Refer a family for support
With the permission of the family, we welcome referrals from professionals and other third parties.
Make a referral
Home-Start Oxford serves Oxford City and the centre and west of the county, including Wheatley, Kidlington, Woodstock, Witney, Carterton and Burford.
We work closely with our neighbouring Home-Starts in the north and south of Oxfordshire. Use our quick postcode checker to check we’re the right Home-Start for you.
Please note that our service is dependent on volunteer and coordinator capacity, which at times can be very limited, and
we do not hold a waiting list. Please be aware that our current response time for referrals is around six weeks.
To make a referral click the orange button below.
Alternatively you can make a quick enquiry about support using the button below.
Once we have received your referral/enquiry a Coordinator will be in touch within 2 weeks to let you know whether we have capacity to support the family.
Refer a family to
Home-Start Oxford
Home-Start Oxford’s approach to family support is based on choice, openness, partnership, compassion, and no judgement. The service that we provide is totally free for families, and it is their choice to be supported – on their terms, in the areas that they feel they need help with.
Our overall aim is to create relationships with families (with at least one child under 5) who are going through difficult times, in order to help parents increase their confidence, independence and resilience.
We provide one-to-one support to families in their own homes.
Our support volunteers:
• are trained, experienced and carefully matched with families.
• have parenting experience themselves and understand lots of the difficulties families can face.
• provide a family with 2-3 hours of support per week.
• work alongside families to help them overcome challenges they are facing.
• work with families to build on their strengths and give them the support that they tell us that they need.
• are supported by a Home-Start Family Coordinator.
One-to-one support for families can range from a number of weeks, or in some cases over a year.
We also offer a range of specific support groups and a programme of general ‘stay & play’ sessions. Many families find these sessions a great way to pick up advice and meet other families facing the same issues as them.
For more information for families, you can download our ‘Help for your family’ leaflet here.
Specialist Knowledge and Support
We have the capacity to be involved in multi-agency meetings where families are involved in social care. We can provide support up to Child Protection level, however we are limited as to how many high level families we can support at one time.
Across our team we have domestic abuse champions, and volunteers and staff receiving enhanced training in areas such as the ‘Peep Learning Together Programme’, Perinatal and Infant Mental Health training developed by Home-Start UK, Oxford Parent-Infant Project (OXPIP) and AIMH (UK) (Association for Infant Mental Health), and OXPIP ‘Attachment Theory’ training.
Referral Process
We welcome referrals from professionals or other third parties, with the permission of the family.
If your referral is accepted we will:
- Set up an initial visit with the family to discuss their needs
- Carefully match the skills and experiences of a volunteer to the needs of the family
- Introduce the volunteer to the family
- Let you know when Home-Start support starts and ends
- Keep you informed about progress
- Monitor and assess their support
What professionals say
I have seen families in struggling and challenging situations thrive once support is put in place. The liaison between Home-Start and our service has always been good and I just wish you had more funding as there are so many families out there that need practical and emotional support. Keep up the amazing work.
I was very pleased that the service is available and would definitely use it again. Your safeguarding and communication is excellent.
The process was very straightforward and as a first time referrer the guidance and feedback I received about the progress of the referral was very much appreciated.