Home-Start KennetEvaluation Report

         

       

                   

UPDATED

January 2017

Part 1 of this Evaluation Report (2013 – 2015)

introduces the reader to Home-Start Kennet;

addresses how we have met the four outcomes of the project

Stronger Families – Stronger Communities;

answers the five key questions that we asked ourselves

at the beginning of this project;

explains what we have learnt from our own and some external

evaluation, how we have responded to issues raised

and how we propose to move forward in the future.

Part 2 of this Evaluation Report (2015 – 2017)

brings the reader up to date with developments

at Home-Start Kennet;

reports on feedback received from stakeholders

since 2015 – families, volunteers and referrers;

describes progress made on the issues raised in Part 1;

revisits the challenges identified and discusses

whether these have been met and what further

challenges are to be addressed.

Contents

Executive Summary Part 1 2

Part 2 10

Evaluation Part 1: February 2013-July 2015 Home-Start Kennet and the community we serve 16

Stronger Families – Stronger Communities: Project outcomes 17

Methodology 18

Outcome 1 20

Outcome 2 24

Outcome 3 27

Outcome 4 29

Referrers and partners 30

Learning and responding 33

Challenges and next steps 41

Evaluation Part 2: July 2015-January 2017 Home-Start Kennet – developments since 2015 43

Methodology 44

Families 44

Volunteers 46

Referrers 48

Learning and Responding 49

Challenges revisited 52

Challenges renewed 54

Executive Summary

     

Part 1

Home-Start Kennet and the community we serve

Home-Start Kennet (HSK) is managed locally; however, Home-Start UK

provides advice and guidance, a monitoring and evaluation system (MESH)

and quality assurance.

Our families are mainly referred by health visitors, but also social workers,

children’s centres, the Army Welfare Service, GPs, community midwives,

parent support advisors and other community organisations; families can also

self-refer where appropriate.

Our team of 37+ volunteers visit families weekly in their own homes.

All have parenting experience and are professionally trained and supported.

We offer support based on the family’s identified needs and are early years

focused. Our main role is to prevent family crisis and promote family resilience.

HSK currently serves Devizes, Marlborough, Pewsey and Tidworth as well as

other areas of Wiltshire where our work is in demand.

The areas we cover include pockets of disadvantage and child poverty

resulting from inequality of income and the added cost of living in a rural area.

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Stronger Families – Stronger Communities (project background)

HSK was funded £266,378 by the Big Lottery Reaching Communities Fund for a

three year project - 2013/16.

Our overall aim was to work with more vulnerable families in their own homes.

Using the skills of trained volunteers, our hope was to build family resilience, help

parents develop coping strategies and gain confidence to participate in their

communities, and to strengthen the family support network so that hard-to-reach

families were not missed.

We planned to do this by restructuring our staff, enhancing the senior management

role, recruiting and training additional volunteers, increasing stakeholder feedback

and strengthening user involvement and partnership working.

Evaluation methodology

HSK used the following methods to evaluate our project:

• MESH monitoring and evaluation system (Home-Start UK) provided

quantitative data on needs identified and progress made on meeting those

needs; also provided data on wider family circumstances e.g. housing, lone

parent, with/without transport, military/veteran

• End-of-service evaluation forms from families and referrers

• Online surveys from volunteers, referrers and families

• Peer group meetings – families and volunteers

• External evaluation through 2014 QA procedure by HSUK.

We faced limitations such as poor response to some online surveys; losing contact

with families due to house moves and military deployment; families leaving the

area for long periods to visit extended family. We continue to source solutions to

these difficulties.

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Executive Summary Part 1

Project outcomesHSK identified four main outcomes for the project. Each of these outcomes has

provided success as well as lessons learned.

Outcome 1: Vulnerable families build up effective strategies and resilience to cope with problems and avert crises and family breakdown

I got to know new things, to knowing about what children need to learn and

how to cope with them. And also they have been very helpful in the way of

handling children.

After receiving HSK support, MESH data tells us that 92% of our families are

coping better – whether fully or partially. Our family evaluation forms also show

that 96% of families are satisfied or very satisfied with HSK support, with 75%

valuing being able to talk over their problems confidentially to a third party.

From QA external evaluation we know that 95% of families felt more confident as

a result of our support. Family members talked about feeling that they could get

help and weren’t alone; they also reported doing things that they hadn’t done

before: “I can now go out and I can now cook”.

Outcome 2: Volunteers’ skills increase through on-going training to meet families’ needs, improving their employability prospects and contributing to Wiltshire’s workforce development

Broadened my skills and showed me I can try new things even when they scare me.

Made new friends. Shown me I prefer working in a team rather than on my own.

According to our survey data, 93% of home-visiting volunteers found their work

with HSK extremely or very meaningful and 93% found various training sessions of

great use.

In addition to the preparatory course training of 40 hours - with optional CERTA

accreditation - home-visiting and trustee volunteers have been offered a range of

training opportunities such as first aid/recognising the sick child, welfare reform,

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depression, domestic abuse, mental health first aid, post-natal depression, learning

through play, emotional well-being and routine safeguarding updates.

Nine volunteers have either moved to employment using their volunteering

experience or added HSK experience to their CV/”Linked in” as new employability

skills. One volunteer is engaged in further training, and one is doing additional

hospital voluntary work.

Our volunteers view their work as a learning as well as a giving experience:

“I feel I have gained as much as I have given.”

Outcome 3: Hard-to-engage families who would otherwise not use Wiltshire’s family support network benefit from the relationship with an HSK volunteer

Home-Start has encouraged me to get out and about to use local services.

By the end of their support, 89% of hard-to-reach families were coping better with

isolation, 92% felt their self-esteem had improved and 93% were coping better

with accessing services independently.

On occasion, our volunteers have provided additional support for this cohort

outside planned visits. Such help included outings and accompanying to various

services in the community. One had “acted as a scribe on visits to solicitor and

CAB,” another had supported meetings with the school.

A respondent whose husband was deployed on military service described how

HSK had helped her through the deployment by: “being able to chat over my

feelings of anxiety and depression and my feelings of feeling isolated.”

Our referrers also state how HSK volunteers have helped families to move outward

into the community: “In each case, mothers started going to social groups,

recently a mother went into her child’s classroom to give support.”

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Executive Summary Part 1

Project outcomes cont

Outcome 4: The number of families supported is increased by 50% promoting stronger, healthier communities

Since February 2013, 145 families have been supported by Home-Start Kennet,

well on the way to achieving and/or passing our target of 157 families over the

course of the three years of Stronger Families – Stronger Communities; this target

represents a 50% increase in the number of families supported. With funding from

the Big Lottery Fund we have been able to respond to growing demand and have

increased our family numbers steadily since February 2013.

More families are reporting improved coping skills over the range of needs

identified. Support has enabled them to look outwards beyond their immediate

family situation and given them the confidence to access services and other

community activities.

Referrers and partners

To create a comprehensive service for vulnerable families in Wiltshire, we have

tried to ensure that these families are reached as early as possible. Partnership

working has been undertaken with 4Children, the British Red Cross, and our

neighbouring Home-Start South Wiltshire scheme.

Referrers called HSK an invaluable service and one which provides a vital support

system for families who do not fit the criteria for other services.

They describe our volunteers as friendly, understanding and supportive. One

referrer had met the volunteer in the family’s flat and “saw how well they

interacted, and she was accepted”. Another described “fantastic volunteer/family

matches”.

We are delighted that 100% of our referrers would refer families again to HSK and

we continue to invest in maintaining this successful referral network and sharing

effective approaches to family support.

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Learning and responding

The overwhelming nature of the feedback we received from all our sources was

positive; however, negative comments and suggestions for improvement allow us

to learn and respond appropriately.

In response to feedback from families we have:

• Made it clearer from the beginning of, and throughout, support what the boundaries are that families and volunteers must both respect

• Provided activity sessions during the school holidays

• Designed extra training sessions for volunteers in response to family needs

• Devoted increased attention to matching volunteer to family

• Strengthened our system of consultation on when it is appropriate for our service to the family to end

• Tried to ensure that families are not kept waiting for a volunteer.

In response to feedback from referrers we have:

• Clarified the process by which we will pass referrals back if no volunteer is available

• Created a better system for keeping referrers up to date with HSK’s position

• Ensured that all referrers are asked for feedback after HSK service has ended.

In response to feedback from volunteers (home-visiting and trustee) we have:

• Introduced the ‘Voice of the Volunteer’ to provide opportunities for feedback and the sharing of views and ideas

• Developed our website and introduced a Facebook presence

• Conducted an assessment of how we use, protect and provide training and opportunities for volunteers (Care & Support for Volunteers, 2015)

• Strengthened our sub-committee structure to distribute the workload more evenly among trustees

• Introduced case studies to our Scheme Manager’s reports to the Board to keep trustees informed about day-to-day operations

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Executive Summary Part 1

• Introduced 1:1 trustee interviews with the Joint Chairs

to enable any problems to be identified and views expressed

• Introduced a skills audit and trustee ‘Bios’ to inform all in the organisation about

the skills and experience of our team and for use in promotional material.

In response to identification of unmet need we have:

• Made contact with referrers (health visitors, children’s centres, housing associations) in the Chippenham/Calne area of Wiltshire who are requesting our service

• Amended our Memorandum & Articles to permit expansion

• Undertaken pilot work for Public Health Wiltshire to provide a service to military families under the Army Rebasing Programme

• Identified the need to develop more effective engagement strategies for certain specific user groups, and to find more innovative ways of reaching families that would benefit from our support. To this end we have:

• revised our Communications and Media Strategies

• engaged in the development of a new Marketing Strategy.

Challenges and next steps

As a result of our evaluation, we have identified eight challenges towards which we

will be directing our attention in the coming months:

• How to respond effectively to need in new areas and from new groups of

beneficiaries

• How to improve design and response rates to our evaluation procedures

• How to increase the take-up rate of additional volunteer training sessions

• How to improve our strategies for engagement with families where difficulties

have been identified

• How to minimise the impact of unplanned endings

• How to recruit volunteer and family member trustees

• How to achieve succession planning

• How to access more sustainable sources of funding.

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Part 2

Developments at Home-Start Kennet since September 2015

The Stronger Families – Stronger Communities project was completed successfully

in April 2016.

A new three-year grant of £375,411 was awarded by the Big Lottery Reaching

Communities Fund to carry out the FACES project (Families and Communities

Engaged/Supported) that started on May 1st 2016.

The outcomes for the FACES project require an expansion of our service (more

families supported in total) with a focus on a new area of North Wiltshire,

Chippenham & Calne, and on increased support for military/veteran families as the

extensive Army Basing Programme gathers pace from 2016 to 2020 and beyond.

In addition, HSK undertook a year-long pilot project (jointly with Home-Start South

Wiltshire) and funded by Wiltshire Public Health, to support 30 military/veteran

families during April 2015 to March 2016.

Work also began in October 2016 on a new project: ISMVF - In-the-home Support

for Military/Veteran Families, support specifically targeted at 20 military/veteran

families, funded for a year by The Royal British Legion.

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Evaluation Methodology

Data collected from July 2015 to December 2016 is drawn upon for this update.

The methods used in the HSK evaluation toolbox described in Part 1 remain the

same. However, our QA cycle means the external element of Quality Assurance

does not form part of the methodology this time.

We have improved the response rates to some surveys.

Families

95% of families were satisfied or very satisfied with the service they had received.

The most valued aspects of the service were the regularity of the visits (90%

found this helpful), the social contact (89%), the opportunity to talk over problems

confidentially (79%), and the opportunity to see the volunteer engage the children

in play (83%).

Home Start came at the right time for me, health was very bad with a one year

old to look after. Felt like I was in a downward spiral. They have given me my

confidence back.

