Home-Start Salford
Main Office
Brierley Community Centre,
50 Hulton District Centre
Little Hulton
Manchester
M28 0AU
Telephone: 0161 703 7577
Fax: 0161 702 0242
Email:
Website: homestartsalford.org.uk
Sub Office
C/o St Lukes Parish Hall
Derby Road
Weaste
Salford
M6 5RA
Telephone: 0161 743 0913
Bank
The Royal Bank of Scotland
1 Bridgewater Road
Walkden
Manchester
Regional Consultant
Karen Dyer, North West Regional Office
6 Liverpool Road
Penwortham
Preston
PR1 0AD
Auditors
Ryans Chartered Accountants
67 ChorleyOld Road
Bolton
BL1 3AJ
Home-Start Salford
Annual Report 2004 - 2005
Contents
Page / Item4 / Introduction to Home-Start
5 / Introducing the Management Committee as at 31st March 2005
6 / Introducing the Staff Team
7 / Chairs Report
8 / Senior Co-ordinators Report
10 / Statistics 2004/2005
13 / Quotes from Home-Start Salford Families
15 / Quotes from Well-Known Supporters
16 / The Mary Silkstone Award
19 / Volunteer Preparation Course Timetable
20 / Home-Start Salford Family Report
21 / Volunteer Preparation Course Evaluations
22 / Home-Start Salford Volunteer Reports
24 / Acknowledgements
25 / Accounts
Home-Start Salford
Home-Start Salford is a voluntary organisation committed to promoting the welfare of families with at least 1 child under 5 years of age. Volunteers offer regular support, friendship and practical help to families under stress in their own homes helping to prevent family crisis and breakdown
Who Are The Volunteers?
Volunteers are people from a wide variety of backgrounds and vary in age, but all are parents or have had parenting experience. They are carefully selected for their friendliness and understanding, are appropriately approved and attend a 10 week course of preparation training before being linked with families. We are always on the look out for good people to come on board as volunteers and welcome enquiries from those interested in offering their time.
Who Can Refer a Family?
Anyone who has the consent of the family, or the family themselves may refer to the scheme of Home-Start Salford.
The only criteria is that there must be at least one child under the age of five.
What Happens When a Family is Referred?
The referral is followed up by a visit from the Coordinator. This gives the family a chance to hear about the support Home-Start Salford can offer and allows the Coordinator the opportunity of deciding on which volunteer to link with the family as soon as possible. It also gives the family a chance to decide whether to accept Home-Start’s support.
Home-Start is a free and confidential service – a friend to families with at least one child under five in their care
Home-Start Salford
The Management Committee
Bob Kelsall / ChairSam Tuplin / Vice Chair
Pamela Massey / Treasurer
Josie Browne / Trustee
Sue Lebeter / Trustee (Claremont Neighbourhood Nursery)
Christine Gray / Trustee (Local Councillor)
Jane Killerby-Nicholls / Trustee (Solicitor – Rowlands) (Retired 13.04.04)
Alice Smyth / Trustee (Local Councillor) (Retired 22.01.04)
Liz Peppiatt / Advisor (Sure Start)
Gail McNally / Advisor (Early Years)
Zoe Cooper / Advisor (Health Visitor)
Angie Taylor / Advisor (Neighbourhood Coordinator)
Gail Morris / Advisor ( Social Services)
Staff
Lynn Meadowcroft / Senior CoordinatorGaynor Morrison / Coordinator
Christine Sabinsky / Coordinator
Janet McManus / Coordinator
Lisa Mooney / Part-Time Administrator
Kelly Bradford / Full-Time Administrator
Lynne Taylor / Full-Time Administrator
(Left Employment 03.05.04)
Linda Calderwood / Part-Time Administrator (Retired 17.11.04)
Volunteers
Lynne, Leah, Helen, Barbara, Joanne, Michelle, Tabeth, Sandra, Yvonne, Patricia, Michelle, Andria, Marlene, Vanessa, Lea-Ann, Margaret, Tracey, Jo, Edna, Tracy, Christine, Jeanette, Katie, Sofia, Tracy, Donna, Kate, Karyn, Suzanne, Elaine, Janet, Michelle, Diane, Kerry, Margaret, Pam, Nicola, Margaret, AdeleRegional Consultants
Liz Feather / Home-Start Regional Office, PrestonKaren Dyer / Home-Start Regional Office, Preston
Chief Executive of Home-StartUK
Dylan Harrison / Home-StartUK, LeicesterHome-Start Salford
Chairman’s Report
From April 2004 to March 2005
Oh What a Year that was!!...we have had a vision here at Home-Start Salford for the past three years and we have tried to achieve this steadily over these years. We started from a point where major reconstruction project was needed to get us back on track. Over the year 2004/2005 we had many successes but we also had significant setbacks to overcome too. We always had the aims to offer our service City Wide to all the families needing our support with the proven practice and ethos that had been so successful since Home-Start was started in Leicester over thirty years ago.
