Who cares?

When the 23-year-old walked into Leicester council's Border House hostel last March, staff could have handed her care straight to social workers. Instead, the case was taken up by one of the housing department's family support workers. She provided an extra layer of support, encouraging Sally onto a parenting course and getting her a dedicated social worker and psychiatrist.

Sally moved into her first home, a rented council flat, in December and had a healthy baby boy. "I don't know if she would have kept hold of the baby without help," says family support manager Sue Rastall.

Leicester's family support team are the exception rather than the rule, but with the launch of the Children Bill last Thursday, this kind of crossover between social services and housing is set to become much more common. Child welfare is shaping up to be the next big policy area for social landlords.

The bill was sparked by the murder of eight-year-old Victoria Climbié in February 2000 by her supposed carers, and the failure of social services to save her. It aims to join up education, social services and other organisations to avoid the catastrophic breakdown in communication involved in the Climbié case. Education and social services have statutory responsibilities for children and will bear the immediate brunt of the reforms. But with 2.5 million children in social housing, according to the 2001/2 ODPM Survey of English Housing, the bill also presents major challenges for the sector.

For the first time, landlords have a part to play in preventing another tragedy. Housing departments, according to the bill, "may be the first service to identify a family moving between or within local authority areas". Housing will play a crucial part in the information-sharing that the bill demands, and in the provision of facilities for children (see "What the bill says", below).

Keeping tabs on children
As well as joining social services, health, education and other professionals in a new breed of children's trusts run by councils, housing departments will have to contribute

to "information hubs" with details of every child in the local area. There will also be new directors of children's services to answer to in every council, accountable for education and children's social services, and a councillor with responsibility for children. At the top will be a children's commissioner for England "to be a voice for all children and young people, especially those who are most vulnerable".

We hope our work stops children we see now coming back as vulnerable tenants in the future

Sue Rastall, leicester council

By March 2006, the bill also pledges to set up centres in the poorest 20% of wards offering exactly the kind of service that Leicester's housing department has pioneered.

At Leicester, social services and housing are run as separate departments, but since 2000, family support staff have been trained in child protection – so they can spot suspicious bruises or changes in a child's behaviour – and hold weekly casework meetings with health visitors, domestic violence support groups, community psychiatric nurses and child psychiatrists. The five-strong team has up to 100 cases like Sally's at a time and are funded through Supporting People and the housing budget.

The service also makes good business sense. Every child that stays with its mother is one less child in care. "It's preventive work so we don't end up with a revolving door," says Leicester's Sue Rastall. "We hope our work stops children we see now coming back as vulnerable tenants in the future."

Early detection
Early detection of children at risk is a crucial part of the new agenda. It places responsibility not only with social services but with every department that interacts with vulnerable children.

"Housing often comes across risk factors first," says Andrew Cozens, director of the Association of Directors of Social Services. "For example, a family in temporary accommodation that has fled domestic violence might have lost contact with their health visitor, but will be in touch with housing staff."

Sally Keeble, MP for Northampton North, adds that housing officers are often more likely to spot problems such as when a usually confident toddler suddenly withdraws. "The children who are often at most risk are pre-school – so their problems aren't picked up. I don't think housing should be some sort of surrogate social services, but they've got to be properly involved."

Being properly involved means housing must brace itself for the new data-sharing agenda. Leicester and Sheffield, for example, are among several of the 35 pilot children's trusts that have housing on the partnership boards planning the new organisations. "Where partners are developing children's trusts, they will want to involve housing officers to ensure that the whole needs of children and families can be effectively met," says a spokeswoman for the Department for Education and Skills.

Housing is a macho world and the children’s agenda is not seen as a priority. Is a family better off with parenting skills or double-glazing?

Kate Atkinson

On a practical level, landlords will have to alert the council and health authority about longer-term issues such as future needs for disabled children. When a family moves to a new area, the first organisation to come into contact with them – usually housing – will have to get hold of information on the child from the council where the family previously lived and share it with colleagues.

Barriers to reform
Implementing the change is not straightforward, though. To begin with, there is the usual problem with communication. Different council departments, for example, use different child assessment forms and have varying definitions of what constitutes a "child in need".

There is also a question mark over whether data protection legislation will hamper effective data-sharing. Adonis Daniel, chair of Ujima, agrees with the concept of closer working with social services, but says the housing association often struggles to find out about clients referred from the common housing list. "Those with information about families' needs don't pass it on because of data protection. Then we have to find out by trial and error and it can be costly and time-consuming," he says. "It would help children and families if information could be shared."

So far, a handful of local authorities and RSLs have grasped the nettle, providing specialised support services or childcare facilities. Hull Churches Housing Association, for example, runs eight supported family schemes catering for almost 200 families under a joint management structure with social services. Chief executive Kate Atkinson believes that most RSLs are obsessed with development rather than the "softer" issues such as social care: "Housing is a macho world and the children's agenda is not seen as a priority. Is a family better off with parenting skills or double-glazing? Housing isn't just about decent homes."

And Stephen Burke, director of childcare campaign group the Daycare Trust, says: "There are some housing organisations doing some excellent work with neighbourhood nurseries, for example, but this is still piecemeal. "There are many that have yet to be fully engaged with the childcare agenda – and while they're not, we're all missing a trick."

Brian Reynolds, Barnet council's deputy chief executive and director of social affairs, is responsible for both housing and social services. He foresees wider consequences for housing, linked to the replacement of the statutory posts of chief executive and director of social services, with directors of adult social services, and education and children.

"As more and more councils go the stock transfer or ALMO route, effectively there could be a much greater move towards community services departments, where the retained functions such as homelessness, housing advice and policy are subsumed within the social services role," he says.