Good afternoon and apologies for the slightly late start due to circumstances beyond our control. The first item of business today is a members’ business debate on motion S4M-14515, in the name of Alison McInnes, on Home-Start Garioch, which celebrates 20 years.
The debate will be concluded without any question being put. I would be grateful if members who wish to speak in the debate would press their request-to-speak buttons as soon as possible. However, I would like members to note that we are rather tight for time.
Motion debated,
That the Parliament congratulates Garioch Home-Start on its 20th anniversary; notes that the organisation first opened its doors in the Garioch area of Aberdeenshire in April 1995; further notes that Home-Start is a voluntary organisation that offers support to families facing issues such as rural isolation, disability, illness, multiple birth, post-natal depression and family difficulties; recognises what it considers the importance of such projects to families who are facing such issues; further recognises the need for ongoing one-to-one support, such as is provided by Home-Start to families with young children; congratulates the staff and volunteers of the organisation, and wishes them the very best success in the future.
13:30
I thank the members who signed my motion congratulating Home-Start Garioch on its 20th anniversary. I am most grateful.
Garioch is an area in Aberdeenshire centred on the town of Inverurie. The area has a lot of young families, many of whom have settled in the area from other airts and pairts. Not everyone has the extended network of family and friends that was more prevalent in earlier decades.
The Home-Start movement was created in 1973 in Leicester when Margaret Harrison decided to set up a small pilot project. Explaining her decision to set up Home-Start Leicester she said:
“When my three children were young, I was involved in voluntary work with parents and children here in Leicester—in children’s homes, with the Family Service Unit, mother and toddler groups and the Child Guidance Clinic. Invariably, parents, many of whom were involved with social workers and other statutory agencies, would ask me to visit them at home ‘so we can really talk’.”
So an idea was born and it was simple: that volunteers go into a family’s home to offer friendly, non-judgemental support that stems from their own experience. It proved to be a great help. It is still the selling point and strength of Home-Start schemes, including the one in the Garioch.
Margaret Harrison died earlier this year but she left a lasting legacy. Her small project in Leicester has grown and now spread to 22 countries. The United Kingdom alone has 288 Home-Start organisations and it is estimated that the movement has helped more than 1 million children globally.
In Garioch alone, it is estimated that Home-Start’s volunteers have helped 993 families with 2,122 children in the organisation’s 20 years. Volunteers have spent an estimated 106,000 hours assisting those families in the long and short term. That is an enormous achievement and shows real enthusiasm for the aims and values of the organisation on the part of its staff and volunteers.
All the staff and volunteers deserve recognition, but I will name four people especially. Sandra Herbert was the first ever chairperson of the organisation in the Garioch. Clare Smith has been a volunteer from the beginning. She is the only remaining volunteer who received her training at the first preparation course ever organised. Angela Gowdy has also been involved for some time. She first became a volunteer in 1996 and has been on the organisation’s board of trustees. Special mention also goes to Valerie Tennant. She is the only original member of staff who is still with Home-Start Garioch.
The Home-Start movement aims to support families with children from their birth to age five. We all agree that the early years matter and that the getting it right for every child approach is the right one. The five years between birth and school are vital for a child’s development. Giving children the best possible start in life is vital; it determines the opportunities and life chances that they have. Children who are raised in a stable and loving environment are more likely to have a positive and healthy future. Every child deserves that.
Some people might ask why Home-Start’s voluntary support is so important when we have midwives, health visitors, general practitioners, nurseries, playgroups and a host of other professionals. The answer is fairly simple: truth to be told, being a parent is not easy, as many of us can testify. It is a role of great importance but there is no training and children do not come with an instruction manual.
Parenting can be overwhelming and, if we add the other pressures that we sometimes face in life—financial difficulties, ill health, isolation and stress—parents can sometimes struggle to cope. A young child who is caught up in that can miss out on the love, routine and stimulation that are vital for their future. People often do not like to ask for help from professionals, and that is where volunteers can step in, offering one-to-one support and building a rapport and trust.
Many new parents lack confidence. Home-Start volunteers help by spending a couple of hours a week with them, providing non-judgmental practical and emotional support and helping to build confidence and family resilience. Volunteers are carefully matched with families, and what help they offer is tailored to the individual family. That help might just involve having someone to talk things through with, or it might be practical help with, for instance, how to plan healthy eating, playing and reading with children or even how to cope with sleepless nights.
