Home-Start response to Cafcass announcement about the rising numbers of children being taken in to care

10 February 2012

Home-Start UK chief executive Kay Bews says:

"The unprecedented numbers of children being taken into care is only one part of the developing picture of supporting families with complex needs.

"Volunteers such as Home-Start's are also now playing a bigger role, including working with families facing issues of domestic violence, substance abuse and mental health.

"The high levels of need and complexity which can lead to children being neglected and in some circumstances being taken into care is a situation recognised by Home-Start every day.

• Most local Home-Starts report an increase in the number of families with complex needs which they are supporting. Over 3000 of the children supported last year by Home-Start were on child protection registers.
• Our local staff and volunteers are seeing a big increase in the numbers of families where there are serious mental health and substance abuse issues and where there is a prevalence of domestic violence. It is the experience of Home-Start that domestic violence is often disclosed after a trusting relationship has been developed over a period of time between the volunteer and the parent. This trusting relationship is forged often because the volunteer is seen as 'not part of statutory services'. Therefore volunteers play a vital part in early recognition and preventive work to keep families safe.
• The multi-agency environment in which more than 320 local Home-Starts operate varies widely but we are frequently told that Children's Social Care is over-stretched.
• The impact of specialist family and domestic violence services closing or having less capacity is that Home-Start is frequently the only organisation supporting a family with serious complex needs.

"In order to work effectively with vulnerable families, our volunteers require high levels of training and supervision. Their support for a family is supplemented by skilled professional Home-Start staff and through working closely with other agencies.

"If supported early enough, in a trusting relationship that is there for as long as it is needed, families' and children's lives can change. And last year more than 1000 children in families supported by Home-Start came off the child protection register. If we fail to provide earlier support and on-going help later on then more children will be taken into care."

"We know that families do need specialist and targeted help in relation to issues such as mental health needs, substance abuse and the protection of services such as refuges. And this experience is underpinned by recent research. However, in a climate where these services, including those of local Home-Starts, are being cut back or lost it is inevitable that more parents will not cope and that their children will suffer. This could result in further children being taken into care.

We know that multi-agency work can work for some of the most vulnerable families and for the children within them. But it must be resourced adequately. We are seeing change and reduction in so many of the local voluntary and statutory services that our communities need, including radical proposals for the NHS. To safeguard our children, the parents of tomorrow, we must ensure that the effectiveness of multi-agency working is not impeded further today.

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