Families mentioned the “help with going to children’s groups”, “finding the

confidence to speak to new people”, “helped me with social anxiety”.

All respondents followed up 6-12 months after support felt that HSK had made a

difference to them and their families and several said they would be interested in

becoming a Home-Start volunteer themselves.

After support, families were independently accessing local services, including

children’s centres, play/toddler groups, libraries and leisure centres.

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Volunteers

93% of volunteers found their work extremely or very meaningful.

86% found it easy to attend the required volunteer training and 93% found training

sessions extremely or very useful.

Listening to the ‘Voice of the Volunteer’ (see Part 1) has continued. In October

2016, volunteers were asked to share examples of strategies suggested to families

that were then taken on by the families themselves.

I booked the sensory room at the children centre and accompanied her, she

then booked it herself and went to the play room which she made friends at.

Most volunteers would recommend HSK to others as a place to volunteer.

Two volunteers have used their volunteering experience to move on to counselling

courses.

Referrers

97% of responses received agreed that HSK had responded efficiently and

effectively to their referral.

Referrers were again unanimous in wishing to refer to the service again. Comments

focused on the increased confidence, empowerment and coping skills of the family

member, leading to greater community involvement in groups and services.

One respondent commented that HSK had “helped with emotional support and

health issues to prevent things becoming overwhelming. Excellent service”

Executive Summary Part 2

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Learning and Responding

In response to the issues raised in Part 1 we have:

• been successful in making clear to families

why volunteers should be contacted through the office and not directly

• clarified the nature of our service to families to avoid mistaken expectations

• improved our referral procedures to reassure military families

• improved our matching procedure

• spread the venues for volunteer training over a wider area

• continued the procedure of passing back referrals to referrers

if no volunteer is available

• established good relationships with referrers in the Chippenham & Calne area

and met the first year’s target for recruitment there

• sourced additional match funding to provide a service

for military/veteran families

• improved the response rates to some surveys

In response to the issues raised in Part 1 we are:

• consulting volunteers again to gather feedback on ways in which they might be

more involved in the working of HSK

• trialing innovative ideas to aid the recruitment of volunteers

• working to improve trustee recruitment and succession planning

• using Building Capabilities funding from the Big Lottery to develop marketing

and fundraising strategies to address the problem of sustainability

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Challenges renewed

• How to maintain the improvements in organisation and practice

identified in this evaluation

• How to increase the take-up rate of additional volunteer training sessions

• How to improve the recruitment of home-visiting volunteer

and family member trustees

• How to achieve succession planning

• How to access more sustainable sources of funding

in a challenging environment for small local charities

• How to accommodate changes to the role of Home-start UK

in the running of our organisation.

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Evaluation Part 1

February 2013 – July 2015

Home-Start Kennet and the community we serve

Home-Start Kennet (HSK) helps parents give their children the best possible start in life by offering support, friendship and practical help to parents with young children in our local communities. Our trained volunteers visit families at home and offer them informal, flexible and confidential support. Our work with families at times of difficulty promotes family resilience and improves children’s life chances.

Although managed locally and rooted in the community we serve, Home-Start Kennet is affiliated to the UK-wide organisation (HSUK) that offers direction, training, information, guidance and quality assurance to local schemes to ensure consistent and effective support for parents and children wherever they are.

HSK was awarded 100% compliance in its HSUK Quality Assurance Assessment in 2015.

Our volunteers, all of whom have parenting experience, are drawn from the local community and go through a 40-hour preparatory training course with optional accreditation. They are offered additional training during their volunteering. We currently have 37 active volunteers. Our main referrers are health visitors, but we also receive referrals from children’s centres, the Army Welfare Service, Unit Welfare Officers, housing associations, parent support advisers, social workers, GP surgeries, community midwives, health trainers, or self-referrals.

Wiltshire contains pockets of disadvantage due to inequality of income and the added cost of living in a rural area. There is considerable social isolation due to the rural environment. Many families are referred to HSK from local social housing areas. Our way of working means we are able to reach families who do not normally access other forms of support.

Our community has a significant, and growing, military population with plans for Army Rebasing concentrating an extra 4,000 military servicemen/women, reservists and their families in this area by 2020. Military families experience challenges particular to their circumstances, often moving into new areas, living in isolated accommodation and with separation anxiety associated with their partners’ deployment to war zones. We aim to build on the awareness and take up of our service in the military community, to continue and expand our support for military/veteran families and help them integrate with the local community.

Only 3.4% of Wiltshire’s population is of black or minority ethnic groups. The area we serve is mostly below average in its minority populations, although the Tidworth community area shows 7.5%, linked to the military presence. As their numbers are small and the families are dispersed amongst the indigenous population there is a risk that they may be particularly isolated socially and that their specific needs will be overlooked.

Among the challenges we have identified for the coming three years, we aim to find more innovative ways to reach isolated families, and, through our new Marketing Strategy, to inform the general public, as well as partner and potential partner organisations, of the service we offer to families.

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Stronger Families – Stronger CommunitiesProject outcomes

In January 2013, Home-Start Kennet was awarded a 3 year Big Lottery Fund grant of £266,378 to carry out a project entitled Stronger Families – Stronger Communities as part of the Reaching Communities programme.

This funding provided about three quarters of the cost of the project, and about two thirds of our total expenditure. The overall aim of our project was:

To work with an increased number of vulnerable families in their own homes using the skills of trained volunteers to build family resilience, help parents develop coping strategies and gain confidence to participate in their communities, and to strengthen the family support network so that hard-to-reach families are not missed.

We are currently half way through Year 3 of the project, and this evaluation report is to accompany our Stage 2 application for a further three years of funding. We provide regular monitoring of outcomes and numerical indicators to the Big Lottery Fund as part of our routine reporting to them and will not replicate that data here.

Our identified outcomes are:

Outcome 1Vulnerable families build up effective strategies and resilience to cope with problems and avert crises and family breakdown

Outcome 2 Volunteers’ skills increase through on-going training to meet families’ needs, improving their employability prospects and contributing to Wiltshire’s workforce development

Outcome 3Hard-to-engage families who would otherwise not use Wiltshire’s family support network benefit from the relationship with an HSK volunteer

Outcome 4The number of families supported is increased by 50% promoting stronger, healthier communities

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Methodology

This Evaluation is compiled from two main sources – our own internal evaluation toolbox and external evaluation conducted in September 2014 for our Home-Start UK Quality Assurance assessment. Case studies are included in this evaluation to illustrate various points. These are anonymised and in some cases details have been changed to prevent identification. Evaluation instruments are available on request from HSK.

HSK evaluation toolbox

We routinely monitor and evaluate the work that we do in a range of ways to providequantitative and qualitative information. This evaluation draws upon evidence collectedduring February 2013 to July 2015.

FAMILIES

MESH

MESH (Monitoring and Evaluation System Home-Start) system developed by HSUK gives us quantitative data on the families supported. Results from initial, review and end visits to families are entered into this database by our administrator and give information on the degree to which needs identified by the family have been met or partly met. This system also provides data on the wider family circumstances for example housing, lone parent, with/without transport, military/veteran. We have been required by the Big Lottery Fund to use MESH data on families that have a planned ending and an end visit for the purpose of meeting our numerical targets. The stability of many of our families is fragile, and on occasion they move without notice, or cancel the service unexpectedly. In this evaluation, we will use some data from the latest review visit or contact with some families, noting where this is the case (See p. 23).

Family evaluation forms

At the end of their support, every family is asked to complete an evaluation form giving feedback on the service and the aspects that they have found most useful, and giving them the opportunity to comment on strengths and weaknesses of the organisation and changes that they would like to see made. We are using the results of 79 of these feedback forms for this evaluation, gathered between February 2013 and July 2015.

longer term feedback

At the beginning of the Stronger Families – Stronger Communities project we felt that the aspect of evaluation missing from our toolbox, was an attempt to document more lasting effects of HSK support. We have anecdotal evidence from referrers that, without the HSK service, families would have required statutory intervention, but we felt the need for some stronger data. We therefore instigated a follow-up evaluation 6-12 months after support has ended. This was initially conducted as a telephone interview, but this method proved inefficient in terms of staff time and was replaced with online questionnaires. We are using the results of 14 telephone reviews and 4 questionnaires for this evaluation. Families can also give verbal feedback at any time to members of staff and to volunteers, or via the website.

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REFERRERS

Referrer evaluation forms and online surveys

At the end of support for the family they have referred, referrers are asked to complete a feedback form that requests information on how satisfied they are with the work done by HSK and the benefits to the families. They were also contacted by online survey in 2015. We are using the results of 37 responses (between February 2013 and June 2015) for this evaluation.

HOME-VISITING VOLUNTEERS

Peer group meetings/ Online surveys

The main forum for volunteer feedback is at Volunteer Peer Group Meetings, or in supervision sessions with their FSO (Family Support Organiser). They have also been surveyed on-line in 2012 and again in 2015. We are using the results of the 2015 online survey (17 responses) in this evaluation.

Voice of the Volunteer

A new initiative – the Voice of the Volunteer – developed as a response to volunteer disquiet about lack of opportunities for feedback, gives volunteers the chance to voice views and ideas to members of staff and trustees who attend these meetings.

TRUSTEE VOLUNTEERS1:1 interviews

Following feedback from individual trustees, a regular feedback process has been introduced. New trustees have 1:1 interviews with the Chair(s) after 6 months in the role, and all trustees have 1:1s about once a year. These enable the Chair(s) to pick up at an early stage any problems that trustees might be having with the way in which the organisation is working. Trustees also engage with the home-visiting volunteers at the ‘Voice of the Volunteer’ sessions.

StaKeHolder uSer groupS

Cross-stakeholder meetings have not been pursued as we have explored other groupings - referrers, family, volunteers, partner feedback. However where meetings naturally occur e.g. at AGMs when volunteers, partners, referrers connect, feedback is taken from 1:1 discussion and contributions to the meeting. Families have attended a recent craft session and within that we have gathered their feedback on HSK support.

ExTERNAL EVALUATIONHSuK Qa assessment

In 2014 HSK came to the end of a year-long Quality Assurance assessment by Home-Start UK based on self-assessment of 8 key standards, followed by external verification and challenge. This procedure is endorsed by the Charities Commission and mirrors the PQASSO process. In Summer 2014, questionnaires designed by Home-Start UK were sent to families, volunteers, referrers, as well as staff and trustees. Two families, volunteers and referrers selected by Home-Start UK were also contacted for telephone interviews. Home-Start UK then used the information gathered for the purposes of their QA assessment. We are using analysis of responses from 22 families, 21 volunteers and 10 referrers for this evaluation to complement our own data.

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Outcome 1: Vulnerable families build up effective strategies and resilience to cope with problems and avert crises and family breakdown

By regular weekly visiting, trained volunteers aim to help families build up strategies and resilience to cope with problems. As can be seen from the MESH data shown in the table below, high percentages of families felt better able cope by the end of their support. At the end of HSK support, families gave the following responses to being asked whether the needs they had expressed at the beginning of support had been achieved or partly achieved:

need % achieved by end visit fully partially

1 Managing children’s behaviour 96% 65% 31%

2 Being involved in the children’s development/learning 97% 73% 24%

3 Coping with physical health 89% 53% 36%

4 Coping with mental health 95% 61% 34%

5 Coping with feeling isolated 89% 65% 24%

6 Parent’s self-esteem 92% 50% 42%

7 Coping with child’s physical health 93% 84% 9%

8 Coping with child’s mental health 96% 70% 26%

9 Managing the household budget 85% 59% 26%

10 The day-to-day running of the home 93% 55% 38%

11 Stress caused by conflict in the family 93% 50% 43%

12 Coping with extra work of multiple children under 5 89% 50% 39%

13. Use of services 93% 72% 21%

What were families hoping for?From MESH data, the needs most commonly expressed at the initial visit related to coping with isolation, parents’ physical and mental health together with self-esteem.

