Families in need
Charity Save The Family has been publicly lauded for its work to prevent homelessness at a time when family units across the UK are under severe strain, David Norbury reports. The country faces a tide of homelessness as the recession deepens, fears a Chester charity chief.
The warning came from Tim McLachlan, chief executive of Save the Family, as social campaigner, former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith MP, visited the city to urge the UKs politicians, business chiefs and civic leaders to support the pioneering work of the homelessness charity which he hailed as a national treasure and an inspiration to us all.
However Mr McLachlan believes more families will come under pressure and even disintegrate as traditional breadwinners lose their jobs. One of the dire consequences of separated parents is homelessness and Mr McLachlan fears that over the next six months worsening effects of the recession will be keenly felt by families trying to survive. Times have never been harder. The need has never been greater, said Mr McLachlan. Save the Family has to keep the door open to those who are desperate.
We must be able to accept people at the point of crisis, change their lives and restore their hope. We need support to ensure that the next generation never knows the pain of homelessness. He explained:To tear apart a family, to put a child in care and on the path to an uncertain future, costs £50,000 per year. To support, re-educate and rebuild a family of four at Save the Family costs £48,000 per year. Theres no contest.
I appeal to anyone who can open the door to Save the Family and support our Cotton Hall Farm project near Chester, he added. We need to secure the promise of the capital funding before work can proceed.
Created by Edna Speed more than 30 years ago, the charity provides emergency accommodation and support to homeless families throughout the North West.
Describing Save the Family as a model of aspiration and hope, Mr Duncan Smith, founder of the Centre for Social Justice, chose Chester to address the causes and consequences of family breakdown and endorse the work of the charity. During his speech at Hoole Hall Hotel, Mr Smith held up the group as an example of an effective solution to a broken society. He congratulated Save the Family on its approach to re-educating and rebuilding failing families and changing an underclass culture that is blighting Britain.
Touching on the failures in the care system, Mr Smith said:Save the Family is an effective alternative to a care system that is not working. The outcomes for children in care are appalling. He highlighted a recent study of the care system by the Centre for Social Justice which illustrated how it is failing the children it is meant to serve.
Consider this fact, around one third of the prison population has been in care, however less than one per cent of UK children have been in care. Its a sobering statistic, suggested the MP.
He added: The ethics and examples of this charity need to be shared with others and more organisations like it established to save more families from decline and breakdown.
David Norbury
6 February 2009
