Home Start Norfolk

Who we are

Home Start is a charity that provides early intervention support for young families in need, delivered by trained volunteers, who are parents themselves. Home Start schemes serve communities across the county of Norfolk.

Home Start’s unique service:

Our professional teams recruit, train and supervise volunteers, who visit families, including children from 0 to 5, who are struggling to cope. This bespoke support enables parents to develop their skills and confidence to provide better outcomes for their children. 

In the past year, 279 volunteers supported 1137 children in 505 families with varied needs across the whole of the county. These needs include mental health issues of both parents and children, rural deprivation, loneliness and isolation, low self‐esteem, domestic abuse and drug and alcohol related problems. The service also offers a special school readiness programme to help parents and children prepare for the transition to school and get maximum benefit from their education.

The majority of our families are referred by Health Visitors, alongside other professionals and self referrals. We provide a vital complementary service for professional providers. We tailor our support to Children’s Services and Public Health strategies, working with Children’s Centres, the Early Help Hubs.
 

Outcomes

Research globally and locally concludes that intervention in the early years is key to enhancing children’s life chances. It is the most effective and economical time to invest. Our own data analysis demonstrates that Home Start’s model enables parents to develop their own parenting skills, making future dependence on statutory services less likely, thus benefiting families, communities and tax payers. Our support in assisting children with school readiness has been welcomed by all concerned. Finally, raising the confidence and employability of volunteers is an important benefit of our service model.

Our volunteers have uncovered serious child protection issues, which would have gone undetected otherwise.