From QA questionnaires, the needs most frequently cited were coping with children (36%) and coping with emotional needs/depression (32%). Following these expectations, 27% asked for emotional support and 32% for help with children. However, there were a wide variety of other requests that illustrate just how broad the needs of families can be. There were requests for help with budgeting and debt, with dealings with the Council, for company and friendship. One respondent said she wanted help with “enjoying things again”.

Family Evaluation FormsHSK family evaluation response forms completed at the end of support also reveal high satisfaction ratings. 96% of families were ‘very satisfied’ or ‘satisfied’. Two families were ‘fairly satisfied’ and one family recorded dissatisfaction.

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How HSK helpedFamilies mentioned several elements of support that they found particularly useful - the regularity of the volunteer visits, the opportunity to chat socially and the time to talk over problems with someone who was non-judgmental.

Our experience with Home-Start has been truly fantastic and we as a family have been lucky and grateful to have received all the support that we have! We have never felt pressured or judged and the whole experience has been great.

The regularity was clearly valued: “knowing that there was reliable help on a set day”, “knowing someone was coming to help”, “knowing that the volunteer was coming regularly”.

Knowing there was reliable help on a set day unlike friends and family who often change plans I was able to look forward to the visit and plan how we could make the most of the time ... A fantastic organisation who were there in a flexible way just when I needed them and when I couldn’t access help from the RAF base.

One respondent described “looking forward to seeing the volunteer each week – someone to talk to and go out with”. Another said:

Knowing that my volunteer was coming regularly to help unconditionally with both my twins and practical jobs – it helped me feel calm and in control … The confidentiality and listening skills were also really helpful. Knowing I had a sounding board who was impartial to family/friends was brilliant and helped maintain sanity!

Families were grateful for “a friendly face to talk to”. One mother described having a giggle with the volunteer who had become a good friend.

Being able to talk confidentially to someone outside the family was mentioned by 75% offamilies and was clearly very important. Volunteers were described as ‘friendly’ and ‘nonjudgmental’; ‘listening not judging’, ‘very helpful, very understanding’. One respondent felt she could “talk openly and get things off her chest”; another that she could “talk about options in life”; another said that the volunteer helped her to “identify her own needs better”. Another said:

I can honestly say that without the help and support of [...] I would not have got through this most difficult time of my life. I am so thankful to Home-Start for helping me get my life back. [Volunteer] gave me the motivation and selfbelief I needed to get my jobs done and my life back on track.

HSK volunteers are trained and experienced in the provision of stimulating play activities for children. The expertise of volunteers in entertaining children and providing interesting play activities was recognised and appreciated. Experience with babies was mentioned by one respondent. One parent mentioned help with one particular child and reported that the school had noted changes in the child’s behaviour. The insight of the volunteer into children’s needs had helped them in bringing up their children. One described the help as “invaluable in helping raise young children”; another mentioned “having someone to talk to with more knowledge of children”. One mother said:

I got to know new things, to knowing about what children need to learn and how to cope with them. And also they have been very helpful in the way of handling children.

By helping with practical tasks the volunteer can model strategies and give ideas for managing tasks better. Respondents appreciated this. One talked about help with household routines; another that their volunteer “gave practical help and advice”.

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There are a number of more general comments that form a major aspect of the responses. They present a picture of families feeling enabled to cope better with their problems, to venture out into the community and to feel more confident about their own skills. Many of the respondents talked about feelings of increased confidence, with 95% expressing greater confidence, in the QA data.

The emotional and practical support had, for many, resulted in their feeling reassured about their skills and their ability to bring up their families. One respondent, talking about how she valued the non-judgmental attitude of her volunteer, said “we are now an amazing family unit”.

36% of families surveyed during the QA process had had a new life event whilst the volunteer had been visiting. 3 babies had been born, 2 new relationships, 1 operation, 1 pregnancy, 1 house move and 1 loss of job by partner – an indication of the sorts of stress families receiving HSK support are under. These changes influence the length of support time from the volunteer, often extending it, as they impact on a family`s coping strategies.

We can illustrate a family’s journey from the coping skills given at their initial, review and end visits during the course of their support. These scores reflect how the family felt “on that day”.

FOUR DOMAINS OF FAMILY LIFE

ord how the family felt “on that day”. This family had suffered a setback in the middle of support, but was coping

well by the end visit.

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for helping me get my life back. [Volunteer] gave me the motivation and self-belief I needed to get my jobs done and my life back on track.

HSK volunteers are trained and experienced in the provision of stimulating play activities for children. The expertise of volunteers in entertaining children and providing interesting play activities was recognised and appreciated. Experience with babies was mentioned by one respondent. One parent mentioned help with one particular child and reported that the school had noted changes in the child’s behaviour. The insight of the volunteer into children’s needs had helped them in bringing up their children. One described the help as “invaluable in helping raise young children”; another mentioned “having someone to talk to with more knowledge of children”. One mother said:

I got to know new things, to knowing about what children need to learn and how to cope with them. And also they have been very helpful in the way of handling children.

By helping with practical tasks the volunteer can model strategies and give ideas for managing tasks better. Respondents appreciated this. One talked about help with household routines; another that their volunteer “gave practical help and advice”. There are a number of more general comments that form a major aspect of the responses. They present a picture of families feeling enabled to cope better with their problems, to venture out into the community and to feel more confident about their own skills. Many of the respondents talked about feelings of increased confidence, with 95% expressing greater confidence, in the QA data. The emotional and practical support had, for many, resulted in their feeling reassured about their skills and their ability to bring up their families. One respondent, talking about how she valued the non-judgmental attitude of her volunteer, said “we are now an amazing family unit”. 36% of families surveyed during the QA process had had a new life event whilst the volunteer had been visiting. 3 babies had been born, 2 new relationships, 1 operation, 1 pregnancy, 1 house move and 1 loss of job by partner – an indication of the sorts of stress families receiving HSK support are under. These changes influence the length of support time from the volunteer, often extending it, as they impact on a family`s coping strategies. We can illustrate a family’s journey from the coping skills given at their initial, review and end visits during the course of their support. These scores record how the family felt “on that day”. This family had suffered a setback in the middle of support, but was coping well by the end visit.

(Four domains of family life; A – parenting skills; B – parental wellbeing, C - children’s wellbeing, D – family management)

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This parent had the greatest need in parenting skills and had made the most improvement in that area.

Asked, for QA, about how the volunteer had helped, many of the replies focused on building up resilience, a key aim of the Home-Start service. Family members talked about feeling that they could get help, that they weren’t alone, that they were doing things they hadn’t done before:

I can now go out and I can now cook. As explained in the Methodology section, unplanned endings result in incomplete MESH data. The following short case study taken from the Scheme Manager’s report to the Board (February 2015) reveals how feedback can be captured:

The second unplanned ending was the family mentioned in the last report who were living in very damp conditions. They moved away unexpectedly at Christmas, during the holiday close down period. They have since emailed in to say that they have been allocated a much better property in […], which is where they wanted to live and they gave very positive feedback about Home-Start Kennet support.

The positive feedback from families described above is confirmed in Family Support Organisers' regular visits to families and reviews of volunteer diaries in volunteer supervisions. Follow-up evaluation Out initial attempts at 6-12 month follow up were by telephone interviews. 13 out of 14 family members contacted felt that HSK support had made a difference and benefitted them in a variety of ways that were broadly similar to those expressed in the end of support evaluation forms. There were indications that scores on coping with access to services had improved. Two respondents felt that their support had ended too early and this will be addressed on p. 28. Telephone follow-up proved too costly in staff time to provide an effective evaluation instrument, so In 2015 we introduced an online survey to be sent to families whose support had ended 6-12 months previously - all families who had agreed to be contacted and who had given us their email address. Response to this survey has been very disappointing. It is one of our challenges for the future to develop an effective follow-up tool (see p. 32). Stakeholder user group A craft session for families, their children, volunteers and FSOs was arranged during the school holidays in July 2015. Feedback was captured in an informal way from parents as

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Parenting skills

Parental wellbeing

Children’s wellbeing

Family management

This family had suffered a setback in the middle of support, but was coping well by the end visit.

Parenting skills

Parental wellbeing

Children’s wellbeing

Family management

This parent had the greatest need in parenting skills and had made the most improvement in that area.

Asked, for QA, about how the volunteer had helped, many of the replies focused on building up resilience, a key aim of the Home-Start service. Family members talked about feeling that they could get help, that they weren’t alone, that they were doing things they hadn’t done before:

I can now go out and I can now cook.

As explained in the Methodology section, unplanned endings result in incomplete MESH data. The following short case study taken from the Scheme Manager’s report to the Board (February 2015) reveals how feedback can be captured:

The second unplanned ending was the family mentioned in the last report who were living in very damp conditions. They moved away unexpectedly at Christmas, during the holiday close down period. They have since emailed in to say that they have been allocated a much better property in […], which is where they wanted to live and they gave very positive feedback about Home-Start Kennet support.

The positive feedback from families described above is confirmed in Family Support Organisers’ regular visits to families and reviews of volunteer diaries in volunteer supervisions.

Follow-up evaluationOur initial attempts at 6-12 month follow up were by telephone interviews. 13 out of 14 family members contacted felt that HSK support had made a difference and benefitted them in a variety of ways that were broadly similar to those expressed in the end of support evaluation forms. There were indications that scores on coping with access to services had improved. Two respondents felt that their support had ended too early and this will be addressed on p. 34.

Telephone follow-up proved too costly in staff time to provide an effective evaluation instrument, so in 2015 we introduced an online survey to be sent to families whose support had ended 6-12 months previously - all families who had agreed to be contacted and who had given us their email address. Response to this survey has been very disappointing. It is one of our challenges for the future to develop an effective follow-up tool (see p. 40).

Stakeholder user groupA craft session for families, their children, volunteers and FSOs was arranged during the school holidays in July 2015. Feedback was captured in an informal way from parents as they and their children engaged with the creative materials. They were also given the opportunity to feed back anonymously through post-it notes.

For the past year Home Start have been my main supportive factor and have been brilliant. In the future I would like to volunteer for this organisation to be able to give something back in return for all their hard & ongoing work/support.

Home Start gives me confidence to pursue my dreams.

We intend to repeat this way of collecting feedback in the future.

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Outcome 2: Volunteers’ skills increase through on-going training to meet families’ needs, improving their employability prospects and contributing to Wiltshire’s workforce development

Home-visiting volunteersAll newly recruited volunteers undertake the Prep Course. This consists of 40 hours of preparation for volunteering and carries an accreditation option (CERTA). This course is administered locally but verified centrally by HSUK with internal cross-verification by other HS scheme staff who are themselves course deliverers. Five courses have taken place training 34 new volunteers since February 2013. 13 have achieved CERTA accreditation.