Our Successes…We continue to reorganise our activities and ended with a strong and efficient scheme. We have recruited and trained a marvellous team of staff and volunteers. We have participated in the working party that have set up a new Quality Assurance System, and taken part in the pilot trials. We have a dedicated Management Committee that has continued to provide the support that the scheme needs.
Our Setbacks…We had half of our funding terminated at short notice resulting in the issue of notices of redundancy and reduced working hours. We had to move offices so that the site could be prepared for a new Children’s Centre.
Statistics…Over the year we supported 46 families with a total of 133 children in those families, of these 21 were single parent based. The families’ referrals originated from the following sources:
Health Visitors 50 %
Social Workers 9 %
Self Referrals 17 %
Other Agencies 24 % (these include schools and the Children’s hospital)
These were supported by 32 volunteers over the year.
The Future…Our efforts to secure funding are critical, especially mainstreaming. We need more volunteers to join us on the Management Committee as Trustees, and we continue to need more home-visiting volunteers so that the expansion City Wide can take place.
And finally…I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to all of our supporters
- Our funders
- Our fellow Community Workers and Advisors
- Our volunteers, that wonderful band of unpaid workers
- Our Management Team, especially Pam (Our Treasurer), Lynn (our Senior
Co-ordinator), our three Co-ordinators Gaynor, Christine and Janet, and our
Secretarial/Administration staff Kelly and Lisa, who have all worked tirelessly
over a year of difficulty and many changes.
And to you all for your continued support!
I will be retiring as Chair at this AGM as I have reached the limits imposed by our Constitution; however I hope to continue as a member of the Management Committee.
Robert W Kelsall – Chair
Home-Start Salford
Senior Coordinator’s Report
The year 2004/2005 was an extremely eventful year for Home-Start Salford to say the least! What a roller coaster ride it was!
Welcome to Two New Staff:
We appointed two new members of staff during the year; Janet McManus the new Co-ordinator for SLP (Seedley, Langworthy and the Precinct) joined us on the 5th of April 2004 and Kelly Bradford our new full time Administrator joined us on the 8th of November 2004. Both have settled in very well and we are pleased they are part of the team.
Thankyou and Goodbye To:
Linda Calderwood our part time Administrator who finally retired. Linda joined us many years ago as a temp but was later recruited as our part time Administrator. Linda had been planning her retirement for months but wouldn’t leave us before we had recruited her replacement. Thanks Linda for your support and commitment to Home-Start, it is greatly appreciated; you will be missed by everyone.
Key Events:
Salford Healthy Fair:
Once again this year Home-Start Salford took part at the Healthy Salford Fair and our stand generated lots of interest and helped raise our profile, we even managed to recruit a couple of new volunteers!
Promoting Positive Parenting:
Home-Start Salford were also involved with the working group who arranged the Triple P Positive Parenting event on the 1st and 2nd of March 2005. Lots of intense work went into the planning of this two day event. The event itself consisted of a double-decker bus visiting selected venues around the City promoting ‘Positive Parenting’ before finally ending up at Buile Hill Park where participants displayed information about their individual organisations.
New Quality Assurance System for all Home-Start Schemes:
I am also pleased to report that Home-Start Salford was also part of the steering group set up to introduce the new Quality Assurance System commissioned by Home-StartUK.
The Home-Start Quality Assurance System was developed by Charities Evaluation Services (CES) as a bespoke system, incorporating all the elements of PQASSO, CES’ quality assurance system for small organisations, recognised as the ‘industry standard’ in the voluntary sector. The system has also been designed to include and reflect the requirements of Investors in People and other national quality standards. The result is a quality assurance system that puts the highest quality support for families at its heart.
Moved premises:
In November 2004 we moved from Longshaw Drive, Little Hulton to Hulton District Centre as the old Brierley Community Centre was being demolished to make way for a new Children’s Centre.
Funding Withdrawn:
Towards the end of the financial year we discovered that 50% of our funding was being withdrawn nine months prematurely and we were given three months notice. Staff were issued with redundancy notices and a reduction in staff hours. Emergency meetings were held by the Management Committee and contingency plans were put into operation.
And finally:
I began this report by saying it had been a roller coaster year and I was not joking! During the twelve months we had recruited and appointed new staff, said goodbye to other staff, moved premises and discovered we were to lose half of our funding and possibly our jobs!
It is amazing testament to everyone at Home-Start Salford that amidst all these changes it was business as usual! Volunteers were still recruited and trained, families still received support from their volunteers, referrers still referred, meetings still went ahead, staff still attended external meetings and training, the Management Committee continued their support, Home-Start UK offered and gave continued support as did neighbouring Home-Start schemes, family trips still went ahead, as did the family Christmas Pantomime.
I would like to personally thank everyone for their support during this very difficult year. Home-Start Salford has survived because people are passionate about the work we do. We know that Home-Start offers a unique service and we are all proud to be part of the country’s leading family support service.
