Home-Start UK

Home-Start UK is a family support charity, helping families with young children deal with whatever life throws at them.

Home-Start UK helps families who are close to breaking point because of isolation, bereavement, illness, mental health issues, financial insecurity and more. What started as the work of one inspirational mum who wanted to help other parents, has grown to become a UK-wide movement of 10,000 volunteers and 180 local Home-Starts across the UK, helping thousands of families.

Last year, Home-Start supported 79,000 children in 44,000 families. In the home and in the community, Home-Start's staff and volunteers provide the support that parents need so they can give their child a better future. That's because children's futures depend on what's happening in their lives right now. Their futures are linked to their family circumstances, and experiences like social disadvantage, insecure or inadequate housing, difficult family relationships and poor mental health can adversely affect their social and emotional development.

By investing in the start of life and supporting parents when they are struggling, Home-Start improves children's outcomes. But life is tough right now for families, and in some areas demand for Home-Start support has doubled. Across the Home-Start network one-in-four families are having to be turned away due to lack of resources and volunteers. Funding raised by players of People's Postcode Lottery will help the charity to ensure that no family is left behind.