Commission endorses Home-Start UK Quality Assurance System
Home-Start UK launches quality assurance system.
Charity Commission
The Charity Commission has announced its endorsement of a new Quality Assurance System for local Home-Starts. Accredited by Home-Start UK, this forms part of the Commission’s Quality Assessment Endorsement Programme. Four local Home-Starts (see endnote 1) have already fully met the requirements of the assessment.
Home-Start is one of the UK’s leading family support charities. Through a network of 300 independently run local Home-Starts it recruits and trains volunteers to support parents with at least one child under the age of five, in their own homes. Nearly 16,000 volunteers visit families in their own homes - parents supporting other parents in a variety of situations including isolation, bereavement, multiple births, illness or disability.
The Commission only endorses quality systems that provide a framework for robust and objective assessments of how charities are run. Endorsed quality assessment systems test for those key aspects of a charity’s governance that are most likely to produce a well-run, accountable and sustainable organisation. Home-Start UK’s Quality Assurance System defines and assesses best practice for its members.
Sam Younger, Chief Executive of the Charity Commission, said:
I am delighted to welcome Home-Start UK’s Quality Assurance System to our family of endorsed quality standards. The Quality Standards system helps charities demonstrate that they meet the high expectations of their regulators, their funders, their service users and the public.
By working with partners like Home-Start UK, we can have an even greater influence on the good governance of charities. Sector-led quality systems provide one of the best examples of charities’ self-reliance and commitment to on-going development and improvement.
Rob Parkinson, Chief Executive of Home-Start UK said:
Home-Start is passionate about giving parents high quality support across the whole of the UK. Local Home-Starts that receive our new certificate of quality are providing consistently high levels of service and are committed to continual improvement. This Quality Assurance System for local Home-Starts will help ensure that families receive support worthy of the Home-Start name, wherever they live.
Home-Start UK’s Quality Assurance System joins a number of similar quality systems established by and for the sector which have been supported by the Commission.
Please see our Charity Commission Partnership Initiative and the Endorsement Programme for more information.
Ends
PR 27/14
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Notes to editors
- The Charity Commission is the independent regulator of charities in England and Wales.
2.Our mission is to be the independent registrar and regulator of charities in England and Wales, acting in the public’s interest, to ensure that:
- charities know what they have to do
- the public know what charities do
- charities are held to account
3.Home-Start is one of the UK’s leading family support charities. It recruits and trains volunteers to support parents, in their own homes, with at least one child under the age of five. The charity was set up in 1973 and now has over 300 Home-Starts supporting nearly 32,000 families and almost 70,000 children each year. Nearly 16,000 volunteers visit families in their own homes - parents supporting other parents in a variety of situations including isolation, bereavement, multiple births, illness or disability.
Press contacts: Katy Heaphy, external communications officer, Home-Start UK: kheaphy@home-start.org.uk 0116 258 7033. Out of hours: 07917 392130.
Endnotes
(1) The Home-Starts that have met the requirements of the assessment are:
- Home-Start Stevenage
- Home-Start Shepway
- Home-Start Arun
- Home-Start West Somerset