The children who 'suddenly disappear' - Birmingham teacher's 'stressful' truth

Once it was rare for a family to become homeless, now a city centre headteacher says that it has happened 'multiple times' over the past year

A Birmingham headteacher has shared the utter devastation that extreme poverty can lead to - and how it is on the rise at her school. Whilst previously there would be an 'occasional' family that ended up homeless, she says there have been 'multiple cases' over the past 12 months.

As living costs rise, families are being more tightly squeezed. Distressingly, the first that teachers will sometimes realise the extent of the problem will be when a child fails to turn up to school.

Rebecca Bakewell, principal at City Academy, said that the school's attendance team 'kicks into action immediately' but that, sadly, in some cases they will be too late.

Birmingham: A Child Poverty Emergency

Child poverty is soaring in Birmingham and without urgent change, will only get worse. Having worked with charities and community groups, BirminghamLive is campaigning for the following changes to start to turn the tide:

1. End the two-child benefit cap
2. Provide free school meals to every child in poverty
3. Create a city “aid bank” for baby and child essentials
4. Protect children’s and youth services
5. Create permanent, multi year Household Support Fund and give more Discretionary Housing grants
6. Set up child health and wellbeing hubs in our most deprived neighbourhoods
7. Appoint a Birmingham child poverty tsar
8. Provide free public travel for young people

You can see why in more detail here.

Read our full report Birmingham: A Child Poverty Emergency here.

What you can do to help.

Read more: 10,000 and counting - record number of homeless kids in city as scandal worsens

She said: "In the past, we would occasionally have a family whose circumstances led to them being made homeless. Sadly, we have had multiple cases of this in this last school year, and into double figures.

"We notice it because a child will suddenly ‘disappear’ and fail to attend school. Our attendance team kicks into action immediately but in these cases will struggle to raise a family on the phone. So, they will then make a home visit – only to find an eviction notice on the door.

"After making appropriate searches and contacting the relevant agencies, they will eventually find the family – perhaps living with relatives or friends or housed in temporary accommodation, such as a hotel. This is clearly very disruptive for a child’s education and hugely stressful for the families concerned."

The rise in cases of child homelessness is one of the many reasons why we at BirminghamLive have launched a campaign to highlight the impact of infant poverty. We are calling on the new government to do more to help families in the city.

Want to take action? - Contact your MP!

"Beyond the immediate deprivation and distress, it is hard to quantify the impact on a child’s mental health, but we do feel, anecdotally, we are seeing greater numbers of students struggling with anxiety," said the headteacher of the city centre school.

"These are children trying to manage adults’ problems and it is heartbreaking. Making our pastoral team very accessible, and offering students the time to talk, to feel heard and supported, is therefore really important. Our aim is to provide sanctuary; a school environment in which they feel warm, safe and cared for by adults they can trust; and help to fulfil their basic needs.

"But we also want to offer hope, opportunity and experiences that can raise their expectations and ambitions for life. They need to believe life can be better, and it is our job to instil that belief each and every day."