Home-Start Stroud and Gloucester
There for parents when they need us most,
because childhood can't wait
Our Service Update…Home-Start support in Gloucestershire
An introduction to Home Start
About Home-Start Stroud and Gloucester
Home-Start Stroud and Gloucester recruits and trains volunteers from around the Stroud District and in Gloucester, then carefully matches the volunteer with an appropriate family. All of the families we support must have at least one child under five. The volunteer visits the family in their own home once a week. Families tell us what a huge difference it makes to their lives to have that support at a time of need, often describing our volunteers as “a ray of sunshine” or a “life-line”. The best part of our work is to see the children start to thrive again as the volunteer helps the parents work through their difficulties.
From April 2017 the charity set up Group Start to run specific groups to target specific family needs at different stages: Best Start (postnatal Support), Bump Start (antenatal support), Mothers in Mind (Mental Health awareness & support) drop in group and Forest Green Family Fun drop in group. See the Group Start pages for further information. Home-Start Stroud and Gloucester is a local charity which was set up in 1999 in response to an identified need for a support service for Stroud District families that was free at the point of access, completely independent and available to all. In 2016 The charity expanded into Quedgeley.
Home-Start Stroud and Gloucester is affiliated to the national organisation, Home-Start UK, but we are autonomous and responsible for our own management and our own funding. Home-Start UK provides advice and support together with a stringent Quality Assurance review process to ensure the scheme operates effectively. The charity is run by a Board of Trustees who are responsible for governance and setting the direction of the scheme and there are 6 members of staff, together with a network of 66 trained volunteers who carry out the home-visiting parent support service.
About Home-Start
Home-Start is the UK’s leading family support charity
What can you expect from Home-Start
A mixture of practical help and emotional support. Your volunteer will usually visit you at home for a couple of hours each week and you can decide what happens-playing at the park; helping you make/keep medical appointments; helping find out more about local services.. or just having a cup of tea and a chat while the children play at home. Our volunteers are not baby sitters, home helps or trained counsellors, though they may give practical help looking after children and will always listen.
Your Home-Start Volunteer
Our volunteers come from all walks of life and have a wealth of parenting experience. They are friendly-caring-know how to listen to parents-enjoy the company of children-reliable-trustworthy-won’t judge you-fully trained-carefully matched with you-and criminal records checked to ensure your child’s safety.
Home-Start’s promise to you
Our support is free and confidential. Volunteers will respect your privacy and never forget that you have invited them into your home. you choose whether or not to accept Home-Start support and can change your mind at any time.
Does Home-Start keep records about me/my family?
All personal information about parents and families is treated confidential, to be discussed only as necessary with the Coordinator in support of your volunteer and to assist your family.
Any disclosure of the confidential information may only be undertaken with your expressed permission, for the purpose of assisting your family, except where it is considered necessary for the welfare and protection of a child when information shall be shared with the appropriate authority.
Home-Start keeps factual and statistical information about all families it supports. You can ask to see your family file at any time. Our records comply with Data Protection requirement. We tell the person who referred you to Home-Start that we have started supporting you and when your support ends.
What to do if I am not happy with my support
If you are unhappy about any aspect of Home-Start we want to know and will do our best to put it right. You could talk to your volunteer, Coordinator, scheme Administrator or the person who first put you in touch with Home-Start. If you still have concerns then the trustees – the people who manage the local Home-Start-can investigate using our structured complaints procedure. To find out about this, contact the office on 01453 297470.