Today (May 7^th 2024) we are announcing that Home for Good and Safe Families will be merging to form one charity, retaining the two strong and respected brand identities. The process of bringing the two organisations together is in motion and we are aiming to complete the legal aspects of the merger during Autumn 2024.

What is the vision?

Since the founding of Safe Families and Home for Good, we've consistently found ways to collaborate, and through this process we have increasingly recognised an alignment in our vision.

Together we have a vision to provide a more holistic solution, through the Church, to prevent children entering the care system through family support and then, if they do, ensuring there are enough safe and nurturing homes through fostering, adoption, and supported lodgings.

We believe that by joining together, as one organisation, we will see more churches equipped more volunteers empowered and trained, more local authorities served, more families supported, less children entering care and for those that do, well-matched homes found.

Every child needs a stable place to call home, an environment that feels safe and nurturing, and someone they can trust who will offer unconditional care and support.

Every family need people around who care and can support them, so that when challenges happen, they don’t have to face them alone.

Home for Good and Safe Families both hold these statements as crucial for the long-term wellbeing of children, families, and the wider community, and we work at two different ends of the needs spectrum. Safe Families support isolated and overwhelmed families through local volunteers, to give them the best chance of not only staying together but thriving together with a stable home and reinforced support network. Home for Good ensure that when, sadly, children come into care, there is a home for every child who needs one.

The merger is not motivated by financial saving but by creating a stronger organisation that can go wider and deeper, with greater efficiencies and increased resilience.

“As our conversations have developed, I've had a growing sense that our merger with Home for Good is the next stage of God’s plan for our mission. God is inviting us into something bigger, widening the lens through which we have seen things so far. A sense that He is opening a door to us to serve more children and families so that more have a stable place to call home, an environment that feels safe, and people around them who they can trust and who will offer care and support.

This is, more than anything, an invitation to everyone to go on this journey together. Home for Good and Safe Families will look different on the other side, but I believe that through reshaping what we both look like, we can create something better than the sum of the parts.”

Kat Osborn CEO Safe Families

“Home for Good considers this opportunity to cojoin with Safe Families as a divine opportunity and a privilege to serve church, children, and families with greater impact than we can do individually. Retaining our brands will still evidence the unique roles we carry but with a merged heart response and practical fusing of ‘services’ to support this mission, we can do so much more.

Change is tough, and we acknowledge it, but the alternative is not changing; and the consequence of that is missing the opportunity to do something which we believe could supercharge the impact we currently have.

The Lord feels very close, strong relationships are at the heart of this and Kat and I are committed to listening, learning and leading in a way that honours God and all who journey on this adventure.”

Tarn Bright CEO Home for Good

Our history together

Since our inception as charities just over 10 years ago there has always been a synergy, a sense that there was a bigger picture that we could see if we worked in greater collaboration. This was mostly shown through regional teams coming together to speak to churches.

Since the appointments of Tarn and Kat as the organisation’s CEOs, they have sensed a growing alignment between the organisation’s mission and justice-led mandates to wrap tangible support around children and families.

In the last few years we have held joint vision sessions; worked together to engage the Independent Review of Social Care; moved into the same rented office space together in central London; run activity at a church engagement level in London and to service that, have recruited staff to oversee this regional work whose salaries are funded and managed jointly by both organisations.

What opportunities will this create?

This merger will create huge opportunities for both charities. Each organisation brings unique strengths and bringing the experience and expertise of both together will help amplify these strengths even further.

There are some immediate opportunities that the merger will create.

The first is being able to speak to the Church with one voice – to respond to direct feedback we have had from church leaders for greater collaboration and to bring an offer to the Church that allows for a holistic response to the needs of children and families, whether that is for an hour, a month or a lifetime.

Alongside this, we share a desire to see the Church as a place where all families find the kind of belonging that allows them to feel seen, heard and valued and a desire to equip and resource the Church to do this.

Secondly, we have an opportunity to speak to both local government and national government with one voice. To add the voices of the 3,000+ children and their families that Safe Families supports each year to the expertise and advocacy of Home for Good.

Other areas of overlap and collaboration include our commitment to being trauma informed and equipping the Church with excellent training and resources that enable them to love well those impacted by trauma.

What will this look like practically?

Over the coming months we will begin the process of integrating the two charities. We are committed to being transparent and communicating well with everyone involved with both Home for Good and Safe Families.

The new organisation will be co-led by Kat Osborn (current CEO Safe Families) and Tarn Bright (current CEO Home for Good). Kat and Tarn both share their reflections on the partnership here. Keith Danby (former CEO and current Chair of Safe Families) and Simon Blake (current Chair of Home for Good) will co-chair the new Board of Trustees for 12 months with all the trustees of both organisations combining into a single Board of Trustees.

If you are a family supported by Safe Families, a foster carer, adopter or supported lodgings host, a church who partners with us, a volunteer, champion, or financial supporter we will continue to provide the same services, and the relationships we have built will, we believe, be enhanced through this process.

You will continue to see Safe Families and Home for Good operating as individual brands.

Thank you

Finally, we want to say a huge thank you to all those who partner with us as Safe Families and Home for Good. You are already changing lives as you make sure that no-one feels alone. We couldn’t have got this far without you, and we have such confidence in this next step because of you.

Our new organisation is committed to serving all children and families; so that they all have a stable and nurturing place to call home, an environment that feels safe, and people they can trust who will offer care and support. Just as we are committed to serving the church to be part of this. Equipping its people to respond, whether that is an hour, a month or a lifetime.

We want no-one to feel alone, no child, no teenager, no parent, no foster carer, or adopter. We know that everyone deserves to belong, and we believe passionately in the important part the Church has to play, alongside others, to offer that belonging.

Next steps

We recognise that these charities mean a lot to those involved in supporting them, volunteering with them, and championing their missions. Without you, we would not exist, and so your voice is so important to us as we start this journey of coming together.

We would love to hear your thoughts, questions, concerns, or prayers for this new partnership. Please do get in touch at [email protected] or [email protected].

To read more from our CEO, Tania Bright on this merger please read a note from her here.

Find out more about Safe Families by visiting their website or reading a note from CEO Kat Osborn here.

If you would like to partner with us as we go forward with this exciting new vision, we would love to hear from you.

Pray, Open Your Door, Give