Data Insight: Disengagement from school among pupils experiencing homelessness in Wales

This Data Insight explores the association between disengagement from school and youth homelessness. The team analysed data from a screening tool forming part of a youth homelessness prevention scheme in Wales, known as Upstream Cymru. Three forms of school disengagement were measured: exclusions/suspension, truancy, and misbehavior.

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Reporting of school disengagement was higher among pupils who had experienced homelessness compared to pupils who had not. However, a significant proportion of homeless pupils appeared to be relatively engaged with school.

The team’s findings have implications for the logic of using observable signs of school disengagement as a basis for identifying young people who may need support because of homelessness.

What we found

• 6% of pupils (n = 291) experienced youth homelessness
• 78% of pupils in the sample reported none of the forms of school disengagement measured in this study
• experiencing youth homelessness increased the odds of reporting exclusions, truanting, and getting into lots of trouble
• 52% of pupils who had experienced youth homelessness showed some form of disengagement from school, compared to 20% of the not-homeless pupils. Intensity of disengagement also appeared to be more pronounced for pupils experiencing youth homelessness.

Why it matters

Youth homelessness is a significant issue in Wales, with nearly 6,500 young people (age 16 to 24 years old) approaching their local authority for assistance in 2023/24. International evidence suggests that moving prevention ‘upstream’ and into schools reduces the number of young people experiencing homelessness . The approach used to targeting homelessness prevention in schools is important to reduce missed opportunities to engage with at-risk youth prior to experiencing homelessness. 

This new analysis supports existing evidence of the association between youth homelessness and school disengagement. Pupils who had experienced homelessness reported much higher rates of all forms of school disengagement measured in the analysis.

However, 48% of pupils who had experienced youth homelessness appear to be relatively engaged with school—showing none of the signs of disengagement measured in this analysis. It is therefore unlikely that these homeless pupils would be identified by educators based on observable disengagement alone. The key implication is that asking directly about home lives through the use of a screening tool is potentially a far more effective method of identifying pupils at risk of or experiencing homelessness than inferring from observable behaviour.