Five Home-Start charities have been forced to close this year due to funding cuts, and a further 40 are facing closure, staff redundancies or a reduction in service delivery within the next six months.

There are around 330 Home-Start charities across the UK, which provide volunteers to support parents of children aged under-five.

Five have already closed this year, including Home-Start North East Hampshire which shut in spring after its funding dried up. The charity helped 26 families in Farnborough, Aldershot, Fleet, Yateley and the surrounding area.

A further 40 have indicated that they are at risk due to funding cuts, mostly from local authorities.

Home-Start Brigend had its council funding completely withdrawn, totaling a loss of £35,000 in one year.
Four Acre Trust had offered to help Home-Start Bridgend with a grant of £20,000 on the agreement that match funding could be sourced from the local authority, but Bridgend Council turned the request down.

Sally George, manager of Home-Start Bridgend said: “It’s so frustrating. Home-Start Bridgend was set up because Bridgend Council saw a need for our support service for local families. Yet by withdrawing our funding, they are risking our support for the very families they are trying to protect. Who will be there to pick up the pieces if we have to close?”

"And it’s the very communities that the government are trying to target that will be affected most, when early intervention services don’t survive the cuts."