Community Service Volunteers

Awards

Recognised for its trailblazing Volunteers in Child Protection programme

Volunteers in Child Protection, a project run in partnership with Children’s Social Services, matches volunteers to families with children that are suffering from neglect and are at risk of serious harm. The volunteers support the families to address their problems, turning chaotic, dysfunctional homes into stable and safe environments.

After Victoria Climbie’s death and the subsequent public inquiry, Lord Laming’s report concluded that early intervention helps families deal with potential crises and can avert more serious interventions later, and that the community has a role to play in safeguarding children.

Soon afterward, CSV executive director Dame Elisabeth Hoodless heard about a scheme in California that matched families in crisis with volunteers – a pioneering concept never before tried in the UK.

While many challenged whether volunteers could or should be involved with families in such complex circumstances, and doubted the viability of the scheme, Hoodless was determined to give it a go, and personally led its initial phase. She convinced a major trust to fund a pilot in two local authorities and the three-year pilot was a “resounding success”. An independent evaluation showed that children were coming off and staying off the child protection register, improving families lives and saving local authorities money.

Bromley was the first local authority to purchase this service, four years ago, and ViCP projects are now run in five local authority areas, with 136 volunteers supporting 130 families and 400 kids. To date there has been a 100 per cent success rate – all the children that have had volunteer support have come off the child protection register and not gone back on. The scheme is inundated with volunteers and has just secured a new three-year grant to enable the scheme’s rollout in ten more local authority areas.

Ms Sue Gwaspari
Director Part-Time Volunteering, Volunteering Partners Programme
Wells House (Unit 7)
237 Pentonville Road
London
020 7643 1399
www.csv.org.uk
Reg no: 291222

Directory: Civil Society Media Ltd
Who's Who: Dame Elisabeth Hoodless | Sue Gwaspari

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