Lifestart Foundation Ltd

Public benefits

Our purpose is to produce better child development outcomes by making available to parents evidence-based knowledge and information on how young children develop and learn. The purpose is implemented through the delivery of evidence-based child development programmes and a home-visitation service to parents of children from birth up to pre-school

or school entry. We believe that the purposes of our charity satisfy the public benefit requirement because international research evidence demonstrates that the most important factors influencing child development outcomes are (1) the nature of a child’s relationship with its parent/care-giver and (2) the quality of the home-learning environment. The evidence confirms that compromised parenting is a highly significant child development risk factor, but that good parenting can reduce the effects of other factors with the potential to negatively impact on child outcomes. Public Benefits There are a number of direct benefits that flow from this purpose: A reduction in the economic and social cost of poverty and inequality; support to vulnerable families and children; improved child protection; improved child health and resilience; enhanced infant mental health and well-being; raised levels of child school readiness; reduced incidences of youth delinquency and violence. Evidence There is very powerful international evidence that demonstrates that supporting parents in their parenting role is beneficial for children and that parenting interventions can improve child outcomes regardless of family context or circumstance. The Lifestart programme incorporates a range of mechanisms for recording and measuring impact and outcomes which are used as a basis of reports prepared for and submitted to our service funders and commissioners. The Lifestart core programme ‘Growing Child’ and its home-visitation service are also currently the subject of an 8 year fully experimental randomised controlled trial being conducted by Queens University Belfast. The trial which will be completed in December 2014 has already recorded positive effects for parents and children. Harm There is no harm flowing from our purposes. We provide credible expert informed information to parents on child development. This information is delivered through a home-visitation service provided by family visitors who have been trained in programme delivery, child protection and family support. Lifestart service delivery is subject to rigorous quality assurance procedures and mechanisms in keeping with best practice models of family support, in which the competence of every Lifestart family visitor is accessed annually. Those failing to reach the highest standards of competency are required to attend retraining. Beneficiaries Our beneficiaries are parents and children and the wider society. Private Benefit There is some private benefit arising as a result of our work in that the Foundation trains those whom it licenses to deliver Lifestart programmes and services and for some of our programmes, parents receive an accredited Open College Network Qualification. Parenting qualifications and the benefits of staff training are transferable to other contexts and settings. The up skilling of delivery staff is necessary to ensure that parents receive a high quality service and parenting qualifications contribute to parental confidence and efficacy, one of the objectives of our work. In both cases benefits are incidental to our work. Members of the Lifestart Council, the Foundation’s Governing Body have also derived benefit by acquiring transferable skills and experience through governance training. Again these benefits are incidental and necessary to our purposes.

What your organisation does

We implement our mission through the provision of evidence-based child development programmes and a home visitation service to parents of children from birth up to pre-school or school entry.