In addition to the Prep Course we have provided additional sessions of volunteer training to ensure that volunteers are kept up-to-date with existing and developing family needs.These needs have changed as the economic situation and associated stress has worsened for many families. In 2012 there was a focus on debt management with input from CAB. Since 2013, mental health issues have been identified as a priority. Volunteer Course Title Provider Date attendance

First Aid/Recognising the Sick Child British Red Cross/HSK 19.2.13 11

Welfare Reform Session Turn2Us 4.6.13 9

Depression MIND 17.9.13 11

Domestic Abuse SPLITZ 17.12.13 22

Mental Health First Aid Mental Health First Aid England 29.4.14 8

Emotional Wellbeing Wiltshire Wildlife Trust 8.7.14 10

Mental Health First Aid MHFA England 11.9.14 7

Safeguarding Update Elizabeth Price 5.11.14 12

Post Natal Depression Louise Webb 16.12.14 22

Safeguarding updates Angela Hughes 6.3.15 1 16.3.15 2

Learning through Play Wiltshire Council Org/ Development & Learning Service 30.4.15 14

Volunteers are routinely asked to evaluate these training sessions. As a result of very positive feedback from the Mental Health First Aid course, with volunteers expressing their increased awareness of mental health needs of both adults and children in the families they visited, this course was repeated later in 2014. K, one of our experienced volunteers, attended a volunteer training session in relation to Domestic Abuse…

• K attended a session on domestic abuse run by Splitz on 17/12/13• She worked with a family where Dad has physically and mentally abused mum• The training helped K to have a better understanding of why Mum stayed in an abusive

setting• It also helped her to support Mum to set better boundaries and access Splitz• K has been successful in encouraging Mum to attend a Freedom course which will

hopefully have a positive impact on the whole family• K was able to discuss the impact on the two young daughters having witnessed the

domestic violence.

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Trustee volunteersTrustees have participated in many of the training sessions detailed above. In addition five trustees attended HSUK Induction Days, HSUK Link Events, an Early Years Conference, Safeguarding Training and Updates and a Quality Assurance briefing.

Home-visiting and trustee volunteers moving forward using HSK experienceNine volunteers – home-visiting and trustee - have either moved to employment using this experience or added HSK experience to their CV/”Linked In” as new employability skills. They are encouraged to do this by HSK. One volunteer is engaged in further training, one volunteer is doing additional hospital voluntary work. Two new volunteers are undertaking CERTA accreditation. This involves a considerable amount of written work in the preparation of an assessed file. Dyslexic trainee volunteers are given additional support and one volunteer achieved a level 1 certificate in this way - the first certificate this adult had ever received.

The following comments come from our new feedback sessions (The Voice of theVolunteer) where home-visiting volunteers and trustees can voice opinions either in theopen session, or anonymously.

Looking forward to a career working with families – hopefully Home-Start.

Allowed me to experience new things and enjoy doing them.

Broadened my skills and showed me I can try new things even when they scare me. Made new friends. Shown me I prefer working in a team rather than on my own.

Feedback from home-visiting volunteersUsing data from the on-line survey conducted with home-visiting volunteers in 2015, the first question asked how meaningful to them was the volunteer work they undertook for Home-Start Kennet. 93% found the work extremely or very meaningful.

Asked about how easy it was to receive the required training at Home-Start Kennet, 93% found it extremely or very easy. The volunteers clearly found the training sessions at Home-Start Kennet of great use. 93% recorded very positive responses here. 53% found it extremely or very easy to attend peer group/training sessions, but 40% only moderately easy and 7% not at all easy. We are aware that some volunteers attend almost every training session, but some are infrequent attenders and this is something that we are addressing. We may well be able to make a difference by changing times, venues, etc. Apart from Safeguarding training, attendance at training sessions is not compulsory, and we do not wish to make it so. We work on an encouragement model where volunteers recognise skills/ knowledge gaps in their supervision sessions.

94% of the volunteers were extremely or very satisfied overall with their volunteer experience. Their general levels of satisfaction were reflected in whether or not they would like to continue volunteering. 80% said they were extremely or very likely to. Most volunteers would also be likely to recommend HSK to others as a place to volunteer. 80% were either extremely or very likely to.

This is generally very positive feedback for Home-Start Kennet. We are clearly providingthe volunteers with the training and support that they feel that they need.

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Asked about whether they felt their views influenced how HSK works, 53% felt that their views were influential and the comments recorded below reflect this.

I cannot think of specific instances, but I know that ideas, suggestions or thoughts I convey to my organiser are taken on board and considered within the fixed framework.

I think the whole organisation is open to individual views and are very open to on-going discussions on different topics.

On a less positive note: 40% of the volunteers responding to this question felt that their views did not influence how Home-Start Kennet works.

Not sure whether it does or not.

Doesn’t really apply.

In contrast to the online responses, 100% of the volunteers responding to the QA written questionnaire felt that they were encouraged to feedback views and ideas about the running of the service. (See p. 35 for further discussion of this issue)

This is a very happy and well-managed group. The regular meetings and prompt responses to queries give me confidence On-going training opportunities are very good. I love doing this.

HS provided excellent and thorough briefing course. The staff are a good balance of friendly and professional. They are very supportive and efficient, and inspire confidence in their volunteers.

Volunteers listed the support they were offering to families. Replies were varied but there was a core of types of support that reflect very closely the needs identified by the families. Volunteers felt that they were:• giving emotional support• listening and encouraging• trying to instil confidence• modelling positive play activities and discipline• encouraging the family member to go out• signposting to suitable activities and sources of information, and• attending these with the family where appropriate.

68% felt that families were more involved with activities with their children since visiting started and 55% felt that the family was coping better, with an additional 23% giving a qualified ‘yes’ answer to this question. Additional support provided outside the routine visits was again closely in line with family responses, focusing on assistance with benefits/debt agencies, accompanied visits to community services.

95% felt that their Family Support Organiser (FSO) discussed on-going training/learning/development needs and provided suitable opportunities. However, not all volunteers take up these training opportunities and this remains a challenge for the future (see p. 35). Volunteers view their work as a learning as well as a giving experience.

I love working for HSK (volunteering) and making a difference, and getting to learn new skills.

I feel I have gained as much as I have given.

New research from Home-Start UK (The Impact of Volunteering on Volunteers, June 2015) has shown that volunteering gives people greater understanding of different cultures and ideas, as well as improving their work skills, self-confidence, and health and well-being.

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Outcome 3: Hard-to-engage families who would otherwise not use Wiltshire’s family support network benefit from the relationship with an HSK volunteer

Families are referred to HSK when they are feeling isolated and are not engaging with the wider family support network. Their circumstances may encompass social/rural isolation, lack of confidence, disability or emotional/physical health problems. 76% of families cited support with isolation issues as a key need with 49% of families citing support to use other services as a need.

89% of those who identified isolation as a need felt that this need had been met or partly met, and 93% who mentioned accessing services felt that this need had been met or partly met by the end of support.

The increased confidence and improved self-esteem described by families and referrers are all part of reducing isolation and giving families the support and opportunity to get out of the house and mix with others in the community.

Families giving feedback to HSK, either through their evaluation forms or by QA questionnaires indicated various ways in which the volunteer had supported them. Planning and accompanying on shopping expeditions was found useful, as was help with transport. Going on outings with the volunteer was part of the support for many families and valued by them.

In addition to providing information about, and encouragement to attend local community groups or activities, many parents were helped by going to groups with their volunteer, leading to independent access.

She’s brought me out my shell more. Going to baby groups.

Feelings of isolation were ameliorated by being enabled to “get out and about” and by having “someone to talk to when feeling lonely”.

Home-Start has encouraged me to get out and about to use local services.

Respondents felt that HSK support had helped them to make new friends, and take up new interests.

Volunteers had, on occasion, provided additional support outside planned visits. Such help included outings, and accompanying to various services in the community. One had “acted as scribe on visits to solicitor and CAB”. Another had supported meetings with the school:

My support helper was extremely good, very knowledgeable regards to autistic spectrum and helped loads … talking about children’s behaviour, coming to support me with meetings with school.

Another described HSK as an

… extremely helpful team of people who helped me to turn my life around. I feel more confident and get out more, have more friends with children and take part in local groups. Couldn’t of done it without them.

A respondent whose husband was deployed on military service described how HSK had helped her: “being able to chat over my feelings of anxiety and depression and my feelings of feeling isolated.”

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A mother of twins said:

I have had a lovely experience. The having twins thing has been an intense first year. With my Home-Start volunteer on a Friday I have felt less overwhelmed and less isolated, and gained lots of reassurance from the support she provided.

The family journey illustrated below shows a parent with low coping skills initially in parental wellbeing (includes isolation and emotional health), but a stronger score by the end of support.

FOUR DOMAINS OF FAMILY LIFE

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A mother of twins said:

I have had a lovely experience. The having twins thing has been an intense first year. With my Home-Start volunteer on a Friday I have felt less overwhelmed and less isolated, and gained lots of reassurance from the support she provided.

The family journey illustrated below shows a parent with low coping skills initially in parental wellbeing (includes isolation and emotional health), but a stronger score by the end of support.

(Four domains of family life; A – parenting skills; B – parental wellbeing, C - children’s wellbeing, D – family management) 68% of families consulted by QA questionnaires had been helped by their volunteer to access other services such as children’s centres, English classes, CAB. The volunteers had clearly provided help in all these categories: in addition they had supported the family at housing/school/hospital appointments. MESH data revealed the services being used by families at the end of their support. Apart from family doctors, dentists and health visitors, children’s centres, baby and toddler groups, mother and baby clinics were the most frequently used, but CAB, housing services, benefit offices, foodbanks, debt relief agencies, libraries, swimming pools and adult education classes were also being accessed. This is important because the family then recognises their own strategies and sources of support that they can use when HSK support has ended. Sometimes, HSK intervention can avert crises:

I placed our volunteer [xxx] with the family and the match has gone well. We have both attended two Child in Need meetings, and the family’s Social Worker is very pleased with Mum’s progress. [xxx] has managed to help Mum put together budget meal plans, and she is encouraging her to get out with C2 to various groups. [xxx] even managed to get Mum along to one of our First Aid courses. Mum and [xxx] are also working through the parenting literature that she received on her courses and re-enforcing some of the positive ideas. Mum and Dad are going out with the children more and seem to be enjoying their time with them. Our support is on-going. This family was on the brink of being stepped up to Child Protection, and I know that having our support in place has been a big part in preventing that from happening. The agencies involved with the family are very appreciative of our support. (Case Study from Scheme Manager’s report April 2015)

68% of families consulted by QA questionnaires had been helped by their volunteer to access other services such as children’s centres, English classes, CAB. The volunteers had clearly provided help in all these categories: in addition they had supported the family at housing/school/hospital appointments.

MESH data revealed the services being used by families at the end of their support. Apartfrom family doctors, dentists and health visitors, children’s centres, baby and toddler groups, mother and baby clinics were the most frequently used, but CAB, housing services, benefit offices, foodbanks, debt relief agencies, libraries, swimming pools and adult education classes were also being accessed. This is important because the family then recognises their own strategies and sources of support that they can use when HSK support has ended.

Sometimes, HSK intervention can avert crises:I placed our volunteer [xxx] with the family and the match has gone well. We have both attended two Child in Need meetings, and the family’s Social Worker is very pleased with Mum’s progress. [xxx] has managed to help Mum put together budget meal plans, and she is encouraging her to get out with C2 to various groups. [xxx] even managed to get Mum along to one of our First Aid courses. Mum and [xxx] are also working through the parenting literature that she received on her courses and re-enforcing some of the positive ideas. Mum and Dad are going out with the children more and seem to be enjoying their time with them. Our support is on-going. This family was on the brink of being stepped up to Child Protection, and I know that having our support in place has been a big part in preventing that from happening. The agencies involved with the family are very appreciative of our support. (Case Study from Scheme Manager’s report April 2015)

Parenting skills

Parental wellbeing

Children’s wellbeing

Family management

28

Referrers consulted during the QA process also gave examples of how the volunteers hadhelped the family to move outward into the community:

In each case, mothers started going to social groups, recently a mother went into child’s classroom to give support.

Definitely helped families to access CAB, Children’s Centre, groups, local shops and library, local facilities – to meet others, helping mum & child.

