It is said of Margaret Harrison, who has died of heart failure aged 77, that she leaves three children of her own and more than a million others helped by the Home-Start charity that she set up in 1973 and led for 25 years. By using trained volunteers to support families under stress, Home-Start’s approach broke fresh ground in UK welfare policy and practice, and foreshadowed both the new orthodoxy of holistic work with so-called troubled families and the search for a “big society” solution to social ills.
From a single pilot project in Harrison’s home city of Leicester, Home-Start has grown to 288 schemes across the UK supporting more than 33,000 families and 70,000 children. The concept has spread to 22 other countries from Norway to Sri Lanka. Although it has a much lower profile, Home-Start’s contribution to child welfare can today be considered alongside that of leading charities such as the NSPCC or Barnardo’s.
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