Bed Poverty: Free beds for children in Liverpool schools

Zarach is The Children’s Bed Charity. Their social mission is to end child bed poverty in England, giving children the opportunity to engage at school and a chance to break the cycle of poverty.

Visit Zarach’s website here

Zarach only accepts referrals from schools for children aged 4-18, and the child must be on roll at a Liverpool City Local Authority school. More information about how your school can register and refer is below.

Zarach Referrer Registration & Referral Process

1. Register

Firstly, every individual school needs to register with Zarach. You can do this by following the link below to the online Referrer Registration Form. This is a short form that only needs to be completed once. After it’s filled in you can begin referring families.

Zarach Liverpool Referrer Registration Form

2. Refer

Once you have registered using the link above you can begin referring families for support by using the link below. Once you have submitted a referral, the team will contact the family directly (usually within 48 hours). They will notify you when the bed(s) have been delivered or if we require further information or assistance to contact the family.

You can use this link multiple times, so Zarach suggest saving it somewhere you will be able to find it again should you need to make another referral.

Zarach Liverpool Referral Form

3. Feedback

Zarach want to hear the impact the beds have had on your families and your wider organisation. Please email info@zarach.org with how the beds have impacted the families and also the wider school. Your feedback is so valuable for several reasons. They need this feedback to ensure we offer a fast and reliable service that meets the needs of our referrers and families. Also, they use this feedback when applying for funding; they need this to ensure they can continue to offer this service across the city.

FAQs

• What is Bed Poverty? Bed Poverty is when a child does not have an appropriate bed, or space of their own to sleep. Zarach have delivered beds to children sharing with parents and/or siblings, sleeping on sofas or cushions on the floor, beds with bed bugs, or on the floor – they can help!
• Is there an eligibility criteria? No – we know you have established relationships with your pupils and families and therefore trust that referrals are only made on the basis of genuine need and if there are no alternative ways for the family to obtain beds for their child(ren).
• Can families only receive single beds? Zarach can provide single beds or bunks. They are unable to provide double beds.
• Do you only support children? Yes – their hope is that savings from not having to provide beds for their child(ren) will enable the parents to obtain their own beds if required.
• Can you only support with beds? Zarach operate to ensure every child has a place to go to sleep each night – and therefore have a better chance to succeed at school. However, if there are other concerns please do speak with their team about these as they work with lots of other amazing organisations that they may be able to signpost you to.
• Is information shared secure? All data sent is held on a secure database and will not be shared outside our organisation. All data is shared with parents’ consent.