News Release
Leading family support charity introduces new quality assurance system
17 October 2005: for immediate use
Home-Start has introduced a completely new quality assurance system for its 338 local projects working across the United Kingdom.
Last year the charity supported 31,000 families and nearly 68,000 children. 11,000 fully-trained volunteers provided its unique home-visiting support service to parents with children under five.
The bespoke new system, tailored by Home-Start and the Charities Evaluation Services, builds on Home-Start's highly regarded existing quality checks. It will be rolled out across the UK between now and January 2006.
Continuous self-assessment and review in each of the charity's independently
run local Schemes is the main strength of the new system. It has also been designed to include and reflect the needs of Investors in People and other national quality standards.
Home-Start's new Quality Assurance System is based around 16 quality standards. They relate to the charity's direct support for families and to every aspect of Home-Start's work that underpins that assistance: from governance, planning, equal opportunities and managing staff to confidentiality, monitoring support for families and promoting children's welfare.
Families will be an integral part of the new assessment process. They will have a real voice in shaping the Home-Start service and ensuring their needs can be identified and met.
Home-Start is proud of the quality of the service it has provided to families for more than 30 years. "We have constantly updated our quality systems since we were set up," said Sue Everitt, Home-Start's director of planning, policy, and practice - who oversaw the introduction of the new quality system. "But rather than continuing to make minor adjustments we wanted to fully review and strengthen our quality systems to see us through to the middle of this century. And in England it was important to tie the system in with the recently introduced 'outcomes' that the government uses to measure children's services.
"Social services, midwives, health visitors, GPs, Primary Care Trusts and other funders across the UK can now have even more confidence that they are getting a high quality and consistent support service for their local parents and families, no matter where they are in the UK. They can also rest assured that their investment in the charity is good value for money," Sue added.
Home-Start's New Quality Assurance system has taken a year to develop. All the elements of PQASSO (Practical Quality Assurance System for Small Organisations) are incorporated in Home-Start's System. PQASSO (pronounced Picasso) is used widely across the charity sector and recognised as the industry standard in the voluntary sector. The bespoke elements are linked to the charity's support for families.
"PQASSO guides us through governing and managing a charity," says Sue Everitt. "To ensure families, funders and referrers can be confident in the service we offer, we have added our own important elements such as child protection, how we take referrals, how our volunteers work with families, and how we develop and support our volunteers. We have also incorporated sections assessing how we work with other agencies, to ensure we develop effective partnerships supporting families in local communities across the UK.
"In the near future, not only will our families be more efficiently and effectively supported, but funders will see changes in the way we report to them," adds Sue Everitt. "We hope the new system will help them prove they are reaching their own targets for effectiveness and family support."
ENDS
Contact details:
Annie O'Brian, Press and PR Manager, Home-Start.
t: 0870 220 6712; e: aobrian@home-start.org.uk; m: 07917 392130
http://www.home-start.org.uk
Notes to editors:
Home-Start is the leading family support charity and supports families for anything from a couple of months to a number of years in situations as varied as isolation, physical or mental illness, bereavement, multiple births, or simply finding parenthood difficult to cope with.
Of the 31,000 families Home-Start supported last year:
· 10,000 are headed by single parents
· 60% feel socially or physically isolated
· more than 2,000 children are on Child Protection Registers (and 737 were taken off these registers during Home-Start support)
· more than 2,000 of the children are registered disabled
· more than 1,500 parents are registered disabled
Home-Start has introduced a completely new quality assurance system for its 338 local projects working across the United Kingdom.
Last year the charity supported 31,000 families and nearly 68,000 children. 11,000 fully-trained volunteers provided its unique home-visiting support service to parents with children under five.
The bespoke new system, tailored by Home-Start and the Charities Evaluation Services, builds on Home-Start's highly regarded existing quality checks. It will be rolled out across the UK between now and January 2006.
Continuous self-assessment and review in each of the charity's independently
run local Schemes is the main strength of the new system. It has also been designed to include and reflect the needs of Investors in People and other national quality standards.
Home-Start's new Quality Assurance System is based around 16 quality standards. They relate to the charity's direct support for families and to every aspect of Home-Start's work that underpins that assistance: from governance, planning, equal opportunities and managing staff to confidentiality, monitoring support for families and promoting children's welfare.
Families will be an integral part of the new assessment process. They will have a real voice in shaping the Home-Start service and ensuring their needs can be identified and met.
Home-Start is proud of the quality of the service it has provided to families for more than 30 years. "We have constantly updated our quality systems since we were set up," said Sue Everitt, Home-Start's director of planning, policy, and practice - who oversaw the introduction of the new quality system. "But rather than continuing to make minor adjustments we wanted to fully review and strengthen our quality systems to see us through to the middle of this century. And in England it was important to tie the system in with the recently introduced 'outcomes' that the government uses to measure children's services.
"Social services, midwives, health visitors, GPs, Primary Care Trusts and other funders across the UK can now have even more confidence that they are getting a high quality and consistent support service for their local parents and families, no matter where they are in the UK. They can also rest assured that their investment in the charity is good value for money," Sue added.
Home-Start's New Quality Assurance system has taken a year to develop. All the elements of PQASSO (Practical Quality Assurance System for Small Organisations) are incorporated in Home-Start's System. PQASSO (pronounced Picasso) is used widely across the charity sector and recognised as the industry standard in the voluntary sector. The bespoke elements are linked to the charity's support for families.
"PQASSO guides us through governing and managing a charity," says Sue Everitt. "To ensure families, funders and referrers can be confident in the service we offer, we have added our own important elements such as child protection, how we take referrals, how our volunteers work with families, and how we develop and support our volunteers. We have also incorporated sections assessing how we work with other agencies, to ensure we develop effective partnerships supporting families in local communities across the UK.
"In the near future, not only will our families be more efficiently and effectively supported, but funders will see changes in the way we report to them," adds Sue Everitt. "We hope the new system will help them prove they are reaching their own targets for effectiveness and family support."
ENDS
Contact details:
Annie O'Brian, Press and PR Manager, Home-Start.
t: 0870 220 6712; e: aobrian@home-start.org.uk; m: 07917 392130
http://www.home-start.org.uk
Notes to editors:
Home-Start is the leading family support charity and supports families for anything from a couple of months to a number of years in situations as varied as isolation, physical or mental illness, bereavement, multiple births, or simply finding parenthood difficult to cope with.
Of the 31,000 families Home-Start supported last year:
· 10,000 are headed by single parents
· 60% feel socially or physically isolated
· more than 2,000 children are on Child Protection Registers (and 737 were taken off these registers during Home-Start support)
· more than 2,000 of the children are registered disabled
· more than 1,500 parents are registered disabled