Lessons that children learn at an early age will follow them for the rest of their lives. That is the time when children develop their personalities, learn to express themselves and gain self-control—skills that will ensure that they can achieve their full potential.
A United Kingdom Department for Children, Schools and Families study in 2008 suggested that the home learning environment in the early years is the largest factor in attainment and achievement at age 10, bigger even than the effect of pre-school and primary school education. Similarly, the millennium cohort study provided evidence of significant inequalities in development at age three, which can persist throughout life. It is therefore important to support parents in providing a stimulating and supportive home environment. There are plenty of good reasons to value the work that Home-Start does.
Home-Start Garioch tells me that it plans to be around for another 20 years at least. It is making plans to improve the services that it offers to parents and to grow further. In co-operation with other Home-Start organisations in Aberdeenshire, it has secured core funding until June 2017 from the local authority. Home-Start Garioch is expanding its expertise, with two of its 50 volunteers now trained to deliver the mellow bumps training programme, which will focus on vulnerable expectant mums. It also plans to offer drop-in support or play sessions during the school holidays.
Finally, Home-Start Garioch is equipping itself to offer triple P, the positive parenting programme, which is designed to prevent, as well as treat, behavioural and emotional problems in children. It aims to equip parents with the skills and confidence that they need to be self-sufficient and to manage family issues without on-going support.
I hope that all members will join me in congratulating Home-Start Garioch on its vision. I thank the staff and volunteers at Home-Start Garioch, as well as those at other Home-Start organisations, for the support that they provide to so many families and children. Their expertise is invaluable and their work is crucial.
13:37
I congratulate Alison McInnes on securing the debate. I agree with my colleague that Home-Start offers a valuable service to families, not only in Garioch but in 32 communities across Scotland. Its impact is crucial to many vulnerable and marginalised groups, including lone parents and families with a parent in prison. It also offers advice to step, foster and adoptive parents, as well as to grandparents who care for their grandchildren.
Home-Start’s model for providing services brings many benefits to local communities. Most importantly, it contributes to creating happier and safer homes. The organisation also strengthens community engagement and cohesion by delivering services locally through volunteers. In Scotland, more than 1,000 Home-Start volunteers support around 2,000 families. I believe that Home-Start Garioch is exemplary for the organisation’s work. As Home-Start Garioch celebrated its 20th anniversary in November, I congratulate the organisation on the occasion. In the past two decades, its volunteers and staff members have assisted many young families with needs. Overall, the organisation has supported 993 families with 2,122 children.
Home-Start Garioch would not be able to provide its services without the dedication and commitment of many volunteers. I take this opportunity to thank volunteers in all the local Home-Start branches across Scotland. It is truly incredible how much time and effort people dedicate to help those who are less fortunate.
Volunteers are expected to have parenting experience, although they receive additional comprehensive training, which covers child protection issues, the role of the health visitor and confidentiality. After training, each participant is matched with a family, which the volunteer visits for several hours a week. The tasks that each volunteer takes on differ greatly, from looking after the children to keeping the parents company over a cup of tea.
Home-Start has also been a vital part of community life in my constituency of Kirkcaldy. In the organisation’s own words:
“Home-Start Kirkcaldy offers support, friendship and practical help to parents with young children in Kirkcaldy, Kinghorn, Burntisland and Cardenden.”
Home-Start Kirkcaldy recently celebrated its 21st anniversary. It was founded in 1994 and has supported around 800 families in the area. Its work is as vital today as it has ever been, especially in the context of the UK Government’s welfare cuts.
At present, 38 Home-Start Kirkcaldy volunteers offer their time to help out families in need. Volunteers also support the crèche, which is available for two days a week. It offers a friendly and safe environment for children to learn through play experiences and have fun while their parents get a little break. Those services can make a real difference and much has been achieved, but we cannot neglect the fact that there are many prevailing issues that are affecting families.
As my colleagues will be aware, the Kirkcaldy area has a high number of teenage mothers, who are often disadvantaged and face many burdens in raising their children. Teenage mothers are less likely to complete their education or to seek further educational opportunities, and as a result they are more likely to be in receipt of some form of income-based benefit or to be employed in low-paid jobs
Another major issue that affects families is child poverty. The sad reality today is that one in four children in Kirkcaldy grow up in poverty. In Scotland, 50,000 children live in cold homes in winter because their parents cannot afford heating costs.
