Co-designing health visitor support for refugee families in temporary accommodation

This project will co-design culturally responsive health visiting services for refugee and asylum-seeking families with preschool children in temporary accommodation. 

Why is this important?

Refugee and asylum-seeking (RAS) children in temporary accommodation often face developmental disruptions and invisibility in public health services. Approximately 14,000 RAS children in the UK live in temporary accommodation, with many experiencing unsuitable, hotel-like conditions for extended periods, undermining their early development. The structural separation between asylum accommodation and local authority systems excludes RAS families from essential protections. The first five years of a child’s life are widely recognised as the most rapid and fundamental period for cognitive, physical, and emotional development. Instability, chronic stress, and environmental hazards – all common characteristics of temporary accommodation – can inflict lasting harm on a child’s development. 

What does it involve?

The project will explore how health visiting (HV), a universal service for families with children under five, can mitigate negative health and developmental outcomes caused by temporary accommodation conditions. The research team aim to: 

• Understand current HV challenges in supporting RAS families in temporary accommodation.   

• Co-design a culturally responsive HV service model informed by lived experiences and trauma sensitivity.   

• Develop a deployable blueprint for HV training and capacity building.   

• Engage diverse stakeholders, including trainers, midwives, and social workers, for practical and scalable solutions.   

The research will involve: 

• A review of research evidence, including current work being undertaken by the team, and stakeholder mapping. 

• Four online discussions with up to 16 health visitors from across the UK who’ve worked with RAS families to understand challenges and service gaps.  

• Bringing together the partners for a series of workshops to generate and prioritise actionable ideas. A workshop of wider stakeholders – trainers, midwives, social workers, charities – will provide feedback. 

• Testing ideas with up to eight RAS families in temporary accommodation. 

• Developing the ideas through sprints and workshops with the stakeholder group into service blueprints of what culturally responsive, trauma sensitive HV practice with RAS families in temporary accommodation should look like. 

How will it make a difference?

Findings will be shared with HV practitioners, policymakers, RAS families, and wider stakeholders. Outputs will include a validated service blueprint, training materials, webinars, and policy briefs.