What are the opening hours?

Monday 9am - 2:30pm Tuesday 9am - 1pm Wednesday 9am - 1pm Thursday 9am - 2:30pm

Home-Start Sittingbourne & Sheppey

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Home-Start Sittingbourne & Sheppey

Est in 1994, Home-Start Sittingbourne & Sheppey are a family support charity.

We recruit and train local volunteer mentors so they are able to provide emotional and practical support to local families.

15/06/2026

We are looking for a warm, friendly, enthusiastic individual to join our wonderful team here at Home-Start Sittingbourne & Sheppey.

We are currently looking for a family support worker to join our team to work with young families in their homes who are experiencing low-mid level mental health issues. Please see attached photo for more information.

For an application pack including job description please contact the office by emailing [email protected] or call 01795 429007 for further information. Please note the closing date for applications is Thursday 2nd July 2026. Interviews are to be held in July (date tbc). All applications are subject to a satisfactory enhanced DBS check & references.

https://uk.indeed.com/job/family-support-worker-low-mid-level-mental-health-support-b8630a2508ecf297

09/06/2026

This Infant Mental Health Week, Home-Start Sittingbourne & Sheppey is recognising the importance of emotional wellbeing in the earliest years of a child’s life. 💛

Babies thrive through loving, responsive relationships. Feeling safe, comforted, understood, and connected helps build the foundations for healthy emotional development and lifelong wellbeing.
We also know that supporting babies means supporting parents and carers too. The early years can bring joy, exhaustion, uncertainty, and isolation and no family should have to face those challenges alone.

At Home-Start Sittingbourne & Sheppey, we’re proud to support families with preschool children through friendship, practical help, and community support, helping parents feel listened to, valued, and less alone.

This Infant Mental Health Week, we’re celebrating the power of connection, compassion, and early support for every family. 🌱

01/06/2026

This week marks Volunteers Week!

Everyone at Home-Start Sittingbourne & Sheppey would like to say the biggest and most heartfelt thank you to all of our wonderful volunteers. This week, we celebrate our incredible volunteers who make our work possible. You truly are the heart of everything we do.

At Home-Start Sittingbourne & Sheppey, we see and appreciate the huge impact you make on the families you support. Whether you're offering a listening ear, sharing encouragement, helping parents build confidence, or simply being there when someone needs support, your impact reaches further than you may realise. Every moment you give helps families feel less alone, more supported, and more hopeful about the future.

To each and every volunteer on our team: thank you for your commitment, for showing up, for caring deeply, and for supporting local families when it matters most. You make a lasting difference to the lives of local families in our community every day.

We really are incredibly grateful and thankyou for everything you do.

If you'd like to become a volunteer mentor, please email [email protected] for more information.

28/05/2026

Meet the team May!

Meet Michelle, our group leader

I am a mum of 3 children and a little dog. I started working for Home-Start Sittingbourne and Sheppey in November 2025 to follow my passion for learning through play in the early years and to share my knowledge with families during their stay and play sessions with us. We currently provide a family group and have a very successful and long running twins group which was set up in 1998. My vision is to set up a stay and play group in the near future.

My career includes a background in nursery management and experience as a community nursery nurse for the NHS. I therefore have a sound knowledge of the early years child developmental stages. This experience has given me the skills to provide positive and educational opportunities for the families I work alongside.
In my spare time I am always with my family as my children have disabilities and keep me busy. As a family we enjoy weekends and holidays away in our caravan, swimming and going for walks.

I love arts and crafts and messy play, which I love to bring into our stay and play groups, I especially like to include the things that my children love doing.

25/05/2026

Meet The Team May!

Meet Beccie our Office Administrator & Volunteer Lead

Hiya, I'm Beccie

I joined the team in 2023 as the office administrator and recruitment Lead. I’m in charge of all things admin, as well as the recruitment and onboarding of all our volunteers (mentors and trustees) and staff. I really love my role here, as I know the work we do as a team makes a real difference to families who need support. I’m incredibly proud to be part of such a wonderful team and especially proud to have seen recruitment go from strength to strength since joining the team.

When I’m not at work, you’ll usually find me walking my dog, watching F1 or at a concert. My favourite weekend activities are shopping and trips to the cinema. Most importantly, I love spending quality time with my family and friends.

Working at Home-Start has shown me just how incredibly powerful and life-changing support can be. I’m so happy to be part of a team that provides a vital support network to families in our community and makes such a huge difference to those who need it most.

21/05/2026

Please see below the details of our two free stay & play groups! Twins Group & Little Poppets.

19/05/2026

Meet The Team May!

Meet Wendy our Family Support Worker

I am a mum to 2 amazing girls, and I have been working for
Home-Start Sittingbourne and Sheppey since September 2020
which was during the covid pandemic. I was brought in as a
Family Support Worker to help families who felt isolated and
were suffering with their mental health because of the
pandemic. Due to the lockdowns, there were times when I
could only do doorstep visits, going out for a walk with them or
video calls. When families felt cut off from the world, this
became their lifeline and was what would get them through the
week.