I believe that Home-Start’s work, especially its home visiting scheme, has successfully addressed some aspects of those problems. Enabling parents to feel supported regardless of their circumstances can make an incredible difference in boosting their confidence and allowing them to keep up with daily challenges. I commend not only Home-Start Garioch and Home-Start Kirkcaldy but the other 30 branches in Scotland. Their work has benefited many families with young children, and I urge members to continue supporting their endeavours.
13:41
I too congratulate Alison McInnes on bringing the debate to the chamber, and I thank her for the opportunity to focus on the challenges of raising a family in an area that I know well.
My family moved to Insch when I was 11 years old. As a pupil at Insch primary school and then at Inverurie academy, I became ever more aware as I grew up of the inequality of circumstances and opportunities facing young people in the Garioch and of the shared experiences of living in a rural area.
In some respects, the needs of vulnerable families in rural Aberdeenshire are similar to those of vulnerable families throughout the country. Many are struggling to make ends meet because of low pay or cuts in benefits, and many are finding that the public services that they previously relied on are under threat. In that sense, Home-Start Garioch is dealing with issues similar to those dealt with by Home-Start Aberdeen, which has just relocated successfully to the very centre of the city, at 1A Alford Place.
What is different in rural Aberdeenshire is the increased sense of isolation that families can feel when they are struggling to cope. It is therefore vital that a service such as Home-Start is available there, and that such services are delivered by people who understand what that relative isolation can mean.
Physical isolation has an impact. Bringing up a child in a cottage a mile from the nearest paved road and a long way from the nearest bus stop is a challenge in itself, but the lack of affordable housing in many of our rural centres sometimes makes such choices for parents unavoidable.
Social isolation has an impact too. Some of the kids in my class at school had to go to exceptional lengths in order to take part in any of the activities that happened outwith school hours, and that is still the case today. Parents often face the same difficulties if they do not have access to a car.
When things get tough for people, it can be an extra burden not to be able to meet and talk with others who are facing the same situation. Having Home-Start volunteers to turn to can make all the difference. Those volunteers can help and support parents who are dealing with a wide range of issues, but it is important to recognise that Home-Start Garioch is only one of several organisations that work together to help. It does not have to operate on its own.
The relationship with Aberdeenshire Council is important, especially in identifying vulnerable people who need extra support. Links with health services are important too, and I am sure that Home-Start staff and volunteers across the country will take an active interest in the future integration of health and social care services and how that impacts on their role in the third sector.
As Alison McInnes reminded us, Home-Start operates across the UK and around the world, and there is within it a network of Home-Start schemes in the north-east. There are schemes in Banff, Buchan, Kincardine, Deeside, Angus, Aberdeen and Dundee. They all make use of the skills and experience of volunteers to make a difference to people’s lives. That volunteering is absolutely critical.
I want to mention another local voluntary organisation, Gordon Rural Action, which works with many of the same families and provides advice on welfare issues and debt problems across the wider Gordon area. It provides support to clients who face the threat of eviction or court action for debt recovery. It gives specialised support that backs up the voluntary effort of Home-Start Garioch volunteers.
The work done by Home-Start Garioch and its partner organisations in the past 20 years has been invaluable and has made a real difference to those who have turned to it for help. The staff and volunteers are to be commended for their efforts, and I wish them the best of luck for the next 20 years of supporting families in their local area.
13:45
I congratulate Alison McInnes on bringing the motion to Parliament for debate. Before I continue, I offer the apologies of Nanette Milne, who intended to participate in the debate but has been called away to deal with other parliamentary business. However, I am delighted to have the opportunity to say a few words in support of Home-Start Garioch.
In rural communities, problems are often masked by distance and sometimes, in areas such as Garioch, strangely, by wealth. We are talking about one of the wealthiest areas anywhere in Scotland, but we have to remember that, in a broad rural community, it is easy for people to be left behind. Many who suffer deprivation in such communities are almost out of sight and out of mind.
Such communities, particularly Garioch, are in many respects great examples of ones that work well. Quite often, families and peers work together to ensure that support is provided to families who need it when it is needed. However, if someone is outside the range of their family or friends or lacks access to transport and begins to feel isolated, starting a family at the same time can be a major challenge and difficulty. It is therefore wonderful that organisations such as Home-Start Garioch exist to formalise that traditional family or peer group relationship and to deliver for those who are in need and who cannot access support mechanisms through a more traditional means.
