home-start volunteers

[atomicdust]

hello,

does anybody have direct experience with either volunteering with Home-Start or havinng receivd help from home-start?

I've just finished the prep course and I do not know exactly what to expect...

I think there is an element of confusion here.
Volunteers are "Homestart", coordinators are "Homestart", because the former do not receive salary and the latter do, should not be a massive distinction for families. One cannot function without the other.
The coordinator who comes to assess your needs works for Homestart and is paid (not a lot for a very demanding job), the home visitor is a volunteer who also works for Homestart - albeit in an unpaid capacity.
Homestart do not send out a random bunch of volunteers, all will have been assessed for their suitability and attended a training course.

I really do not seem to get the point

The practical experiences I've gathered through this post are really useful. And thanks to those of you who detailed their journey, both as volunteer or family!

However, as a parent myself, I simply do not grasp what kind of support my co-ordinator will be giving.

I have met more experienced volunteer and if I'm confronted with a situation I do not know how to handle, I will ask another volunteer for a second opinion.

Co-ordinators do not all have - and none in my scheme has - the direct experience of home-visiting a family.

Why should Charities rely on unpaid volunteers to do the work while getting public money to pay for their staff?

I did the volunteer training for HS but then couldn't get the childcare to cover me to actually do it.

The training involved 6-8 evenings of things that tbh, I already knew from working from other voluntary orgs eg equal opportunities/anti-discriminatory practice, confidentiality, child protection, body language/listening skills, safety, the causes of poverty, being non-judgemental etc.

A friend volunteered with them for a few months and seemed to find it a good experience for her and her 'partner'.

Quite a lot of voluntary organisations have the model of a paid co-ordinator and a team of volunteers. I've seen this with befriending and advocacy projects. With some the volunteers are v autonomous, with others heavily supervised. Some of these jobs are quite cushy (paid c. £18-22k, for 35 hr wk), mostly admin whereas others are quite stressful (funding cuts and nightmare volunteers/recruitment). A council worker on a deprived estate once told me that if they had taken all the money spent on these projects and just given it to the people, they would all have been able to but their houses outright! It probably would be a better use of resources.

atomicdust Wed 26-Jan-11 08:11:12

penelopestitsdropped

regarding your secon family:

Did you / home-Start detected the rare genetic condition? Do you have the medical facilities & knowledge at your schem for detecting "rare genetic condition"?

Err, no. His team of consultants did. we merely supported the family through the diagnosis period and through the months of hospital visits.

Severe cases of Domestic Abuse need to be reported IMMEDIATELY to the Police / Social Care.

They were and are. Homestart will not knowingly send volunteers to a house that has known DV. We help the victim find support networks in order to remain safe.
When we were told of the DV we arranged police, Social services and a local Domestic abuse charity to become involved.

Again how couldHome-Start remove her from her house? Do you have the legal authority to do so? Are you ahousing association? Or did you just signposted her to the relevant authorities?

We accompanied her with the police to a hotel.

I think you're grossly exagerating the role of home-start!

I have not exaggerated anything. You have deliberatly tried to make more of what i posted.

"I have met more experienced volunteer and if I'm confronted with a situation I do not know how to handle, I will ask another volunteer for a second opinion. "

And the fellow volunteer should be reminding you of confidentiality and pointing you in the direction of your co ordinator.

"Why should Charities rely on unpaid volunteers to do the work while getting public money to pay for their staff?"

errr, cos we're a charity.

we do not recieve public money at all and rely on grants and donations and fundraising.

Could i ask why it is you have put yourself forward to volunteer? because if i were your co ordinator i think i would be advising you against it. This clearly isn't a scheme you have any real desire to be part of.

I am actually so irritated by this i would very much like to know what scheme you have volunteered with.
I think your coordinator needs to know that they are thought of in this way.

darleneconnor...well, I thought 90% of the training was plain common sense and parenting / life experience.

I heard that our co-ordinator is on above £27,000???

and you can not even get childcare ....

disgrace

penelopestitsdropped

you are getting stressed out! scared of having your cushy well-paid job exposed? I'm sure you would happily get rid of me if I were in your scheme!

