News Release
Health Minister receives petition from Home-Start families
A 2,300 signature petition to save a local family support charity has
been delivered to the Minister of Health, Social Services and Public Safety,
Michael McGimpsey.
On Monday 10th, Director of Home-Start Northern Ireland,
Heather Knox and two families handed over the petition. The minister had agreed
to accept the petition on the steps of Stormont before the Assembly were due to
meet in the afternoon.
The petition has come about after the draft health budget made no provision for the so-called Children's Fund which allocates finance to Home-Start and a number of other similar organisations. This means that five Home-Start schemes in Northern Ireland will be facing an uncertain future.
There are 25 schemes across Northern Ireland with 900 volunteers providing support to 1,573 families with 2,908 children.
Says Heather Knox: "It costs £422 per year to support a child through Home-Start compared to £83,950 to place a child in care. Last year we supported 101 children whose names were on the Child Protection register and 36 of those children had their names removed from the register following support given to the family."
Sinead, a mum supported by Home-Start in Kilkeel, looked for support after she gave birth to her twins meaning that she now has four children aged five and under, she said: "Having Home-Start support for my family was one of the best decisions I ever made. Sam my volunteer has been a great help to me and many times she kept me sane for those few hours she came to visit."
Anya, a Home-Start supported mum from Armagh, who has four children under the age of four, says that her volunteer is invaluable:" I really look forward to her visits as I often feel isolated with no other support. I love having adult company as I spend a lot of time alone in the house with children."
If funding is taken away from Home-Start then the following will happen:
Over 600 children and 350 parents will lose a vital lifeline and their physical & mental health will suffer.
- More costly statutory intervention
- Loss of community capacity.
- Scheme closures and redundancies.
Says Heather Knox," We have received no clarity that funding for our programmes will be made available beyond March 2008. This is of deep concern to many families and volunteers supported by Home-Start.
We hope that the Minister may take advantage of the Christmas season to grant us some clarity as to the future of these services."
Sinead with her volunteer Sam and children, Oisin (5) Rionach (3) and
twins Erinin and Etain (2).
Notes to Editor
Home-Start is the UK's leading
family support charity. We recruit and train volunteers to
support parents with at least one child under the age of five. Our home
visiting work is unique in the UK.
The charity was set up in 1973 and now supports nearly 35,000 families and over
71,000 children each year. Almost 16,000
volunteers visit families in their own homes - parents supporting other parents
in a variety of situations including isolation, bereavement, multiple births,
illness or disability.
Contact details:
Heather Knox, Director of Home-Start in Northern Ireland
Tel: 028 9046 0772
Email:hknox@home-start.org.uk