As we have heard, there is a network of Home-Start organisations across the rural north-east that can provide such support. Those organisations should never be left on their own. At every level, we must remember that they require all our support and encouragement. The Government needs to look closely at the support that can be delivered at all stages.
The vital thing is that no one should feel that they are alone or isolated, particularly in a rural environment, and no one should feel that there is no one there to help, especially when they are beginning to build a family and bring up children. That is why organisations such as Home-Start Garioch are so vital, particularly in areas such as Garioch. For that reason, I offer my sincerest congratulations to Home-Start Garioch on its 20th anniversary, and I look forward to another 20 years and more.
13:48
For people who have just walked into the public gallery to listen, I point out that they are in the right debate—it is about “Gearie”, even if some people might think that we should be saying “Garioch” or “Gayrioch” or something else. Maybe that is easy for people from the north-east, but it is an important point, because in the north-east we have a lot of people from abroad and from other parts of Scotland and the United Kingdom, and they need to understand the local language, which is not always easy. Garioch is spelled differently from the way it is said.
I thank Alison McInnes for bringing the debate to the chamber. Home-Start Garioch is important. I remember meeting Mhairi Philip and some of her colleagues in the Parliament some months ago at a presentation of the Home-Start UK Scottish manifesto. It was good to see them here and to find out about the network in the region, which is very strong. That network is getting richer and richer, with people working in partnership.
In January 2014 I went to north-east Aberdeenshire and I saw what Home-Start was doing for families in Fraserburgh, Banff and Buchan and across the area. It was opening new facilities with Children 1st. It is important to see different organisations working together to support families and children.
At that time I was with the local MP, Eilidh Whiteford, and it was important for us to understand that families are changing. A lot of people are coming to the north-east from eastern Europe and a lot of languages are spoken there. People are working hard, and they do not have as much time as they would like to understand the local environment and schooling, so maximum support is important.
That is particularly the case when parents have separated. I spent 10 years as a single parent, and I know that it is very important to have support when people do not have a connection with the people around them. Those organisations are doing a fantastic job.
There is a network across the region. Home-Start Aberdeen has done very well this year, with a new chair, Roberta Eunson. It moved from Mastrick to Alford Place. It will be the beneficiary charity for the coast-to-coast bike ride that will be undertaken by BP staff.
Other areas are important, such as Deeside. My friend Linda Clark has been heading Home-Start Deeside for a long time. It provides support to a lot of families across the Deeside valley. It is a charitable organisation, of course, that helps vulnerable families. Deeside is a rich area, but there are pockets of poverty. In rural Aberdeenshire we find that help is needed by young families and families in which the parents are separated.
Home-Start Deveron is based a bit further north. It looks after Banff, Huntly, Macduff, Portsoy and Turriff. It is doing a fantastic job for the area. All the Home-Starts are on Facebook now; it is a lot easier to find them than it used to be.
Home-Start Kincardine is based in Stonehaven and offers a lot of support to families there. I talked about Home-Start Dundee before.
Draw to a close, please.
Parents and families get a lot support all across the region. I thank Alison McInnes for bringing the debate to Parliament.
13:52
I thank everyone who has taken part in the debate who reinforced how to pronounce Garioch. I thought it might have been pronounced differently when I was preparing for the debate. In particular, I thank Alison McInnes for lodging the motion, and I thank everyone else who took part in the debate. David Torrance spoke about Home-Start in Kirkcaldy and across Fife, Lewis Macdonald spoke about his personal reflections of the Garioch area and Aberdeenshire, Alex Johnstone spoke about the impressive network of support across the north-east, and Christian Allard spoke about his experiences of voluntary organisations in that region.
I wish Home-Start Garioch a very happy 20th birthday. It has helped thousands of families over the past two decades. It is an honour to mark such a significant milestone here in Parliament.
As so many of our dedicated third-sector partners do, Home-Start plays a vital role in supporting our most vulnerable families right across Scotland’s communities. Many issues are faced by families today, including in perinatal health, social exclusion, isolation and problems of access to services—the social and rural isolation that Lewis Macdonald and Alex Johnstone pointed out—and the challenges of separation that families go through, which Christian Allard pointed out. I commend Home-Start Garioch and its colleagues for the transformational work that they do. David Torrance was absolutely right to point out the additional challenges that far too many families face around the welfare reform agenda and poverty.
