Nursery World - Children forced to sleep on the floor or on soiled and mouldy bedding due to poverty

More than one in 20 children are sleeping on the floor because they don’t have a bed of their own, according to findings from a survey by children’s charity Barnardo’s.

The survey by Barnardo's reveals the scale of 'bed poverty', PHOTO: Barnardo's

The survey of 1,048 parents with children under the age of 18, also found that around one in ten children (9 per cent) have had to share a bed with another member of their family.

Scaling up the findings, Barnardo’s believe there could be around 700,000 children sharing beds and 440,000 children sleeping on the floor because they don’t have a bed of their own.

The survey reveals one in 12 parents (8 per cent) said their children were ‘tired all of the time’ due to not having their own bed.

The charity also surveyed 100 of its frontline staff who had provided beds or bedding to children, young people and families struggling to afford the basics. They provided examples of families unable to afford to replace or repair broken beds, sharing beds, sleeping on the floor or a sofa and using broken or dirty mattresses.

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