Five separate Home-Start charities in Norfolk providing family support services were individually funded but the local funding body, NCC, would only fund one organization and required consolidated reporting. The charities began collaborating in 2014-15 to secure funding but NCC withdrew funding in 2017. Trustees chose to merge the charities into a single organization, Home-Start Norfolk. A CEO was hired in late 2016 to lead the merger implementation which was completed by the April 1, 2017 deadline through staff restructuring, legal processes, and merging systems and procedures, though integration remained ongoing. The document outlines lessons learned around the long planning process, need for strong leadership, importance of detailed plans, challenges of merging organizations, and unforeseen post-

1. Helping children, changing lives
Home-Start Norfolk
Lessons from our merger

2. Home-Start History
• Home-Start has been in
Norfolk for almost 20 years
• Provide family support
services to children under 5
and their families
• 5 separate and competing
charities, all individually
funded across Norfolk
• Sits under the umbrella of
Home-Start UK
Home-Start Norfolk
Helping children,
changing lives

3. Dating and Negotiation
• NCC changed funding practice and
stated they would only fund one
Home-Start and required one set of
reports.
• Formed a collaboration in 2014/15 to
continue to secure funding from NCC
• Funding from NCC withdrawn from
1st April 2017
Home-Start Norfolk
Helping children,
changing lives

4. Dating and Negotiation
• Continued collaboration
• Merger
• Closure
Home-Start Norfolk
Helping children,
changing lives

5. Decision Making
• Trustees of all schemes
chose a merger model via the
collaboration Board
• Talks began in 2015-16
• Plans were laid to merge
• CEO recruited late 2016 and
started January 2017
• Merger to be completed by 1st
April 2017
Home-Start Norfolk
Helping children,
changing lives

6. Planning and Legal
• Plans initially made by Board via
monthly meetings – no formal
plans created
• CEO created merger
implementation plan, HR plan,
merger checklists, due diligence
checklists to project manage the
merger
• Legal advice sought through pro
bono support
• Decisions on the best merger
model took time to make
Home-Start Norfolk
Helping children,
changing lives

7. Implementation
• Detailed plans followed
• Clear project management
• Full time role
• TUPE transfer – 1st March
• Staff restructure on ETO
grounds concluded 31st
March
• Merger WAS completed by 1st
April 2017
• Implementation ongoing – still
merging systems and
processes
Home-Start Norfolk
Helping children,
changing lives

8. Lessons Learned
• Planning phase too long –
implementation too short
• Requires a dedicated leader – this
can’t be done by committee
• Clear and detailed plans
• How to merge – so many options
• Staff team unsettled
• Post-merger issues you didn’t know
existed!
• Merging is more than just joining
together!
• Change for all - it’s a new organisation
Home-Start Norfolk
Helping children,
changing lives