ANNUAL REPORT 2018-19 Creating Childhoods. Changing Futures. Empowering Families. Our vision Every parent has the support they need to give their children the best start in life. Our values We lead with integrity to deliver a professional and reliable service. We foster a sense of community by being responsive, friendly and kind. We work to support, enable and inspire. Everyone feels valued, respected, listened to and included. A better start in life can CHANGE a child's future. About our charity HOME-START WATFORD & THREE RIVERS helps families with at least one child under 5 years deal with the challenges they face. These include post-natal depression, social isolation, poor mental health, illness, disability, bereavement and other issues. We reach families across Watford, Three Rivers and Hertsmere Districts - three of the five local authorities in South West Hertfordshire. We intervene early to support parents as they learn to cope, improve their confidence and build better lives for their children. We tailor our support to each family and their specific needs. Working with the whole family, we offer emotional and practical support for parents, play and development opportunities for children and improved networks and access to local services for all. We are a fully independent local charity, embedded in our community. Our staff and volunteers know and represent our local area, and much of our funding comes from local sources. We are supported by the national organisation, Home-Start UK, which offers advice, training, information and guidance to the Home-Start network to ensure consistent and quality support for parents and children. Making a difference for children and families in South West Hertfordshire. At a glance Home-start Watford & Three Rivers offers a range of home and community based services for families. These include home-visiting, family groups and counselling. Everything we do is designed to have a tangible, positive impact including: Emotional support to help parents find ways to manage and resolve problems. Direct support to children, including playing, listening, having fun, establishing feeding routines, encouraging development and providing opportunities for outings and treats. Practical help including budgeting, nutrition and meal planning, cooking and making the home safe. Outreach and family group work so parents can get out, meet others and become more involved in their own community. Information and links to other organisations including health and educational services. Attendance at meetings and moral support, especially in relation to dealing with case conferences, solicitors and court cases. Access to parenting advice and parenting skills training. We aim to: Change how parents think and feel about themselves Help them cope with the challenges they are facing Support them to reach their potential and be the best parents that they can be Our service is universal, to ALL families, WHATEVER their background or need. We particularly focus on socially isolated families not engaging with other services. Our achievements in numbers 23 family visits each week 96 families Family Groups Home 17 222 Visiting new children volunteers 979 120 visits Volunteers 10,644 Counselling 119 hours sessions Because tomorrow starts today Making a real difference to our families We use Home-Start UK's monitoring tool to capture the core goal or 'essence' of our services. Every family’s needs were measured at the start, middle and end of support, and they scored themselves from 0 (not coping at all) to 5 (coping very well). With support from Home-Start Watford & Three Rivers, families made progress in all four areas of need: 71% Parenting skills, parental well-being, child well-being and family management. of famiies were The chart below shows the impact that support from Home-Start Watford & Three Rivers has had on these families. Start score Middle score End score Score Parenting Parent's Children's Family Skills Well-being Well-being Management Watford Hertsmere Three Rivers 0 20 40 60 South West Hertfordshire map % % % % Our area of coverage Families supported by District Chairperson's Report SUE BRADSHAW This year has been my first full year as Chairperson. I am proud to be part of such a vibrant and important charity. We also celebrated 25 years of supporting local families! Our focus has, of course, been on our primary purpose of supporting our families with children under 5 years of age. We helped 96 families with home-visiting, over 100 families in our family groups and 11 more through our Time2Talk counselling service. In order to do this, we have an excellent team of volunteers and staff who always go the extra mile to support others. To provide this support for local families we have recruited and trained another cohort of volunteers, all bringing their parenting expertise, enthusiasm and non-judgmental support to the families they work with. We know our Home-Start Service makes a difference. You can see in this document how parents report improvement in their Coping Scores across a range of needs. We do not receive statutory funding so for every family we support we have to fund this locally. Thanks to the National Lottery Community Fund, we are funded to support 42 families per year. Other funding comes from a variety of sources such as Three Rivers District Council and Hertsmere Borough Council, individual councillors, community fundraising and corporate sponsors. Fundraising can be fun too and we had another successful Snowflake Ball at Moor Park Mansion, sponsored by Warner Bros. Studios. Our two shops (opened in late 2017) have become established and boosted by donations from Mothercare as well as many local supporters. In the next financial year, we are expecting to see the financial benefits of this investment. Despite such great support we still ended the year with a funding deficit and so our fundraising efforts continue. Our ambition is to have a healthy charity with regular and sustainable income for the next 25 years. I am taking this opportunity to thank Keith Fletcher who retired as trustee and treasurer at the end of the 18-19 financial year. Keith has been an active and dedicated friend of our charity for many years and his presence in the office and at board meetings will be missed. We all hope Keith will keep in touch and join us at future events Thank you also to every one of you who supports Home-Start Watford & Three Rivers, whether as volunteer, employee, fundraiser or advocate, you are all part of this wonderful charity helping the next generation of families be the very best they can. CEO's Report EMMA POWER After the whirlwind of 2017/18, as a team, we agreed this year would be about ‘consolidation’ and consolidate we did. It was so important for us to re- centre and focus on the core values and ethos of our amazing organisation. Volunteers are the foundation of Home-Start. After seven years of managing the charity I am still in awe of how generous volunteers are with their time and their commitment to improving the lives of local families. Whether this be through working in our shops, visiting families at home, offering counselling sessions, helping at the Family Groups, providing admin support in our office or governing the charity, every second of time given makes a difference. A real tangible achievement this year was the creation of our confidential office space for volunteers and families alike funded by County Councillors, Watford Borough Council and the Watford Bid. We are starting 2019 in a good place despite the ongoing challenges of securing sustainable funding so that can continue our core work as well as enabling us to plan for future projects. We have become a highly respected charity and the support we have locally from businesses such as Intu, TJX, Hilton and Warner Bros. are integral to our ongoing survival. This generous support whether it be funding or volunteering enables us to go the ‘extra mile’ for families—providing Easter parties, park fun days and day trips in the summer months. These occasions will always be the highlights of my year. Why? Because making memories matters and: Childhood Can’t Wait! HomeHome-visiting Visiting We supported 96 families through home-visiting, all of whom needed tailored additional support. This enabled us to reach and improve everyday life for 222 children. This unique service is at the core of our work. Our experienced Coordinators recruit and train a network of volunteers, all with parenting experience. These trained parent volunteers are sensitively matched with a family that needs support, and they visit them for 2-3 hours each week, over a six-month period. They build an in-depth relationship, offering a listening ear, and practical and emotional support to parents. We are the only national organisation to go into homes in crisis to take the strain off families Support is provided in a variety of ways including assisting parents/guardians to: learn how to play constructively with their children; understand how to prepare their children for nursery and school; learn how to cook healthy meals within a limited budget; access statutory services and financial benefits; attend appointments with professional bodies; cope with special challenges associated with multiple births and disabled children. Our volunteers provide emotional and practical stability to children in times when their parents/guardians were under pressure e.g. following the arrival of new born babies, illness and marriage breakdown. Volunteers help children to improve language skills and creativity through communication, reading and imaginative play, and to develop appropriate responses to other children and adults. In addition to carefully matching volunteers and families, staff also directly supported Home-Start Watford & Three Rivers families by attending meetings with professionals and signposting them to specialist help where required.