Home Start's Jodie Reed on the 1 in 5 parents the system can't reach

1 in 5 parents with a young child rarely meet another adult outside their household. People thought it would settle after the pandemic. It didn't. In this episode, George speaks with Jodie Reed, co-CEO of Home Start UK, about what 9,000 trained volunteers are doing for over 60,000 families that no commissioned service can replicate, why family isolation is a structural trend with decade-long roots, and why evidence-based parenting programmes - however good - are the icing on the cake for most families. They also cover what her baby blind spot research during lockdown found about the local systems that protected babies in a crisis, and what the government's family hubs rollout still needs to get right. Chapters: 0:00 Welcome to Best Beginnings 1:14 What a successful Home Start looks like 2:20 Why family isolation is getting worse and didn't recover after COVID 3:55 What's driving it: screens, GPs, health visitors 6:08 Who Home Start supports: the complexity behind the numbers 8:36 What volunteers can do that professionals structurally can't 11:22 Outcomes: over 90% feel more capable and what keeps volunteers coming back 13:19 Government, family hubs and the gap in commissioning 25:54 Why evidence-based programmes are the icing on the cake 26:34 Baby blind spots: the lockdown research 30:07 From policy to purpose - the thread through Jodie's career Topics covered include family isolation among parents, Home Start UK's volunteer model, baby blind spot and first 1001 days research, health visitors and early years services, government family hubs rollout, commissioning of voluntary sector organisations, maternal isolation, child poverty, mental health among parents, domestic violence, early intervention and parenting support programmes. Jodie Reed is co-CEO of Home Start UK. She previously worked at the Department for Education, the Institute for Public Policy Research, and in local government and voluntary sector delivery. Subscribe to Best Beginnings for new episodes every Tuesday.