The future is bright for Home-Start Salford as you will read in my next report for the year 2005/6.
Lynn Meadowcroft – Senior Co-ordinator
Home-Start Salford
Volunteers in 2004/2005
Number of volunteers – 32 available for home-visiting during 2004/2005
Giving 1045hours to Home-Start during 2004/2005.
Family Support in 2004/2005
46 Families supported with:
67 Children under 5
Total 133 Children
66 Children over 5
21 / of these were one-parent families1 / of these families’ main carer had a disability
4 / of these children had a disability
5 / of these children were on the Child Protection Register
Number of Referrals in 2004/2005
Health / 23 / 50%Social / 4 / 9%
Self / 8 / 17%
Other / 11 / 24%
TOTAL / 46 / 100 %
1
1
Home-Start Salford
Quotes from Families
Home-Start Salford
Quotes from Families
Home-Start Salford
Quotes from Well-Known Supporters
The Mary Silkstone Award
Home-Start Salford presents an annual award for special achievement in Memory of Mary Silkstone.
Mary Silkstone was the Community Manager of Worsley Community Team (Social Services). She set up the original Group for the Home-Start Salford scheme and fought hard to secure funding. Sadly, Mary died in October 1998, but her memory lives on and we celebrate the success of the Home-Start Salford scheme by honouring one of our volunteers for outstanding achievements in their field.
Nominees for the Mary Silkstone Award for 2004/2005 are:
Yvonne
Yvonne has been working for Home-Start Salford for the past 2 ½ years and during that time she has worked with four families with different needs. Yvonne was able to adapt to these different needs due to being very aware of what life is like as a single mum.
Yvonne works closely with one family which consists of a single parent with one young child and she has supported mum who has issues around housing and self development. Mum was depressed and had very low self-esteem and Yvonne has been able to encourage her to get out when her child was in school and even encouraged her to attend a computer course. When Mum had done a few weeks on the course, she started to gain more confidence and Yvonne encouraged her to apply for a little job working at a school nearby as a Playground Assistant. Mum got the job and was very happy with this, as it give her that little bit of income that helped the family to make ends meet.
Yvonne also helped to get fencing from the Council for the family’s back garden so that the little girl could play in the garden safely.
Yvonne has also been a great help at all of Home-Start events, supporting
her family and others to ensure they have a great time.
Yvonne is very reliable and committed to the work of Home-Start Salford, and we would like to thank her for her continued support.
Well done Yvonne.
Christine Sabinsky
Coordinator – West of Salford
Michelle
It gives me great pleasure in nominating Michelle for this award in recognition of the support she has given to Home-Start families in the last 3 years.
Michelle began volunteering for Home-Start in October 2002 and she has combined being a mother, having a job and attending College and University and still carried out voluntary work to a high standard.
Michelle has supported one family for 2 ½ years, mum had learning and health disabilities and two very young children. Michelle wrote letters on behalf of mum to help with housing issues and was successful. When mum was experiencing depression, Michelle rang mum everyday to show her support. Michelle helped mum arrange the children’s christening and was even godmother to one of the children.
Quote from mum:
“Home-Start has really helped my volunteer was special. She was the one there when I felt down and she was the one who helped me get through it. My volunteer is my friend”.
Since coming to Home-Start as a DIPSW student Michelle is now supporting four families, two of these families are complicated and two are straight forward Home-Start families, supporting mum with childcare.
Since working for Home-Start Michelle has been reliable and the current work compliments her placement as a student as she has to meet strict competences.
Michelle is supporting a family with appointments, physiotherapy exercises plus occupational therapy exercise, diet etc.
Another family Michelle is supporting is experiencing difficulty with debt and depression and Michelle is helping them with benefits and offering emotional support to mum and dad. All of these families have expressed their gratitude and look forward to Michelle’s visits and support.
Thank you for your hard work
Gaynor Morrison
Coordinator – Little Hulton
Christine
I would like to nominate Christine for the award. Christine has worked as a volunteer for Home-Start since August 04. Christine was recruited at Salford Precinct and had concerns initially about her English language, French Africa is her first language and she had concerns that she would not be able to support families because of this language barrier.
However during the Preparation Course the team reassured Christine that because of Home-Start’s matching policy her language would not be a problem. Christine has been linked with 4 families and each of those families did not have a problem with Christine’s pigeon English, however three of the families were of cultural backgrounds that Christine could easily relate to.
Christine’s commitment is irreproachable she is reliable, understanding and congruent towards people who are experiencing difficulties; she is practical and enjoys helping others. Christine did have one or two hiccups initially with the first two families, this was due to the families and the circumstances around the support needed, Christine did not waver, she continued to inform the office of the difficulties and worked through the problems. She rearranged her own child care to accommodate her first family. The second family was unsure about the support Home-Start could offer but Christine remained positive even though she felt some what rejected when the support ended quite quickly after the initial link took place.