Feedback from another referrer after support for the family she had referred had ended, described Home-Start as providing:

Practical and emotional support, listening, ideas, strategies, positive affirmation. Enabling parent to access other services and plan her own support.

All of the above detail and examples highlight the fact that families having accepted HS support, who have felt distanced from services/contacts in the initial stages, know what is available locally and also recognise their own strengths and strategies for coping. This enables them to independently access this support and feel less isolated.

These gains by families initially unable or unwilling to make use of services underline the value of Home-Start’s unique in-the-home work. Their experience of engaging with their volunteer, and increased readiness to access wider community services, will stand both parents and children in good stead when their relationship with their volunteer ends.

Outcome 4: The number of families supported is increased by 50% promoting stronger, healthier communities

Since February 2013, 145 families have been supported by Home-Start Kennet, well on the way to achieving and/or passing our target of 157 families over the course of the three years of Stronger Families – Stronger Communities. This target represents a 50% increase in the number of families supported. With funding from the Big Lottery Fund we have been able to respond to increasing demand and have increased our family numbers steadily since February 2013.

More families are reporting improved coping skills over the range of needs identified. Support has enabled them to look outwards beyond their immediate family situation and given them the confidence to access services and other community activities.

As will be seen in the next section, HSK contact with referrers in the community has increased in scope and number, widening our footprint in Wiltshire and broadening the range of families that would benefit from our support.

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Referrers and partners

In order to contribute more fully to a comprehensive service for vulnerable families in Wiltshire, we have restructured our staff, enhancing the senior management role.

Our Scheme Manager has been active throughout the project within the wider voluntary sector and Wiltshire Council, positioning HSK and co-operating with partner organisations to provide a comprehensive service, particularly trying to ensure that vulnerable and isolated families are reached as early as possible. Partnership working has been undertaken with 4Children, the British Red Cross, and our neighbouring Home-Start South Wiltshire scheme resulting in successful delivery of funded projects and the development of project monitoring tools and working together agreements.

ReferrersOur referrers are predominantly health visitors, but children’s centres are increasingly seeking our support. Other referrers include education (parent support advisors), Social Services, the Army Welfare Service and other community organisations. A small proportion of families self-refer each year.

Of the 34 completed referrer evaluation forms received between February 2013 and June 2015, 97% indicated that HSK had responded efficiently and effectively to the referral. The one respondent who did not answer this question positively felt that HSK had been slow to allocate a volunteer to the family.

100% of responses indicated a willingness to refer families again to HSK.

Although there were a few occasions (9%) when the referrer felt that the HSK support had failed to assist the family - “family not fully engaged”; “mum reluctant to engage”; “different agendas” - the majority (91%) felt that the family had been helped by HSK (see also pp.37, 38).

The benefit most commonly ascribed by the referrer to HSK’s contribution was an increased feeling of confidence within the family, generally in the Mum, resulting in reduced isolation and increased interaction with the community – a willingness to go out more, attend groups and engage with other agencies.

Emotional and practical support was also mentioned frequently. Other responses were specific to individual families, but nevertheless gave a picture of the sort of family-focused help that HSK is able to give. In one family, the referrer mentioned the benefit of the volunteer’s help in enabling the mother to focus on her elder child and that the school had noticed changes in his behaviour; another school had noticed a change in a child’s behaviour following the volunteer’s support with homework.

When asked if they would like to make any further comments, referrers called HSK “an invaluable service”. HSK was felt to be “a vital support system”, a service that “took a lot of pressure from welfare staff”. HSK was described as “a fantastic service” and “a vital support system for families who do not fit the criteria for other services”. Volunteers were described as “friendly, understanding and supportive”. One referrer had met the volunteer in the family’s flat and “saw how well they interacted, and she was accepted”. Another described “fantastic volunteer/family matches”.

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In summary, responses from referrers were overwhelmingly appreciative of Home-Start Kennet’s involvement with families and all will continue to refer to HSK. Inevitably, some matches do not work as well as others, and some families’ situations are not conducive to interaction with a volunteer. However, there was a general feeling that HSK provided a service that was not available from any other source, and as such was of great value to the stretched resources of the statutory services. We greatly value our positive partnerships with referrers.

An online survey sent to referrers in May 2015 received only 3 responses. We are reviewing the use of this evaluation tool as we have also not found it successful in followup with families (see p. 40).

From QA consultation with referrers, 10 replies were received (4 health visitors, 3 children’s centre outreach workers, 1 support worker, 1 school nurse, 1 parent support adviser). Asked about what HSK offered families that other services in the area didn’t, the focus of the replies was on the individualised, in-the-home nature of the support; the personal and practical nature of that support, and support that did not carry the “stigma” of a “professional”.

Reasons for referral centred around isolation, depression and the need for confidence building. The only instance of a rejected referral was from an inexperienced HV who referred a family for whom HSK support was not appropriate. All 10 referrers felt that the scheme had helped to meet the needs of the families, with support to access a range of services being cited several times as well as support with child behaviour, management routines, boundaries, household budgeting leading to improvements in self-esteem. Referrers had noted increased coping skills and confidence after HSK support.

9 of the 10 referrers said they had been asked for feedback about HSK’s service; one did not reply to this question.

The Scheme Manager’s reports to the Board, using MESH data, show an increased diversity of referrers whilst maintaining health visitors as key referrers. These encompass self-referral, children’s centres, range of health workers, education and social workers (Scheme Manager report April 2015)

SOURCE OF REFERRALS

25

the stretched resources of the statutory services. We greatly value our positive partnerships with referrers. An online survey sent to referrers in May 2015 received only 3 responses. We are reviewing the use of this evaluation tool as we have also not found it successful in follow-up with families (see p. 32). From QA consultation with referrers, 10 replies were received (4 health visitors, 3 children’s centre outreach workers, 1 support worker, 1 school nurse, 1 parent support adviser). Asked about what HSK offered families that other services in the area didn’t, the focus of the replies was on the individualized, in-the-home nature of the support; the personal and practical nature of that support, and support that did not carry the “stigma” of a “professional”. Reasons for referral centred around isolation, depression and the need for confidence building. The only instance of a rejected referral was from an inexperienced HV who referred a family for whom HSK support was not appropriate. All 10 referrers felt that the scheme had helped to meet the needs of the families, with support to access a range of services being cited several times as well as support with child behaviour, management routines, boundaries, household budgeting leading to improvements in self-esteem. Referrers had noted increased coping skills and confidence after HSK support. 9 of the 10 referrers said they had been asked for feedback about HSK’s service; one did not reply to this question. The Scheme Manager’s reports to the Board, using MESH data, show an increased diversity of referrers whilst maintaining health visitors as key referrers. These encompass self-referral, children’s centres, range of health workers, education and social workers (Scheme Manager report April 2015)

Partners Work with Home-Start South Wiltshire is longstanding as we are the only two HS schemes in Wiltshire. HSK scheme size and strategic focus has meant that we are in a stronger position with regard to funding sources and positioning. With this in mind, HSK has been a lead partner for various joint pieces of work in the past 3 years. In particular with Armed Forces Covenant and Public Health Army Rebasing work. Work with the British Red Cross is into its 4th year as a result of Public Health funding. Once again HSK are lead partners in setting up Paediatric First Aid/Child Injury prevention free 2 hour sessions in local childrens centres. Work with children’s centres - 4Children, The Rise Trust, Barnardos and Spurgeons- is part of the work above but also essential as locality partnerships to give wider support to families. Supporting families to use other agencies – a key one being the local children’s centres - is a main focus for our working together. All of the partnerships have Working

65%10%

6%1%

5% 5%4%

3%1%

SourceofReferrals

HealthVisitor

SelfReferral

Children'sCentre

OtherCommunityOrg

OtherHealth

Midwifery

25

the stretched resources of the statutory services. We greatly value our positive partnerships with referrers. An online survey sent to referrers in May 2015 received only 3 responses. We are reviewing the use of this evaluation tool as we have also not found it successful in follow-up with families (see p. 32). From QA consultation with referrers, 10 replies were received (4 health visitors, 3 children’s centre outreach workers, 1 support worker, 1 school nurse, 1 parent support adviser). Asked about what HSK offered families that other services in the area didn’t, the focus of the replies was on the individualized, in-the-home nature of the support; the personal and practical nature of that support, and support that did not carry the “stigma” of a “professional”. Reasons for referral centred around isolation, depression and the need for confidence building. The only instance of a rejected referral was from an inexperienced HV who referred a family for whom HSK support was not appropriate. All 10 referrers felt that the scheme had helped to meet the needs of the families, with support to access a range of services being cited several times as well as support with child behaviour, management routines, boundaries, household budgeting leading to improvements in self-esteem. Referrers had noted increased coping skills and confidence after HSK support. 9 of the 10 referrers said they had been asked for feedback about HSK’s service; one did not reply to this question. The Scheme Manager’s reports to the Board, using MESH data, show an increased diversity of referrers whilst maintaining health visitors as key referrers. These encompass self-referral, children’s centres, range of health workers, education and social workers (Scheme Manager report April 2015)

Partners Work with Home-Start South Wiltshire is longstanding as we are the only two HS schemes in Wiltshire. HSK scheme size and strategic focus has meant that we are in a stronger position with regard to funding sources and positioning. With this in mind, HSK has been a lead partner for various joint pieces of work in the past 3 years. In particular with Armed Forces Covenant and Public Health Army Rebasing work. Work with the British Red Cross is into its 4th year as a result of Public Health funding. Once again HSK are lead partners in setting up Paediatric First Aid/Child Injury prevention free 2 hour sessions in local childrens centres. Work with children’s centres - 4Children, The Rise Trust, Barnardos and Spurgeons- is part of the work above but also essential as locality partnerships to give wider support to families. Supporting families to use other agencies – a key one being the local children’s centres - is a main focus for our working together. All of the partnerships have Working

65%10%

6%1%

5% 5%4%

3%1%

SourceofReferrals

HealthVisitor

SelfReferral

Children'sCentre

OtherCommunityOrg

OtherHealth

Midwifery

Health Visitor

Self Referral

Children’s Centre

Other Community Org

Other Health

Midwifery

31

PartnersWork with Home-Start South Wiltshire is longstanding as we are the only two HS schemes in Wiltshire. HSK scheme size and strategic focus has meant that we are in a stronger position with regard to funding sources and positioning. With this in mind, HSK has been a lead partner for various joint pieces of work in the past 3 years. In particular with Armed Forces Covenant and Public Health Army Rebasing work.

Work with the British Red Cross is into its 4th year as a result of Public Health funding. Once again HSK are lead partners in setting up Paediatric First Aid/Child Injury prevention free 2 hour sessions in local children’s centres.

Work with children’s centres – 4Children, The Rise Trust, Barnardos and Spurgeons – is part of the work above but also essential as locality partnerships to give wider support to families. Supporting families to use other agencies – a key one being the local children’s centres - is a main focus for our working together. All of the partnerships have Working Together signed agreements stating key principles for our partnership. Wiltshire’s children’s centres will be recommissioned in June 2016, with likely cuts to providers and premises. HSK is committed to continuing to work closely and creatively with children’s centres.

New demand is coming from outside of our Kennet area. Referrers, in particular health visitors, previously in Kennet but who have moved to new areas in Wiltshire are contacting the scheme to ask about making family referrals. One said “she wished she could take HS with her…”

Outside of the Big Lottery funded project we have used small donations/funding to begin supporting outside of the Kennet area. In July 2015, 6 families are supported who are outside the Big Lottery Fund project and more requests are being made. We have not responded to further demand, as yet, to ensure complete focus on achieving Big Lottery Fund outcomes. This will be a focus of future bids.

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Learning and Responding

The overwhelming nature of the feedback we received from all our sources was positive, and we have welcomed comments and suggestions for improvement that have provided us with opportunities to respond and learn in order to improve the service we offer.