Through the third sector early intervention fund, this Government has invested more than £590,000 in Home-Start UK to deliver services across Scotland. In Aberdeenshire, Home-Start Garioch is a member of the family solutions plus public social partnership, alongside Children 1st, Home-Start North East Aberdeenshire, NHS Grampian and Aberdeenshire Council social work department.
Through the early years change fund, we have invested more than £8.5 million to create a number of family-support public social partnerships, such as family solutions plus. Partnerships between third sector agencies and local authorities take an assertive outreach approach and provide families with intensive support when it matters most, thereby preventing problems from escalating.
The aim of family solutions plus is to improve and safeguard the wellbeing of children who are not engaging in or accessing universal provision, and to increase family capacity and resilience. The partnership adopts an early intervention approach, focusing on providing intensive support for families when they need it. Practical interventions focus on enhancing family networks, to increase resilience. Again, I thank Home-Start Garioch and its partners for all that work.
The first Home-Start in Scotland was established in Perth in 1984. Today, nearly 15,000 home-visiting volunteers across the United Kingdom help more than 29,000 families every year, giving more than 1 million hours of their time. In Scotland, more than 2,000 families, including more than 4,000 children, are being supported by nearly 1,000 volunteers through local schemes. The organisation operates in 22 countries and on five continents.
Alison McInnes talked about the hours that the volunteers at Home-Start Garioch put in. She mentioned the sterling work that Sandra Herbert, Claire Smith, Angela Gowdy and Valerie Tennant have been doing for a long time in their local group. The energy and drive of Home-Start’s well-trained workers and volunteers are inspirational. Those people make a significant contribution not just in Aberdeenshire, but right across Scotland. Home-Start volunteers support families with young children to deal with whatever life throws at them, and they support parents as they learn to cope, improve their confidence and build better lives for their children.
That approach very much chimes with the aims of our parenting strategy, which seeks to value and raise the profile of parenting and to build on parents’ assets and strength, building confidence and sustaining change. As Alison McInnes rightly said, a child does not come with a manual. Bringing up a child is one of the most important things that any of us does, so it is right to support parents in their important role.
As Alison McInnes said, Home-Start volunteers visit the family’s home for a couple of hours every week, tailoring their support to the needs of the parents and children. They also run family groups and social events, to give children the best possible start in life. The work that Home-Start does with vulnerable and socially excluded families is to be applauded.
The debate gives us a chance not only to recognise volunteers’ dedication and commitment, but to reflect on what volunteers gain from the work that they do. I was interested to learn that Home-Start UK has carried out work that demonstrates the positive benefits of volunteering for volunteers, including increased confidence, development of skills and knowledge and increased involvement in the community. I could go on, but that shows what volunteers get back from their volunteering.
The debate also gives us a chance to acknowledge the third sector, which is fleet of foot and can tailor its responses to urgent need. In preparing for the debate, I took a quick look at Home-Start Garioch’s Facebook page. One post, in particular, caught my eye. It said:
“We have a family moving into temporary accommodation who have nothing. If anyone has spare bedding, single beds, or bunk beds, chest of drawers, sofa, kettle, crockery ... it would go to a really good home”.
There had been a phenomenal response to the request, with offers coming from across the region of everything from toys to a garden rake. That kind of practical help is powerful and transformational for families in a time of crisis.
All our policies for children and young people have one overall aim: to improve outcomes for every child and young person in Scotland. Again, I thank Home-Start Garioch for striving towards achieving our common ambitions, because what it does very much chimes with the rest of our policy commitments, whether we are talking about getting it right for every child and the legislative commitment that we made to GIRFEC in the Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014, about the early years framework, about the early years collaborative, which embraces what the third sector can do in communities, or about the work that we want to do around developing Scotland’s play strategy. I also understand that Home-Start is doing more and more in relation to mental health.
We have a lot to learn from Home-Start and it is great to be able to recognise the work that it has done, on Home-Start Garioch’s 20th anniversary. I thank Home-Start. Here’s to the next 20 years of success in the organisation’s work, in Garioch and across Scotland and the UK.
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