When Jasmine, a trained Home Start volunteer, first met Becky she was struggling with anxiety and depression. This was having a negative effect on her three-year-old daughter Daisy who wasn’t growing up in the stable environment a three-year-old needs. A child’s earliest years are irreplaceable. Without a stable, loving and nurturing environment, a very young child will not develop the vital foundations they need. 

Each year around 600,000 children start primary school for the first time. Increasingly children start school without the skills – such as sharing, reading, being toilet trained or eating without help – that they need to begin learning. Every family is unique, and there are countless reasons why families struggle to help their children prepare for beginning school for that first time.

Once Jasmine started supporting Becky through regular visits and support the changes in Daisy were clear. Daisy is now a confident little girl who can recite all the letters of the alphabet and count to ten. She is a very happy, curious child who is constantly asking questions. Becky is amazed at how confident and independent she has become in so short a time

Daisy still has a difficult time ahead, but Home-Start will continue to do all it can to help Daisy and thousands of children like her in communities across the country.