Using the framework of the Key Questions posed in our bid to the Big Lottery Fund in 2012, this section reports on how we have responded to reflections and ideas from our stakeholders.

Key Question 1: To what extent have user parents shown improved mental/emotional state, parenting ability, willingness to engage with other community supports and facilities?

FAMILIES

Issue:

Several respondents felt they should have been able to contact their volunteer directly

HSK’s response (lesson learned): We reviewed our policy prohibiting families making direct contact with their volunteer, which supports our rigorous safeguarding policy and procedures and is in line with HSUK policies. We decided not to change our clear communication guidelines, but to reinforce the rationale for these through on-going information and advice to families and volunteers.

Issue:

Delay in allocating a volunteer

HSK’s response (lesson learned): We have tried to ensure that families are not kept waiting in anticipation of getting a volunteer. If it appears that a volunteer will not be available, the family is passed back to the referrer to ensure continuity of Safeguarding monitoring and other agency support. The family is informed if no volunteer is available. The family are told that the referrer will remain their main support until a volunteer match can be made.

Issue:

One family expressing dissatisfaction felt that the HSK service “wasn’t as expected. The volunteer was often rushed or at times unavailable. No help with the isolation issues our family is experiencing. Contact ceased without notice.”

HSK’s response (lesson learned):HSK took this case very seriously and looked into the detail of the engagement. The volunteer diary showed a month of solid visiting followed by one week of volunteer holiday and then three weeks of family cancellations or not contactable. The family was offered another volunteer but declined. A match with a different volunteer might have solved this problem and will always be considered if the relationship is not proceeding satisfactorily.

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Issue:

Families needed activities during the summer holidays

HSK’s response (lesson learned):Although not mentioned specifically in the feedback forms, volunteers and FSOs are frequently asked by families to provide more support during the long weeks of the summer holidays. During the school holiday of 2014 and again in 2015, we have provided two sessions focused round activities for children – Scrapstore “Creative craft with low cost materials”– in response to these requests. One parent who attended the last session said:

I have learned that my social skills have improved and my interpersonal skillsare better than I expected them to be.

We have also ensured volunteer contact is maintained as widely as possible during these periods. This may be a visit or a telephone support call. It is important to also get the balance right for volunteers who themselves have family/holiday commitments.

Issue:

Wide range of needs for which families look for support

HSK’s response (lesson learned):We have designed extra training sessions for volunteers to meet specific needs. For example, in the current economic climate, welfare reform (including benefit cuts) has become an increasing pressure on many families and we have provided volunteers with input from Turn2Us in a training session that was very well received. Volunteers are directed to source information for families from specialist debt relief agencies rather than giving advice themselves. In this way, the views and needs of the families are fed back into the planning of our service. Additional training modules during the past two years have included sessions on post-natal depression, mental health first aid, emotional wellbeing and domestic abuse.

Issue:

Families feel that support has ended too soon

HSK’s response (lesson learned):In relation to the feeling of two recent families that their support ended too soon, our staff have kept under review at team meetings their decision-making about the appropriate time to withdraw support. One of our key aims is to enable families to build up and feel secure in their own strategies for managing their lives, and allowing a family to become dependent on a volunteer is not part of that. This remains a matter of careful judgement and all decisions about endings are taken cautiously and in consultation with the Scheme Manager and with the family concerned.

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Key Question 2: To what extent have volunteers increased their skills base and their career/employment potential?

Increased training opportunities and the encouragement to participate in the development and direction of the organisation are all part of increasing the skills base of volunteers. The provision made for volunteers to contribute to the direction and running of HSK is part of providing useful experience for employment or career development. As has been seen, volunteers view their work as a learning as well as a helping experience. However, several issues have arisen that have required a response from us.

HOME-VISITING VOLUNTEERS

Issue:

Some volunteers feel that their views do not influence how HSK works

HSK’s response (lesson learned):The Voice of the Volunteer: we have introduced feedback sessions at volunteer peergroup meetings, where volunteers raise key points for discussion, and a trustee who is in attendance then passes back comments and ideas to the Board. In case some volunteers find this intimidating, volunteers are also able to raise issues anonymously via a post-it note system during the meeting. We will monitor this new approach and report on how well it is working. We have already responded to the first recommendation from this new forum – the need to engage with social media – and have developed a Facebook page and have reported back to the volunteers on the take-up of their idea.

Issue:

How to recruit and retain more volunteers

HSK’s response (lesson learned):At a time of difficulty in the recruitment of volunteers, the Board of Trustees agreed a new volunteer recruitment strategy and HSK’s Community Fundraising & Publicity subcommittee have widened the scope of their advertising for volunteers to include Facebook, local charitable websites, school newsletters, the WI newsletter, local radio, as well as all local poster sites. Joint Chairs and staff have recently conducted an assessment of how we use, protect and provide training and opportunities for our volunteers (Care and Support for Volunteers, 2015 – available on request from HSK). The recruitment of a volunteer or ex-volunteer trustee, always an aim of the Board, is ongoing and constitutes a challenge for the future. Volunteers are offered an exit interview when they decide to stop volunteering – another opportunity for their views to contribute to the working of the organisation.

Issue:

Take-up of extra training opportunities is not evenly spread across all homevisiting volunteers

HSK’s response (lesson learned):We regard this situation as a challenge for the future as we are concerned that all volunteers should be able to develop their skills base substantially during their time with Home-Start Kennet. We will consult with volunteers about whether it is time-constraints, distance to travel or subject matter of the training that are the main barriers to attendance and will move on from there to address these issues.

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TRUSTEE VOLUNTEERS

Our trustees also regard their work with HSK as a learning experience and many have found their experience useful in their working lives. As our local profile has been raised by the Big Lottery funding, we have recruited more trustees from a range of backgrounds and thereby increased the diversity of the Board. Several trustees have a military background or close connections with the military and this has greatly increased our expertise just at a time when the Army Rebasing programme is hitting Wiltshire. Non-military trustees have learned from the experience of their military associates. The Board Joint Chairs responded to two concerns raised by trustees:

Issue:

Trustees felt that they had a lack of knowledge of the workings of the organisation

HSK’s response (lesson learned):The sub-committee structure has been strengthened. Most trustees belong to at least one sub-committee, and the work of the Board is thus shared. Sub-committees take responsibility not only for promoting work in their own area of choice (e.g. communications and local fundraising) but also in the regular review of documents such as the Risk Register, policies and the Strategic and Operational Plans that are core agenda items at Board meetings.

The Scheme Manager’s report to the Board now contains a section where the FSOs and the Administrator describe situations that have arisen in their work and how they have been dealt with. Trustees have welcomed this increased knowledge about the families that are being supported (all details are, of course, confidential). The Board Development Day in January 2015 included a session delivered by FSOs and Administrator where trustees were able to become even more informed about the work of the organisation.

A new trustee involvement protocol has been instituted. Trustees take it in turns to visit the office, sample volunteer and family files, attend staff team meetings and participate in the Voice of the Volunteer.

Trustees now have a greater sense of involvement with HSK and this provides them with a feeling of ownership and therefore making more of a difference to the families we serve.

Issue:

Trustees felt they wanted to know more about each other

HSK’s response (lesson learned):In response one of our trustees has undertaken to produce a skills audit of trustees, which is shared, together with short biographies, enabling trustees to learn about each other’s backgrounds and strengths. Mini-bios have been created from these with information that trustees are happy to have published on the website or in newsletters.

Regular feedback has been introduced. New trustees have 1:1 interviews with the chair(s) after 6 months in the role, and all trustees have 1:1s about once a year. These enable the Chairs to pick up at an early stage any problems that trustees might be having with the way in which the organisation is working. One issue that arose at the Board Development Day in January 2015 and again in 1:1 feedback, was that Board Meetings were too process-driven, and should be more strategic and visioning led. We are looking into how to attend to more process issues by email, leaving meetings freer for discussion. We still struggle to recruit home-visiting volunteer and family member trustees, and this remains a challenge. As with the recruitment of volunteers we have extended our range of promotional outlets.

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REFERRERS

Issue:

The process of passing referrals back

HSK’s response (lesson learned):We have clarified with referrers the process by which we will pass referrals back to them if we do not have a suitable volunteer available. Our Family Support Organisers and Scheme Manager have also undertaken contact visits with a wider range of referrers and ensured that they are kept up to date with HSK’s position. We have ensured that all referrers are asked for feedback after HSK service has ended.

Key Question 3: What has HSK learned about factors leading local vulnerable families to be ‘hard to engage’ and which inputs improve ability/willingness to engage?

Issue:

Willingness to engage

HSK’s response (lesson learned):We have learned that it is vital that all contacts with the family - referrers, HSK staff and other agencies - give a consistent message about what HSK can offer in order to give the family confidence in the service they are offered. Inconsistencies of message mean that different expectations may arise and, when clarified, families may decide the support is not as expected. Unplanned endings sometimes reflect difficulties with engagement and reducing their number remains a challenge for the future.

Issue:

Military families feel referral can affect career prospects

HSK’s response (lesson learned):Military families can feel that receiving support when they are struggling will affect partner career prospects or security clearances. Ensuring referral through non-military routes e.g. health visitor can alleviate this concern and enable families to engage. Scheme Manager and FSOs have increased their contact with military sources such as Army Welfare Service and Unit Welfare Officers which aids mutual understanding.

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Issue:

Matching Volunteers to Families

The matching of volunteers to families is a key part of the FSOs’ role and can be the critical factor in whether the family engages with HSK support and also to whether the volunteer feels able to contribute in a positive way. Families do on occasion express dissatisfaction with their volunteer. One respondent said:

I feel that some volunteers may not be suitable for certain families, so I would suggest Homestart reviews more often, to keep closer eye on some situations

HSK’s response (lesson learned):The following extracts from The Scheme Manager’s reports to the Board give an idea of the care and attention that is paid to this key aspect of the service and to moving them on as HSK support comes to an end:

This family came to us from a referral via the school Health Nurse. The family live in a remote area and has three children, one of whom has additional needs. We carefully selected one of our most experienced volunteers who among other things had been a teacher previously and also had experience in working with children with additional needs. We have supported this family weekly now for a little over 6 months and in this time mum has developed a very close relationship with our volunteer. She has brought much laughter and joy back into the household lifting mum’s spirits and making light of the day-to-day hardship she encounters. My regular reviews and continuing contact with our volunteer have enabled me to see how far the family have come. On my last visit mum said she had a brilliant summer with the children, often one of the most stressful times of the year for any family!!! Mum has scored well and has continued to go from strength to strength. After discussion with the Scheme Manager it was agreed that our family had flourished through our intervention and it was time to come to an end. Mum has engaged MENCAP support to move forward. (FSO report in Scheme Manager’s report to Board Sept 2014)

This time round, I have decided it might be useful to explain the importance of matching a suitable volunteer with a family and what factors we have to take into account. I recently did a referral with a relatively young mother who lives in one of the local villages with her mother. The home is quite disorganised and there are two dogs. Mum was recently diagnosed with a mental health condition. Mum’s needs are many, in that she is very isolated and finds it difficult to leave the family home without help. She also wants help in organising her new home and possibly setting a budget for her own finances, which she has not done before. The volunteer I introduced to the family is very used to dogs; this is always an important factor when matching! She has also worked with several families before and has been very successful in helping them to attend a local group, which is what Mum wants to do. (FSO report in Scheme Manager’s report to Board July 2014)

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Key Question 4: is HSK meeting known need?

HSK has responded to need within the Kennet area, as the funding from the Big Lottery Fund has enabled us to take an increasing number of referrals. Indeed the numbers have exceeded Big Lottery Fund targets because we have tried to meet need as it arose.

