Is a full change of dampers and springs something that a relative novice could do at home?

Or would I be better off employing the services of a professional?

It is, although it depends on how competent you are with a spanner! Give yourself plenty of time. Do you have a mate who can give a hand if you get stuck?

If you're not confident I'd think about going To a garage.

http://noahlh.com/car/coilover_howto/ might be worth a look, slightly different platform to the Fabia (the strut tops are different for a start) but should be pretty similar. It should be quite doable, a mate of mine has had his Bora apart a few times to strip and clean his coilovers (bit of a scene queen like that ) as long as you take your time. I've never done it due to lack of area to work, but I don't see the guide being that difficult to follow...

Well that doesn't look any more complicated than i expected

unbolt everything at the bottom, unbolt from the top, remove, replace, bolt to the top, bolt to the bottom.

I think tools and stands would be my down fall though.

Might be wise to hand the job over to (or at the very least get help from) my tame mechanic - some says he's my cousin, all i know is he's a VW master tech who works for family rates

Rears are a doddle.

Fronts require a little persuasion to get the struts out of the hubs; you'll need something to spread the hub (i used a flat-head srewdriver bit that i twisted 90 degrees with a ratchet) and an M14 (I think) spline bit for the hub bolt.

Also, you'll need spring compressors if you plan on re-using your top bearings.

Give it a go, it honestly is an easy job if you know which end of the spanner to hold...