500 signatures reached
To: Cllr. Dave Callaghan, Chair, Sutton Council Children, Family & Education Committee.
Save Sutton's Home-Start.
Dear Councillor Callaghan,
Please reinstate the funding for Home-Start Sutton's early intervention for children under 5 and their families.
Why is this important?
With over 70 fully trained and professionally supported volunteers, Home-Start has been an active charity in Sutton for nearly 30 years. We have been the first referral point for health visitors, social workers, mental health workers and others involved in the early support of parents with young children. Since April 2013 we have supported 98 families and a total of 196 children.
Home-Start Sutton makes a wider contribution to the community too. Many members of those families we have supported become volunteers themselves and many of our volunteers go on to find employment in childcare and other caring professions.
Home-Start gives vulnerable under fives a better start in life by helping to provide them with a stable family environment. Our work prevents later statutory intervention by Social Services, Youth Justice, Mental Health services and others. Over a number of years the London Borough of Sutton has allocated around £60-100k annually to us, under contract, for our work.
The London Borough of Sutton has now terminated our contact and those of other providers so that, from the start of August we no longer receive funding from them. Instead, they have awarded one contract to a provider for services only to families and children who have already reached the threshold for statutory intervention.
Without funding from the London Borough of Sutton, we will need to withdraw our services from families we presently help and will be unable to take on any new cases. We believe the London Borough of Sutton’s action will leave families at the early intervention threshold vulnerable and much more likely to progress to a point where statutory intervention is inevitable. This will come at a greater financial cost to the London Borough of Sutton and at a considerable personal cost to the families concerned. Recent Ofsted reports show that the London Borough of Sutton has struggled to provide adequate services for its children. Removal of our funding will only make it more difficult for the London Borough of Sutton to keep its head above water on this most important issue.
