Type of service: Respite and short breaks, Family support and information services

Home-Start's informal and friendly support for families with young children provides a lifeline to parents and children across the United Kingdom (UK). Support is free, confidential and non-judgemental. Around 10% of families refer themselves to Home-Start - which speaks for itself. Home-Start helps to increase the confidence and independence of families by: visiting families in their own homes to offer support, friendship and practical assistance; reassuring parents that their childcare problems are not unusual or unique; encouraging parents' strengths and emotional well-being for the ultimate benefit of their children; trying to get the fun back into family life. Home-Start's volunteers, who have parenting experience themselves, can offer: precious time for listening and talking; help with the children; a break for parents; practical help and reassurance; a chance to meet other parents in the same boat; support to use local services and resources. Parents ask for Home-Start's help for all sorts of reasons: they may feel isolated in their community, have no family nearby and be struggling to make friends; they may be finding it hard to cope because of their own or a child's physical or mental illness; they may have been hit hard by the death of a loved one; they may be really struggling the with emotional and physical demands of having twins or triplets - perhaps born into an already large family. The service is delivered in hundreds of local communities across all four nations of the UK. Find your nearest service by searching here: http://www.home-start.org.uk/findsupport/search. Then get in contact with your nearest Home-Start to see if we have a volunteer available close to you. A trained volunteer parent, who visits for a couple of hours each week and tailor makes their support to your need. In some areas of the country we also run group support to meet other parents and reduce isolation. The age range is any family as long as there is at least one child under five. In some areas we can also support families without younger children. They accept service users from: Everywhere within reach of a local Home-Start. There are nearly 300 Home-Starts across the UK. They help approximately 30,000 families across the UK..

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Aimed at: Adolescent , Child , Parent/carer of a child, Parent/carer of a young person, Young person

Specialisms: Generic

Other specialisms: Challenging behaviour, Learning disability