3:00pm Monday 23rd April 2012
I READ with great sadness in the Hereford Times about the huge cut HomeStart Herefordshire is facing from Herefordshire Council in its 30th anniversary year – 40 per cent of its total funding. As chairman of the 25th Anniversary Appeal in 2007, while I understand the calls on the public purse, I join with Herefordian Simon Hughes MP and others in asking the council to think again. Cutting funding to families with small children in a time of great need is, I feel, a false economy.
HomeStart Herefordshire provides volunteers who, please let us remember, give their services for free. The support they offer means they often forge long-lasting personal relationships with the families they support, way beyond anything the state can offer even at its best. I have seen many examples first hand and it is difficult to put a price on it. But these volunteers need essential funding for training and a backup service to be as effective as they can.
Many families face severe difficulties, as your article outlined, and often very unexpectedly due to illness, poverty, family breakdowns, physical and mental breakdown or isolation. Is it asking too much for Herefordshire Council to think again?
Meanwhile, if any of your readers feel they would like to help HomeStart, they can contact Herefordshire Council’s director of people’s services directly to voice their concern.
VIRGINIA TAYLOR Byford Herefordshire
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