Working together to support families
Our expertise, knowledge and UK-wide network of staff and volunteers can be a valuable resource for professionals.
Home-Start UK provides information and guidance for local Home-Start schemes so families can be sure of high quality support from Home-Start, wherever it is offered.
The Home-Start promise on...
The welfare of children
- Home-Start is committed to promoting the safety and welfare of children.
- The special relationship that Home-Start develops with families means that staff and volunteers may become alert to any concerns about the children's safety and well being.
- Every scheme has effective, up-to-date policies, a code of conduct and procedures for safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children.
- All Home-Start volunteers, scheme staff and scheme trustees sign up to the Home-Start code of conduct for safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and have criminal records checks at the appropriate level alongside other recruitment, induction, training and supervisory arrangements. Together these help to safeguard the children supported by Home-Start.
Monitoring & Evaluation
- Every Home-Start scheme undertakes self-assessment of their practice according to national quality assurance standards and criteria.
- The self-assessments are validated during a full review with Home-Start UK every three years. A third of schemes are reviewed each year including interviews with families, volunteers, trustees and staff.
- Each scheme collects monitoring and evaluation information about the support of families and Home-Start UK collects information annually from local schemes on the needs of families and on Home-Start's response to those needs.
- The quality assurance reviews and findings from our monitoring and evaluation inform planning and decision-making and are used to improve services.
Confidentiality
- Throughout Home-Start's relationship with a family, all personal information about parents and families is treated as confidential, to be discussed only as necessary with the scheme organiser in support of the volunteer and to assist the family.
- With a family's permission (and only then), we will share certain information with referrers and if attending multi-agency meetings.
- Confidential information will only be shared with appropriate agencies with the permission of the parents for the purpose of assisting the family, except where it is considered necessary for the welfare and protection of a child.
Quality Assurance
- When a family is referred to Home-Start they will be supported by an experienced, professionally run organisation that offers high quality support.
- Every scheme signs the Home-Start Agreement which requires them to establish and develop the scheme in accordance with Home-Start's Standards and Methods of Practice and to follow Home-Start's policies, procedure and practice.
- The Agreement requires every scheme to work to 16 quality standards. These are set out in Home-Start's Quality Assurance System which was established, with the full participation of all schemes and the expertise of Charities Evaluation Services, to ensure the quality and consistency of each scheme's support to every family and of Home-Start UK's support to every scheme.
It’s possibly the one service that focuses more on the parent, but has a knock-on effect on the wellbeing of the children
Helen Cole
SureStart co-ordinator
Our Home-Start volunteers have been important people in my children’s lives and really helped in their development. The volunteers have helped them socialise with other children and adults so that now they can go out into the wider world with confidence.”
Louise, a mother of two suffering with post natal illness
