Referral Procedure Home-Start Maidstone

Referrals will only be taken by phone, between 9.30am and 1.00pm on 01622 675879.

In order to make a referral you will need all the information asked for on the referral sheet so please make sure you have this to hand when calling us. Please see our referral form.

We do not operate a waiting list. When we have no volunteers available you will be informed that we are unable to take the referral, this means that you will be clear about a family’s status with us at all times. If possible we will let you know an estimated time to call again when we think it is likely we will have capacity.

If we accept your referral we will normally assess the family’s needs through an initial visit within 7 working days. There may be occasions when, after initial visit, we feel that our service is not suitable to the family and we will inform you of this as soon as possible and close the referral. In the majority of cases we will endeavour to match the family with a volunteer within 15 working days (3 weeks).

You will be kept informed by letter of the family’s progression through the process and we will inform you when we stop supporting the family. There will be updates when we review support to let you know if we intend to continue supporting the family; this will be roughly every 4 to 6 months.

Home-Start Maidstone Referral Procedure June 2010