Agenda item

To receive a presentation by Home-Start Watford and Three Rivers about its work and the support available to residents.

The Committee received a presentation from Michaela Foster Osborne (Co-CEO Services) and Karen Watkin (Co-CEO Operations) on the work of Home-Start Watford, Three Rivers and Hertsmere, a charity which provided non-judgemental and supportive early intervention to families with at least one child aged under 5 in order to prevent families going into crisis and help ensure that children could reach their potential. 

The presentation covered the background and work of the charity; the support which was available; the complexity of needs for Three Rivers families; a case study; how the charity contributed to meeting the needs of the Council Plan; and the challenges faced by the charity in providing support to families, particularly funding challenges.

The slides from the presentation can be found here: Presentation - Home-Start Watford Three Rivers and Hertsmere.pdf

Members noted that the charity was open to referrals from a variety of sources, including professional services such as Health Visitors, Family and Womens’ Centres and sexual health clinics, as well as self-referrals.  Officers undertook to provide referral information to Members so that this could be shared with any resident who may require help (referral information can be found here: https://home-startwatford.org.uk/referrals/ ).

Members heard about the work of the volunteers, who were required to be parents themselves to provide home visiting support. Volunteers also provided family group work support, counselling support and community buddy support.  It was noted, and welcomed, that 45% of volunteers came from the Three Rivers district. 

For home visiting support, volunteers were carefully matched to work with families for 6 months.  The role required a commitment to visit for 2 to 3 hours per week.  The counselling service was available to all supported families, as well as volunteers, and removed the traditional barriers to counselling by providing the service at very low cost in accessible venues where childcare was provided.  The Community Buddy service allowed an opportunity for families who had benefitted from Home-Start support to provide similar support to others in the community, although it was also open to other volunteers. 

The impact of services was measured using a recognised outcome measuring tool and showed that 97% of families had made progress in 3 or more outcome areas.

In relation to funding it was noted that the majority (62%) of the charity’s income came from grant funding.  However, sources of grant funding were limited and involved a high level of competition, so that funding for the charity was quite volatile.  Cuts to statutory services had also increased the demand for community-based support, and there were pressures from rising operational costs.   Members were encouraged to champion the work of the charity, facilitate connections with partner organisations, and consider the funding of early prevention (rather than remedial intervention at a later stage) when making budget decisions. 

In response to a question it was noted that whilst funding was provided to the charity (at differing levels) through service level agreements with the three district councils (Watford, Three Rivers and Hertsmere), no direct funding was provided by Hertfordshire County Council.

The Chair commended the valuable work of Home-Start and thanked Home-Start for their presentation.