FAQs

Who does Home-Start Portsmouth support?

Home-Start Portsmouth will help any parent with at least one child under school age who lives in Portsmouth by giving practical and emotional support.

Who can be a volunteer?

Anybody who has had parenting experience can apply to be a volunteer with Home-Start Portsmouth (see volunteers' page).

What do volunteers do with the families they visit?

It depends on the plan that is drawn up with the co-ordinator. It can be a whole variety of different things from going through bills and organising finances to help attending appointments to help with the weekly shop to having a coffee and a chat, or a combination of all of these things. It will all be based around what the family are telling us that they need, and because things can change from time to time, the support plan is reviewed regularly. This makes sure that the family are definitely getting what they need, not what we think they need.

I am a dad. Can you help me or is it just mums?

Absolutely. Home-Start Portsmouth will work with anybody that has lone or joint parenting responsibility.

How long can I have a volunteer for?

The average volunteer will support a family for around a year. It can be much less and, in exceptional circumstances, it can be more. We will always discuss the best time to finish supporting a family with the family and with the volunteer and never leave suddenly. When the youngest child in the family goes to school, we have to stop supporting that family.

I really need someone to come and clean my house because I am so busy with all my children. Can a volunteer do that?

Volunteers are not cleaners, but if keeping on top of the housework is what's difficult for you, they may support you in putting together some routines to make it easier and 'muck in' while they're round sometimes as a friend would. But they would not be expected to carry out a family's household chores while they are doing something completely different.

I don't drive. Would a volunteer be able to take me and my baby shopping?

Yes. This would be a good use of volunteer time as getting to the shops with a little one on your own can be very challenging.

How do Home-Start Portsmouth even know who needs help?

We find out about families needing a little extra help from all sorts of sources and we will only ever start working with a family if that's what they would like; nobody has to have our support. Most referrers are health visitors as they see all families when babies are young but we accept referrals from anybody at all and lots of the families that we support have referred themselves by just calling up and asking for help.

I have six children. Will I get my volunteer sooner than another mum that only has one?

Not necessarily. It depends on the order that we received the referrals. We don't prioritise according to the number of children or any other factor that we read about on the referral form. We allocate volunteers on a 'first come - first served' basis as we feel this is the only fair way to do things.

If you have any questions about Home-Start Portsmouth that have not been answered here, please feel free to contact us.