Cash running out for family charity

Cash running out for family charity

A LEADING charity is warning it faces an uncertain future after the Department of Health refused to provide it with funding.

Home Start, which provides vital support to hundreds of families across the district, has been informed the government department has no cash to help finance its work.

The Department of Health provided £100,000 in slippage funding to the charity over the past two years, but with no new financial help forthcoming due to an overspend, Home Start officials now fear for the long-term future of their organisation.

Confirmation the government department will not help Home Start comes just days after the charity received a major Down Council award in recognition of its invaluable work across the district.

The local charity has been struggling to maintain its operation in Newcastle and Ballynahinch since the loss of financial support from the Children’s Fund in 2011. Since then, Home Start officials have been forced to dip into their own financial services to keep going, but have warned they don’t have a bottomless pit of money.

Over the past four years, demand for services provided by the charity has almost doubled, with the organisation now providing vital support to around 300 families and 570 children.

Home Start officials Dorothy McMullan and Imelda Hynds say the irony of being told there is no Department of Health support just days after winning an award for the charity’s work is not lost on them. South Down MP Margaret Ritchie has expressed disappointment Health Minister Edwin Poots has not intervened to secure central government funding for the organisation.

Charity officials say they need annual ring-fenced funding of £90,000 for the next three to five years to allow the organisation to continue with its vital work helping families in need, arguing the work they do reduces the workload and cost to statutory agencies.

“We want to stop stumbling from one financial crisis to another,” declared Mrs. McMullan. “Our financial situation has never been adequately addressed since we lost Children’s Fund money in 2011. We had hoped our request to the Department of Health for slippage money at the end of the financial year would have been successful, as it was in previous years, but this is not the case.”

The South Eastern Trust provides funding for Home Start’s operation in Downpatrick, but the charity says it needs more cash to maintain its presence in Newcastle and Ballynahinch and hopes to secure additional funding when it meets health chiefs shortly.

“For a relatively small investment to allow us to do what we do there is an overwhelming long term gain helping families in need and preventing children being taken into foster care and social care,” said Mrs. McMullan.

She added: “The families in crisis today who receive our help can start to turn things around. If we are not able to help them they will fall through the social services net, with children ending up in foster or social care. It can take very little to tip a family into crisis.”

Imelda said Home Start will keep dipping into its reserves which the charity has built up as a result of prudent financial management and good stewardship. But she warned if it has to continue doing this, it will eventually run out of money.

Miss Ritchie said all efforts must be directed at securing a sustainable funding package for Home Start, with the focus now on the Health and Social Care Board and South Eastern Trust.

The MP confirmed she plans to meet with the Board’s new chief executive to discuss the next steps in the process of securing funding for Home Start services in the Newcastle and Ballynahinch areas.

Miss Ritchie added: “Home Start provides an invaluable service within our local community and one that many young families depend upon. It’s important Home Start is given every assistance at all political and community levels to secure a sustainable funding programme.”