Fears for future of family support service amid £70k funding crisis
Hundreds of families in Redditch are set to lose what they say is a vital support service - with council funding axed, and lottery money expected to dry up within weeks, leaving a £70,000 shortfall.
Home Start supports families struggling with deprivation, mental health issues and domestic abuse - and referrals are rising.
The service helped 350 families last year, and at the current rate, expect to see more than 400 this year.
Referrals from social services alone have quadrupled in the past 12 months - but with funding running out, staff say they will not be able to meet the demand.
Coordinator Deb McCammon said many families rely on the charity’s support, which can often help those who fall through the cracks of council-run services.
“People feel they can talk to us because we’re not threatening in any way - we just help them, however they need to be helped,” she said.
“But we are at risk of closing, and if we close, I don't know what's going to happen to families in this area. We've operated for 27 years successfully, we're a well-received service, and I just think the future looks pretty bleak if we're not here any more.
“I think more children will end up in the social care system or perhaps the looked-after system. We tend to keep families buoyant, before they get into trouble.”
Mother-of-two, soon to be a mother-of-three, Emma Webster is among those to have leaned on Home Start in the past.
"I suffered really bad anxiety… I wouldn't leave [my daughter Skye] at all,” she said.
“I just felt I was a bad mum. I thought I was a failure. And basically just wished I was dead."
She was referred to the Mums in Mind support group after being referred for post-natal depression - and says they brought her back from the brink.
“I was in a really bad place with Skye. I was suicidal and everything,” she said.
“I was ashamed at the time, but now I've come through it positive - because of Home Start being there. I now know that it’s not a choice, and it’s not my fault - it’s an illness.”
For others like Rachel Bovington, it was a fear of not living up to the expectations of motherhood.
"They paint this picture perfect, how it's supposed to be, mother cradling her baby and all that, and sometimes it's not like that. Sometimes people really struggle,” she said.
“I don't think people expect to feel that way.
“This place has been invaluable. I don’t know what I would have done.
“I can't express it enough of how important this place has been for me over the last four and a half years. To think other mums possibly aren't going to get the chance to do this... It's heart-breaking really."
As well as helping new mothers, Home Start offers dozens of family groups, support sessions and home visits every week.
The current lottery funding ends on August 31.
Staff and volunteers have been frantically applying for more funding - but in the meantime, for Home Start families, it will be a tense few weeks.