Charity to end family work after town hall cuts funds

Home-Start Rotherham, which is part of the national Home-Start charity, has announced that it will have to “pause its support to local families” due to losing out on a local authority funding contract.

The organisation, which has operated in Rotherham for the last 25 years, aims to offer support to families in difficulties, “stopping them from reaching crisis point”.

In the last year alone, it says it has supported 136 children in the South Yorkshire town.

A spokesman for Home-Start said: “In an ideal world Home-Start wouldn’t be needed. But for many parents the pressures of family life are simply too much to cope with alone.

“There are so many reasons for this including; poverty, illness, depression, isolation, addiction and physical and mental health issues.”

However, yesterday Rotherham Council said that a new service called ‘Families For Change’ was being launched.

Home-Start tendered for this service, the authority said, but lost out on the countract.

A spokesman for the local authority said: “The council is working with providers on new ways of offering help and support for families in Rotherham as part of the government’s national ‘Troubled Families’ agenda.

“In Rotherham this is known as Families for Change and focuses on co-ordination of early intervention and prevention services to support school-age children and their families.

“A new service for Families for Change has been commissioned by the council through an open tender process which Home-Start tendered for, but were unsuccessful on this occasion.”

“The one-year contract that Home-Start Rotherham held had come to an end in March 2013 and the ‘Families for Change’ contract started in April 2013”, the spokesman added.

Home-Start Rotherham is now looking to recruit volunteers in order to carry on operating.

Volunteers visit parents of young children at home, usually once a week, to offer help for both children and their parents.

This can include playing with children; help in getting to appointments and assistance with issues such as meal planning or budgeting.

They can also help parents to meet other parents or give them links to other organisations. .

Joan Blanch-Nicholson, chairman of trustees at the charity, said: “Whilst losing out on a local authority tender is devastating news, we are determined to fight for survival.

“Families tell us that they do not know where they would be without Home-Start.

“There simply isn’t another service like it in the community.

“Nationally, last year, over 1,000 children were removed from a child protection plan when Home-Start was involved with the family.”

She added: “If Home-Start Rotherham were to close, there will be no other early intervention services to support these families in the unique way that Home-Start does, by offering personalised parent-to-parent support in the dignity of the family home during weekly visits for as long as the family needs.

“If we can raise urgent funds quickly, this will give us the breathing space we need to carry on applying for other sources of non-statutory income.”