During the course of the three years of Stronger Families-Stronger Communities, we have become aware of current and future areas of unmet need. Geographically, we are increasingly receiving requests from the Chippenham/Calne area to the west of Kennet where there is currently no Home-Start service. We are also very aware of the gathering pace of the Army Rebasing Programme taking place in Wiltshire over the next five years. An increasing number of military/veteran families are already needing our support and these numbers will grow by an extra 4,000 military servicemen/women, reservists and their families in this area by 2020.

Key Question 5: in the light of the above do we need to a) alter our service delivery or b) alter our service aims?

In the earlier part of this section, we have identified need for changes in our service delivery, for example improving endings, listening to volunteers, facilitating greater involvement of volunteers in training.

At our AGM in October 2014 we amended our Memorandum and Articles of Association by Special Resolution to include other areas of Wiltshire beyond Kennet where there was demand for our services. We will aim to do this through expansion, rather than by reducing the volume of service in our current area. Through extending the role of our Scheme Manager, we have strengthened our strategic position in Wiltshire with the Council and the Voluntary Sector. We have spread our contacts with referrers further afield, with particular attention to sources of military referrals. Health visitors moving into new areas take the need for HSK with them and identify referrals in those areas. We have made contact with children’s centres, housing associations and health visitors in the Chippenham and Calne area. We are hoping for small donations of funds via housing associations, where we contribute to social cohesion and “good neighbour” initiatives. Children’s centre links will continue to be strengthened as the recommissioning of children’s centre contracts takes place in Wiltshire, hopefully leading to HSK recognition as contributing to and possibly receiving funding for children’s centre outreach.

We have been commissioned by Public Health Wiltshire to undertake a pilot project to provide support to military and veteran families during the course of 2015/16, with a view to an extension of this contract if the pilot proves successful. The growth in Army families over the next 3 years together with HSK’s existing strong commitment and links to service families, maintains our position as a key support to military and veteran families. We have also extended the range of our local funding applications.

Working in these ways we are continuing to focus on sustainable funding for the future.

In terms of altering our service aims, we feel that our core model of in-the-home support from a trained and professionally supported volunteer best suits our rural area, but will remain flexible about new initiatives to fit changing needs in Wiltshire.

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EVALUATION PROCEDURES

Issue:

Difficulties with evaluation procedures

At several points during this Evaluation Report we have drawn attention to difficulties we have encountered with the evaluation procedures themselves. These mainly arose during our attempt to launch a longer-term follow-up evaluation to assess continuity of progress when support had ended. Our initial method of a telephone interview was successful when contact was at last established, but this frequently took several phone-calls and several missed appointments. We did not have the staff resources to pursue this method.

Having taken advice we designed an online survey asking similar questions to the telephone interview. However we have had a very poor response to this method. It is, of course, the case that HSK came into families’ lives when they were at a low ebb, and they may not want to be reminded of this 6 or 12 months further down the line.

HSK’s response (lesson learned):We will take professional advice on the design of a future follow-up procedure, considering options such as following a small sample of families through their support and beyond it and the use of an external evaluator.

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Challenges and next steps

As a result of the evaluation we have been undertaking,

we have identified eight challenges towards which

we will be directing our attention in the coming months:

1 How to respond effectively to need in new areas

and from new groups of beneficiaries

2 How to improve design and response rates to our evaluation procedures

3 How to increase the take-up rate of additional volunteer training sessions

4 How to improve our strategies for engagement with families

where difficulties have been identified

5 How to minimise the impact of unplanned endings

6 How to recruit volunteer and family member trustees

7 How to achieve succession planning

8 How to access more sustainable sources of funding

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Evaluation Part 2

July 2015 – January 2017

Home-Start Kennetdevelopment since September 2015

Part 1 of this Evaluation Report was submitted in September 2015 to accompany a second bid to the Big Lottery Reaching Communities Fund. In March 2016, we were notified that this bid had been successful, would provide £375,411 over three years and would follow directly on from Stronger Families – Stronger Communities, which was completed on time and on target. In Part 2 we report on evaluation conducted since the analysis for Part 1 was completed.

FaCeS – Families and Communities engaged/Supported 2016 – 2019 is based, like the previous project, on the core work of Home-Start Kennet – the provision of in-the-home support to vulnerable families that express a need for help. Volunteers are trained and supervised to provide weekly visits focusing on each family’s identified needs. Support continues until the family has built up strategies and resilience to begin to address their own problems (generally for about six months).

The four outcomes for the FACES project are given below, and mean an expansion of our service (more families supported in total) into Chippenham & Calne, and increased support for military/veteran families as the Army Basing Programme impacts our service area.

Outcome 1: 214 families express improvement in one or more of the following: self esteem, emotional wellbeing or parenting skills

Outcome 2: 60 military/veteran families (of total supported) improve emotional health/wellbeing, physical health or engagement with community services

Outcome 3: 20 families (of total supported) in the Chippenham/Calne community areas cope better with stress issues and/or conflict in the family

Outcome 4: 40 home-visiting/trustee volunteers each year increase their knowledge, skills or employ-ability through high quality training

In addition to work on these two Big Lottery-funded projects, HSK undertook a year-long pilot project (jointly with Home-Start South Wiltshire) to support 30 military/veteran families during April 2015 to March 2016. This work was funded by Wiltshire Public Health. Although deemed a success, funding was not available to continue this service when the pilot project was completed.

Work also began in October 2016 on a new project: iSMvF - in-the-home Support for Military/Veteran Families, support specifically targeted at 20 military/veteran families, funded for a year by The Royal British Legion (TRBL). This provides part of our match funding for the Big Lottery award.

We are on target for both current projects with 49/86 families supported since May 1st for the FACES project and 10 families supported since October 1st for TRBL work.

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New funding enabled HSK to expand its staff team, taking on an additional Family Support Organiser, and extra administrator hours.

As the Part 2 update of our Evaluation Report straddles two major projects (nine months at the end of one project and six months at the beginning of another), we have adopted a different reporting structure. This part of the Evaluation Report will be structured firstly round the evaluation stakeholders (families, volunteers, referrers); secondly round the issues raised in Part 1 as requiring action; and thirdly round the challenges identified for Home-Start Kennet in 2015.

Methodology

The methods used in the HSK evaluation toolbox described in Part 1 largely remain the same, with some refinements that will be discussed later in Part 2. However the external element of Quality Assurance conducted in 2014/15 does not form part of the methodology this time. Data collected from July 2015 to December 2016 will be drawn upon in Part 2. We are using the results of 63 family evaluation forms; 10 responses to a survey sent to families ending support 6-12 months previously; 37 referrer response forms; 14 responses to a volunteer survey; on-going evaluation of peer-group meetings and the Voice of the Volunteer; and 1-1 Trustee interviews.

Families

63 family evaluation forms were received between July 2015 and December 2016. 95% were satisfied or very satisfied with the service they had received. The most valued aspects of the service were, again, the regularity of the visits (90% found this helpful), the social contact (89%), the opportunity to talk over problems confidentially (79%), and the opportunity to see the volunteer engage the children in play (83%).

Home Start came at the right time for me, health was very bad with a one year old to look after. Felt like I was in a downward spiral. They have given me my confidence back. Very sad to be finished, but understand more families need the help I have received. Couldn’t recommend it highly enough. Tell everyone about it.

Home-Start was amazing for me – helpful, caring, friendly. Helped me to be me again.

I was able to open up to my volunteer as she understood some of the issues I had as being single parent. She would happily listen to me talk if I needed to or would entertain my son if I needed to do some tasks at home.

A brilliant volunteer with very practical and realistic advice. Brilliant practical insight into children’s emotions and how to deal with outbursts and their impact on my state of mind.

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The following quotation illustrates many of the aspects of HSK support that make this service so special:

Nice to have chats, coffee and know I was not going insane, was normal. Someone to speak with and not worry about what was being said. It was in confidence and non-judgmental. Chatting helped with confidence and making friends. Going on outings was good.

Families that were finding it difficult to access and participate in local services appreciated the support and, in some cases, the transport to local groups. They mentioned the “help with going to children’s groups”, “going out and taking ‘A’ out to the park/library etc.”, “finding the confidence to speak to new people”, “helped me with social anxiety”.

Specific needs could be addressed:

Speaking English language better and meeting friends and groups.

[Volunteer] helped me to speak English and to go to the park. I did not feel alone I had a new friend.

Building up resilience and confidence is key to HSK’s definition of successful support:

I found [Volunteer] warm, welcoming, understanding, supportive and full of knowledge, a good listener. She has made a very big difference in my confidence with’ O’ and myself, being able to go out with ‘O’. The impact of the support has made me feel so much more positive. Thank You.

Follow-up Family EvaluationWe have received 10 additional responses to our survey to families for whom service ended 6-12 months previously. All respondents felt that HSK had made a difference to them and their families. Seven mentioned the benefit of having someone outside the family to talk to, who listened and didn’t judge. Nine of the 10 valued the regularity of visits, five being able to share problems confidentially and two being able to talk through choices with their volunteer. One valued “having extra support coping with my children whilst I was ill”.

Three respondents felt that the support ended too soon. One of these gave some very interesting comments on her experience:

I think it is a wonderful service. I contacted HSK initially, however was refused. My health visitor put in a request and I was accommodated very promptly. It shows how important it is for agencies to be joined up in their approach and support. It would be good if there was a way to contact your volunteer, but still keeping volunteers personal details private. Kind of felt support ended too soon because I had been completely isolated due to abuse.

The one respondent who said that she didn’t get on with her volunteer explained that her expectations had not really been met.

My son really benefited from her energetic play, something I could not offer him. I really appreciated the service and help but I wanted to be able to have a break from my kids and she was like an extra play person. I still had to be there.

Five of the 10 families were independently accessing children’s centres; four, playgroups; three, parent/toddler groups; seven, libraries and seven attended their leisure centre. Most made use of GP and health visitor services.

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Very positively, eight of the ten said they would be interested in becoming a Home-Start volunteer. However, the picture presented by this follow-up evaluation was not all positive. Although coping scores were generally quite high in relationships with children and in parental physical and emotional health, several respondents gave low scores for self-esteem and coping with isolation. Stress in the family was still causing problems.

Asked about life-changing events since support had finished, it became clear that many families’ lives are precarious and feelings of confidence and increased resilience can be easily toppled.

One child has been diagnosed with autism. Another is waiting to be seen by PEADS (Paediatric assessments). Struggling to get my head around it all.

Just further harassment/isolation from family and need for police involvement.

Been to court for financial settlement and got a poor deal and solicitor let me down on the day which hasn’t helped as received further losses. Parents even less supportive.

Despite the relatively small number of responses, we regard this longer-term evaluation as really important to help us to understand what strategies we can offer to families to enable them to cope with new problems and/or seek help when it is needed after regular support has ended. We have received permission from some respondents to contact them again for longer-term feedback.

At our last AGM, two user-family members, one of whom has gone on to be a volunteer, felt confident enough to speak in public about how HSK support had met their needs.

Volunteers

Home-visiting volunteers Listening to the ‘Voice of the Volunteer’ (see Part 1) has continued. In December 2015, volunteers were consulted on the best avenues for publicity to recruit volunteers and trustees. From their responses, the Community Fundraising and Publicity sub-committee is reviewing their channels of communication.

Additional training courses provided during this time period have included “Listening to Babies and Young Children’, ‘The work of the Army Welfare Service’, ‘Safeguarding’, ‘Back to Basics (Q&A Session)’ and ‘Developments in Children’s Centre Provision’ by the provider Spurgeons. Volunteer attendance averaged 10 and at least one trustee and three members of staff attended each session.

