Home Start Ashfield to close

Homestart Ashfield will shut its doors in the last week of March, it has been announced.

The Sutton arm of the charity helps families with at least one young child, with everything from mental health problems to domestic abuse and bereavement.

Mansfield and Ashfield Clinical & Newark and Sherwood Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCG) told the charity based at Percival Crescent, Sutton, and Sandy Bank Nursery, Mansfield, it is no longer funding the groups.

Co-ordinator Liz Sheldon said the organisation has been running on reserves for the past three months since its core funding of £36,000 from the CCG was stopped last August.

She said thousands of pounds in the pipeline from Tesco and the Coop for projects will be unable to be spent as it cannot be used for salaries.

Liz said; “There are only three paid staff in Ashfield supporting all the volunteers in Ashfield and Hucknall.

“Without core funding the organisation can’t sustain itself.

“We can’t run a successful service with one-off occasional grants.

The other half of the total budget of £77,000 is match funded by Nottingham County Council and the premises povided by Ashfield District Council.

Ms Sheldon added: “The CCG said childrens’ centres and health visitors will pick up the service but they clearly won’t because they don’t have the capacity to do so.

“That is why they refer people to us.

“They are offering a service, but a different one to what we are providing . Our volunteers have more time to give them than the professionals can give.

“Volunteers wil go in and provide support to get pre-school children to a play group or go alongto an appraisal with mum if she is suffering from mental health issues, while she goes into a consultation; or to go shopping to help them out or sit in and read with children while she gets organised to choose whatever the family feels is causing them difficulty.

We will still be supporting staff and volunteers and we have made a pledge to support families as long as we can.

Homestart Ashfield will be emptying the premises on March 26 and hold its dissolution meeting on March 27.

The group was set to receive around £5,000 from the Co-op’s Local Community Fund.

“We have sent correspondence to Tesco and the Co-op saying thank you, but we can’t accept the funding,” said Liz. “When we applied for it we didn’t expect the health authority to stop the funding straight away.”

hen the withdrawal of funding was announced in the Autumn, a CCG spokesman said: “As local government, health providers and other NHS organisations work together to provide a variety of services to people, we are better able to ensure that we provide the best value for money by removing any duplication of services across organisations.

“Parents with children under five, who require family support, will continue to be able to access services such as Health Visiting Services which visit families at home and at SureStart Children’s Centres.

“Existing Homestart users will be supported to transition to alternative services to avoid any adverse effects.”