We have been watching the developments and latest advice regarding coronavirus and considering how best to proceed with Home-Start services. We have to consider the safety of our families, staff and our volunteers. Many of our volunteers find themselves in the unusual position of being told they are in the “at risk group” due to their age or underlying health conditions. For this reason some of our volunteers have reluctantly taken the decision to step back from supporting families to protect themselves. All our volunteers have our full backing and must do whatever they feel appropriate.
We are currently committed to deliver family groups until the government advice is to stop them. The groups may be structured differently as we will be missing some help from our wonderful volunteers. 1:1 services will continue where the volunteer feels happy to continue with home visiting. We are looking at ways of supporting families remotely if/when visiting becomes prohibitive.
Today I have made the difficult decision to close our waiting lists to new referrals. This is something we have not had to do for a number of years but the uncertainty of medium term availability of volunteers and the prospect of schools closing and staff having to work from home I feel it’s our only option at the stage. Please be assured any referrals we have already acknowledged will be open families to us and we will continue to keep in contact with all our open families throughout, regardless of what physical services are open.
In summary:
- We are closing our waiting list to new requests for support
- 1:1 volunteer support will continue in existing matched families as long as the volunteer is comfortable to continue to visit or until advised it should be stopped but volunteers safety and decision will be respected
- Group support will continue until we are advised to do otherwise or until schools are closed
- Group support will have fewer volunteers and will be adapted to reflect this – this includes our Big Hopes school readiness courses
- In the event of school closure some staff will be working from home but we anticipate to be able to keep the office open during our normal core hours of 9am-2.30pm Monday to Friday
- Open families will be contacted throughout to keep them informed of developments and keep them engaged
We appreciate your continued support. Best wishes
Jools Anderson- Scheme Manager