Home-Starts to Leave the Moorlands
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- 2 min read
It was announced on social media last week that after 28 years of operation, the Leek-based charity, Home-Start Staffordshire Moorlands, will close on 30th June.
Home-Start is a local charity that provides free, confidential support to families with at least one child under five in the Staffordshire Moorlands district, including Cheadle. The help offered via local staff and volunteers includes providing early help, home-visiting, and group support to parents, for example, the running of a weekly baby and toddler group at the village hall in Kingsley Holt.
It was inevitably an extremely difficult decision to make, but like a number of charitable organisations in the area (e.g. Homelink in Cheadle), Home-Start Staffordshire Moorlands has also been met with significant funding challenges and a lack of sustainable income in recent years. Small organisations such as these are heavily reliant on donations, community fundraising, and some public funding.
We spoke with Administration Coordinator Paul Humphreys who told us that like many other charities who rely on funding they cannot sustain the costs any longer. "Charities are facing hugely difficult and challenging times at the moment and three Home-Start charities across the country have closed in the last 8/10 months. We have a great team here and it's very sad but the bigger picture, the loss of services for the local community is even sadder." Even though we run a lean organisation we cannot continue - this will put extra pressure on the local authority to fill the gap in services." Paul told us that he is very grateful for all the support they have received over the years from local people including COGNEWS.
They will be much missed. It is a huge loss for the area, as the group has provided vital support for struggling parents for almost three decades. Their ethos is, and always has been, for volunteers to offer nonjudgmental, confidential help and support tailored to the unique needs of each family, providing a lifeline to families navigating the complexities of raising young children. There are increasing pressures on young families, and to lose a vital part of our community is devastating, not only for parents but for young children who deserve the best chance of a happy and secure childhood.
This closure should be a wake-up call. If we value early support for families, we cannot continue to rely on small charities to carry that responsibility without stable funding behind them. We need to ask serious questions about how services like this are supported going forward because once they’re gone, the gap they leave is far harder to fill than it ever was to sustain them.
Home-Starts to Leave the Moorlands - created 14th May 2026