But actually, I strongly and truly - and I do not financially gain from it - believe that happy families, positive parenting, children who can play, enjoy and learn is one of the most fundamental goals of society.

and it's just so good to have volunteers with parenting experience willing to share their knwoledge, willing to give time and non-judgemental friendship to struggling families.

but I just do not understand the value-added of co-ordinators like you!

an yes, Home-Start gets public money: an extravagant £34M! (look of the charity commission web site!

not allowed personal opinions, are we?

not allowed critical frienship?

just expected to work / pay tax / volunteer

while other get paid my tax for doing very little / besides spin?

Of course you are allowed personal opinions etc.
What grudge do you have against your local Homestart coordinator?
Do you actually want to continue as a homestart home -visitor?
I have to say that your attitude would give anyone reading this a very poor opinion of Homestart volunteers, which would make me very sad,as most of us try our very best to be supportive and non-judgemental. Please if you are considering becoming a volunteer, look at the website, talk to people like me (on here if it helps) but do not listen to the absolute tosh that atomicdust has posted

Home-Start UK official accounts can be foun here:

www.charity-commission.gov.uk/SHOWCHARITY/RegisterOfCharities/DocumentList.aspx?RegisteredCharityNumber=1108837&SubsidiaryNumber=0&DocType=AccountList

and it states:
" in 09/10...secured £38.9m in funding to support the network"

which roughly breaks down like that:
For Home-Start UK (headquarters): Total incoming resources for the year amounted to £4,730,927, ..., Home-Start UK?s largest funding source was from the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF), now the Department for Education (...) grant of £2,580,000.(...)
As part of the Agreement between local Home-Starts and Home-Start UK, all local Home-Starts pay an annual fee to Home-Start UK, in return for which they are entitled to use our intellectual property and in particular the name Home-Start. (...) In 2009/10 annual fees from local Home-Starts provided 13% (2009 ? 13%) of Home-Start UK?s income. The fee is based on 2% of 90% of a local Home-Start?s income from their previous financial year."

So, doing the math, 13% of 4,730,927 is £615,020 (fees paid by local home-start schemes to home-start uk a part of the franchise agrement).

Because the local schemes fees are 2% of 90% of their income, the local schemes total income was £34,166,666.

And looking at the official accounts (still on the charity commission web site), of some of the 330 local schemes, grants from local county councils and PCT average 60 to 80 % of a scheme's income.

So, local county councils and PCT (amongst other sources of public money give roughly £23,916,666 to local home-start schemes.

Do you not understand that there are massive overheads. Renting offices, electricity and heating bills. Telephone and internet, stationary, printing, ...the same as any company or business. The only difference is that we make no profit.

Local funding goes to homestart because it pays for the ongoing research and improvement of service, training of staff and volunteers. Legal teams to take. On various aspects.... The list goes on.

I don't know what your problem is but the fact you have one is obvious.

Please reconsider your intention to volunteer prior to being matched with a family.

As another Homestart volunteer, I'd second that our coordinator does a fantastic job and is always there to give support and advice, as well as arranging training, keeping abreast with what's happening with each family/volunteer, and I'm sure does way more hours that she's paid for (she works from home and is often sending emails late into the evening).

Massive overheads of £4,7 M to cover for "Renting offices, electricity and heating bills. Telephone and internet, stationary, printing" ???????????????????

that must be a really amazing building, but not very green!

I'm not discussing the fantastic job volunteers do, I'm just questionning the value-add of some co-ordinators (and I know Penelope is definitly amongst those doing "over-time" in the evening sending mails / putting post on Mumsnet, amongt other...).

But, as a new volunteer, I would have wanted specific examples of the type of advice / support provided by the co-ordinators...

atomicdust that link doesn't work?

sorry limara

you need to go to www.charity-commission.gov.uk/

and then do a search on

home-start uk (headquarters),select home-start uk

then click on "financial history" or "accounts", download the lattest accounts, look for "financial informations"

or do a search on home-start to find information on local schemes.

good luck!

what's deranged about looking at information on the charity commission web site?

I had one, lovley lady. Lasted two months because she wasn't mobile at all and I needed a bit more than someone to talk to.

What else did she did ? (anonymous forum anyway)

You said she wasn't mobile, was she paralysed?