: Information to Accompany the Homelessness Code of Guidance, Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government, September 2026.