One ongoing campaign is based on listening to what our families have to say about their housing conditions, so we are working in collaboration with other members of Southwark & Peckham Citizens to actively engage Southwark council and share our families’ experiences with them. We believe each and every one of our pupils deserves to live in good quality, stable and safe accommodation, so we’ll continue to raise awareness and advocate for them when we know this isn’t the case.

We have been lobbying parliament about children with No Recourse to Public Funds (NRPF) being able to access Free School Meals. NRPF is a restriction imposed on families who have Leave to Remain and means they can’t access any benefits, including social housing, free school meals or child benefit. All children in Southwark Primary School do have access to Free School Meals, so this issue only really came to light during the Covid-19 Lockdowns, when the government issued Free School Meal vouchers to all children eligible through their access to benefits, leaving children with NRPF locked out of support. Alongside other member institutions of London Citizens, including students at UCL, we raised awareness of this issue with politicians and decision-makers, leading to a change in the law.

We have been campaigning on Citizenship fees for children, as the extortionate amount parents were paying for their children to access their legal right to citizenship was pushing families into poverty. We contributed to a class action against the Home Office and saw the fees deemed unlawful. We were delighted with the success of the campaign, and the Home Office then introduced a fee waiver for those wishing to apply for citizenship who can’t afford the fees. Several of our pupils have been able to access citizenship via this route.