Our Response to COVID-19 and support to local families
In compliance with Government directives we have suspended all our face to face work with families – both in our groups and home visiting.
We have had to adapt our services quickly to enable us to continue to provide services to the families we support during the current circumstances that face us all.
Staff are working remotely whilst maintaining close working relationships with their families, volunteers and the rest of the team – ensuring safeguarding is preserved and information can be shared.
To ask for telephone support, please send us a completed form:
TEMPORARY SUPPORT OFFER FOR FAMILIES
- Regular telephone support by one of our trained volunteers to offer emotional support and reduce isolation for parents of children under 5 years.
- General parenting advice and confidence building to assist families to better support their families through this challenging time.
- Support for parents as they talk to their children about what is happening.
- Continued liaison and partnership working with other agencies in line with usual policy and practise.
- Signposting families to additional support and information where necessary.
- Homestart Facebook page with regular information updates, the sharing of up to date local resources and regular, age appropriate play ideas for families to use in these challenging times.
- Assistance with practical deliveries of essentials to families who we support may be possible within our current resources and in accordance with government guidelines.
The volunteers will continue to be supported by our staff with regular supervision and they will have online tools to use to offer activities, advice and signposting to those they are supporting.
Referrals for families wanting this type of support can be submitted via our new short form Request for Telephone Support (see above) which needs to be returned to: info@homestartchams.org.uk. Or you can ring the office on: 01293 416327 to discuss further.