In February 2016, volunteers gave feedback on an additional training session given by the Army Welfare Service, which was well received. “Very informative and worthwhile” was one comment. Volunteers shared experiences of the types of problems faced by their families, and seemed to gain confidence from this sharing. In October 2016, volunteers were asked to share examples of strategies suggested to families that were then taken on by the families themselves.

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I booked the sensory room at the children centre and accompanied her, she then booked it herself and went to the play room which she made friends at.

Mother with 2-year-old and 1-year-old twins – Brought all to swings – 2 yr. old had never been before. Was wary at first then loved it. New way to entertain children locally and for free.

In November 2016 volunteers were consulted by survey. 14 responses were returned. As on previous occasions, the overwhelming majority of volunteers found their work extremely or very meaningful (93%). They varied a little in the time they gave to volunteering for HSK. 71% gave 5-10 hours per month, 14% gave 10-15 hours, one volunteer gave under 5 hours and one gave over 15 hours. (Some volunteers undertake to support two families concurrently, when the need arises). 86% found it easy to attend the required volunteer training and 93% found training sessions extremely or very useful. They did not find it quite so easy to attend peer group/additional training sessions.

93% were extremely or very satisfied with their volunteering experience and 71% were extremely or very likely to continue volunteering with HSK. Most volunteers would recommend HSK to others as a place to volunteer. Two volunteers have used their volunteering experience to move on to counselling courses.

As we have found previously, many volunteers still do not feel that their views influence how HSK works. 57% now feel that they do, 36% that they do not. It may be that more evaluation work is necessary to establish whether it is those volunteers who attend relatively few of the Voice of the Volunteer or additional training sessions who express the negative view.

Trustee volunteers Annual 1:1 consultation with trustees has been ongoing since it was introduced in 2013/14, and all new trustees have had a consultation with both Joint Chairs after 6 months in the role in this evaluation period. Asked about how the use of sub-committees was working, one trustee said recently:

I think it works very well. I do not know of another similar sized charity that uses its trustees as effectively.

Another said:

Regular sub-committee meetings provide the chance to update and catch up. In the case of HR, useful to be kept abreast of how staff were/individual performance etc.

Board Development Days continue to be held annually to discuss broad strategic issues, engage in more detailed planning, and review the strength and diversity of the Board. At the time of writing, the processes of trustee induction, training and appraisal are under review with a view to improvements.

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Referrers

37 evaluation forms were received since Summer 2015.

Sources of referrals remain substantially the same.

SOURCES OF REFERRALS ANNUAL REPORT 2015-16

Health Visitor

Self Referral

Children’s Centre

Housing

Other Health

Social Worker

Education

Internal HS

Other

97% of responses received agreed that HSK had responded efficiently and effectively to their referral (1 failed to respond to this question), and referrers were again unanimous in wishing to refer to the service again. Comments focused on the increased confidence, empowerment and coping skills of the family member, leading to greater community involvement in groups and services. The support was “as required, appropriate and professional”.

I use Home-Start a great deal and refer many families. Thank you for ongoing support of our families.

One respondent described what she felt had been most useful to a particular family:

Provision of emotional support for mum. Management of family budget and home management. Management of family relationships.

Another said HSK had “helped client focus on own needs as well as children’s”. This respondent commented further that HSK had:

Helped with emotional support and health issues to prevent things becoming overwhelming. Excellent service.

Two of the 37 responses raised issues of difficulty. On one occasion it was felt that support ended too early, and on the other occasion, the match between family and volunteer did not go well and the family did not engage.

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Learning and responding

We now return to the issues raised in Part 1

FAMILIES

Issue:

Families wished to contact their volunteer directly

One family out of 63 expressed this wish, but also said that she could “totally understand why this isn’t appropriate. Thank you so much for everything”.

Issue:

Delay in allocating a volunteer

One family member out of 63 complained about this, as did one referrer (this might have been the same case). Everything possible is done to avoid this happening as HSK is well aware how damaging this can be to a good working relationship between family and volunteer, but in a very few cases, a volunteer is not immediately available. Our policy remains to refer back to the referrer, and not keep waiting lists for safeguarding reasons.

Issue:

Service was not as expected

The family member quoted above in the section on Follow-up family evaluation had expected the volunteer to take over from her, rather than working alongside. Our service is explained at the family’s initial visit; if a problem is raised by the parent before the end of support, this is followed up at review meetings.

Issue:

The service ended too soon.

There were no instances of this issue being raised by families as support ended, but two respondents to the follow-up survey felt that support ended too soon. As discussed in Part 1, the decision to cease support is often a difficult one that needs careful consideration by the FSO, with input from the family and the volunteer. Both these respondents had major life events happening since support had finished, and were, in consequence feeling vulnerable again. It is not uncommon for families to receive further support from HSK if the need for support arises again.

Issue:

Military families feel referral can affect career prospects

We can report that ensuring referral through non-military routes has addressed the issue of military families feeling that referral can affect their career prospects.

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Issue:

Matching volunteer to family

There are a few instances of failure to engage with the volunteer, as has been seen above in one of the comments from the follow-up evaluation. These are generally addressed through careful attention to matching volunteer to family. A mismatch is more likely when available volunteer numbers are low and choices are restricted. We are considering asking the question “Are there any issues with your volunteer?” at review sessions to catch problems early on. We continue to evaluate the expressed needs we are trying to address and their relationship to qualities required from our volunteers.

The following is a quotation from the report from one of our FSOs to the Board in November that illustrates the care attached to the matching procedure:

As part of my FSO report this month, I would like to share with you how I have come to a match decision with a new family.

I have recently received a referral for a young family in Tidworth. Mum and Dad have three small children, the eldest of whom is Dad’s child from a previous relationship. Dad has a deteriorating medical condition but he refuses to acknowledge this as a disability. This family has a variety of needs. Mum would like help with the day-to-day running of the house, coping with her physical health and issues surrounding her self-esteem and isolation. Another major issue for the family is C1’s mental health owing to issues surrounding his birth mother.

Mum told me that she was hoping to be matched with an older, more experienced volunteer who she would be able to talk to and who might be able to guide and suggest ideas that she could take on regarding her housing and family issues.

After some discussion with colleagues at our weekly meeting to determine who was or would be coming available for a match and seeking advice into volunteers’ personal experiences, I concluded that I would like to match SF with this family. SF has been resting for the last month but is due to return to volunteering mid-November. I will be contacting her in the next week with a view to setting up a match meeting, hopefully by the end of November.

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VOLUNTEERS

Home-visiting volunteers

Issue:

Some volunteers feel that their views do not influence how HSK works

As commented on above, some volunteers still feel that their views do not influence how the organisation works. Our next step will be to raise this issue at a Voice of the Volunteer session and also contact non-attenders by email to seek their views.

Issue:

How to recruit and train more volunteers

Despite casting our net more widely as advised by our existing volunteers, this remains a difficulty at a time when volunteers are in demand by so many organisations trying to replace statutory provision. One new idea is to ask volunteers to bring a friend to a training and social session (that does not include any discussion of family support cases). This is in response to the value of ‘word-of-mouth’ recruitment that has been more successful than any other method in recent months.

Issue:

Take-up of extra training opportunities is not evenly spread across all home-visiting volunteers

We have established that distance to travel is one of the main barriers to the take-up of extra training. As we have expanded, volunteers come from a wider area. We have begun to spread the venues for training more widely across this large rural county, and will monitor the effects of this strategy.

Trustee volunteers

We have been successful in making progress on the two issues raised previously by trustees. 1:1 interviews with the Chair enable problems to be addressed quickly and the skills audit enables trustees to learn more about each other. Trustee attendance at staff team meetings is now routine.

REFERRERS

The process of passing referrals back is working well.

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Challenges revisited

1How to respond effectively to need in new areas and from new groups of beneficiaries

As the FACES project has got underway, volunteers are being recruited from the Chippenham & Calne area, and families are now being referred by health visitors and children’s centres, or are self-referring. 6 families from these areas are receiving or have received support. We have also attracted a new trustee from this area. Staffing changes have meant temporary cover for this development work in Chippenham, however target numbers of families have been reached. Fostering the partnerships is continuing as children’s centre contracts with two main providers have now been settled. The changes and staffing uncertainty for the children’s centres meant “stepping back” whilst sensitive issues were addressed.

2How to improve design and response rates to our evaluation procedures

Our in-house expertise in this area has increased, and our two administrators have succeeded in raising response rates to surveys by replacing on-line administration with postal distribution and adding an incentive to completion. Although the increases are small we intend to build on this success for future surveys.

All evaluation response is voluntary and while response rates remain at a respectable level, we do not intend to change this policy.

3How to increase the take-up rate of additional volunteer training sessions

Distance to travel is one of the main barriers to the take-up of extra training. As we have expanded, volunteers come from a wider area. We have begun to spread the venues for training more widely, and will monitor the effects of this strategy. It is emphasised to volunteers that attendance at at least one other session annually in addition to safeguarding training is considered a requirement.

4How to improve our strategies for engagement with families where difficulties have been identified

We have improved our strategy for engagement with military families by ensuring a referral route through health visitors.

We have tailored on-going volunteer training sessions to match increased awareness of the causes of difficulties with engagement.

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5How to minimise the impact of unplanned endings

Where a family has received support for a period of time and then is not available to have an end visit we are gathering data from their most recent review to assess progress made and use for reporting procedures.

6How to recruit volunteer and family member trustees

We have made progress with recruiting a volunteer trustee, but are still seeking to recruit a family member to join the organisation in a trustee capacity.

7How to achieve succession planning

During the past six months our Joint Chairs have resigned that role after four years’ service, while remaining as Board members. A year’s notice was given to facilitate succession planning. Trustees have discussed the problem of succession and have come to the conclusion that it is not desirable to advertise for a new trustee specifically to take on a chairing role. A rolling programme of Acting Chairs has therefore been established. This practice has the advantage of familiarising most of the trustees with the role of Chair in the expectation that a trustee who is enjoying the role will offer to become a permanent Chair. However it is not ideal for the continuity of our practice and care for staff and volunteers, and appointing a Chair is a priority. Communication channels become “blurred” when there is a lack of clarity in roles and responsibilities.

8How to access more sustainable sources of funding

As part of our FACES submission to the Big Lottery Reaching Communities Fund, HSK bid for, and received £10,000 of Building Capabilities funding which was to be used within the first year of the project to help towards making the organisation more sustainable. An Organisational Strength Review has taken place and a focus on fundraising and marketing established as a priority. Currently an external consultant is advising the Board of Trustees on expanding our fundraising approaches and identifying individuals (either in-house or externally recruited) who will provide marketing and fundraising expertise.

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Challenges renewed

Some challenges identified in Part 1 remain to be further addressed and

one is new to our organisation. Challenge 6 relates to the role of our parent

organisation, HSUK, which has notified us of the likelihood of a reduction

in services from the centre and a need for local Home-Starts to provide

services such as training, themselves. This challenge is in its infancy but will

need to be monitored and addressed in the year ahead:

1 How to maintain the improvements in organisation and practice

identified by evaluation

2 How to increase the take-up rate of additional volunteer training

sessions

3 How to improve the recruitment of home-visiting volunteer and family

member trustees

4 How to achieve succession planning

5 How to access more sustainable sources of funding in a challenging

environment for small local charities

6 How to accommodate changes to the role of Home-Start UK in the

running of our organisation

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Home-Start KennetEvaluation Report

January 2017

Written by Dr Alison Millett in association with the staff and trustees of

Home-Start Kennet

Unit 1 Fordbrook Business Centre Pewsey, Wiltshire, SN9 5NU

Tel: 01672 569457. E: homestartkennet.a@btconnect.com

W: www.homestartkennet.co.uk

© Home-Start Kennet