I pride myself on being a caring, non- judgemental listener who
is passionate about supporting families through life’s ups and
downs. With a background of working in nurseries, I bring my
professional experience of working with children into my role
which enables me to support families with routines, behaviour,
learning through play, stages of development like weaning,
teething, potty training etc.

Home-Start has been close to my heart for many years as my
mum was the manager of a Home-Start in London for over 20
years. Therefore, I feel very proud to be working for such an
amazing charity. I’m dedicated to making a positive difference
to the families I support. Kindness, understanding and a
listening ear go a long way.

18/05/2026

Walk to School Week 🚶‍♀️🚶‍♂️🌈

Let’s make the journey part of the fun!

Walking (or scooting 🚲) to school is a great way for children to enjoy fresh air, build confidence, and start the day with energy and smiles.

Try turning your journey into an adventure:
🌿 Spot flowers, trees, and wildlife
🔍 Play “I spy” along the way
👣 Count steps, cars, or red buses
💬 Chat about your day ahead

It’s a simple change that can make a big difference for wellbeing, learning, and family time together.

Happy walking! 💛

12/05/2026

Welcome to Meet The Team May!

Meet Allison - the Home-Start Sittingbourne and Sheppey Manager

My name is Allison, and I am the manager of Home-Start Sittingbourne & Sheppey
My working career has been varied but most of my roles I have kept for many years.
I trained as a Hairdresser straight from school for 18 years. I then went back to education to re-train for my first love of working with children. Towards the end of this course, I was approached by the tutor and asked If I would consider becoming an NVQ assessor in childcare for levels 2 & 3 which I very much enjoyed for 4 years.

While on a day out with my own small children at a local children’s farm attraction I spotted a group of families enjoying a day out together with some staff members and thought to myself that's what I want to do’ it took me a little while and perhaps a path that zigged & zagged a little but I finally started my journey with Home-Start Sittingbourne and Sheppey in 1999.

During my first 17 years I did a variety of roles. I started as an early year’s co-ordinator which involved working with every early year’s provider in swale and offering advice and guidance. I then moved into the Home-Start team and was involved with the Twins group, young parents’ group, family group and an ethnic minorities group. I was also a parenting advice trainer.

My full role was as a co-ordinator looking after a small team of volunteers who were home visiting. This was a very fulfilling role, and I held this position until 2016 when my funding was ended and I was sadly made redundant.

My next employment role was in a residential home for children and young people. I was a carer for a certain time then promoted to senior carer. My role was supporting young people with profound and multiple learning disabilities. Providing support to young people with day-to-day tasks, and life skills, promoting independence in a homely environment. I held this position for approximately 3 years.

During Covid I was working for SATEDA a specialist domestic abuse charity supporting women and children escape abuse and rebuild their lives, empowering them to lead safer and more fulfilling lives.

In 2021 I was made aware that the manager Of Home-Start Sittingbourne & Sheppey was retiring and her role was being advertised, of course I applied as I had loved every minute of my first 17 years with this amazing organisation.

I am so happy to say that I was successful and that I have now been manager for Home Start Sittingbourne & Sheppey for the last 5 years. I have taken the scheme from strength to strength and have worked tirelessly to bring the scheme up to date and to get our name back on everybody’s radar. I have secured a further 3 year’s funding, and we thank the lottery so much for their support in supporting families.

When I am not working, I am generally making lists of what I need to do for work or ways to make the scheme better it has been so much part of my life after 23 years that it never leaves me even in my down time. However, I love spending time with family. I am married with 2 children both in their late 30s now …where has that time gone when we sat in that farm attraction and I wished to be involved in Home-Start.

My 2 grandchildren are an absolute delight and bring so much to enrich my life.

11/05/2026

Mental Health Awareness Week 💚

Parenting children can be joyful, exhausting, heart-filling, and overwhelming and sometimes all before 9am.

If you’re caring for a little one right now, this is your reminder that your wellbeing matters too.

The snack requests, the tantrums, the mess, the endless energy, the sleepless nights, it can be a lot. You don’t need to carry it all silently.

This week, give yourself permission to:
💚 Ask for support
💚 Take a break when you can
💚 Lower the pressure to “do it all”
💚 Speak kindly to yourself
💚 Celebrate the small wins

A calm moment, a cup of tea, five minutes of quiet, a message to a friend these things matter.

Looking after yourself is not taking away from your child. It is showing them that health, kindness, and balance matter.

To every preschool parent doing their best each day: we see you, and you’re doing better than you think. 💚

Address

First Floor, Central House, Central Avenue
Sittingbourne
ME104NU

Opening Hours

Monday	9am - 2:30pm
Tuesday	9am - 1pm
Wednesday	9am - 1pm
Thursday	9am - 2:30pm

Telephone

+441795429007

Website

http://www.home-startsittingbourneandsheppey.org.uk/

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