Outreach helping poor families

Parents interviewed for the Department for Children, Schools and Families report, Outreach to Children and Families: A Scoping Study, were positive about their experiences with outreach workers.

The encouragement they offered to parents to seek help for health, school and childcare problems for the first time was highlighted by many of those interviewed.

One mother said that she would not have sought help for her depression without the support of her outreach worker.

Another said the outreach team had encouraged her to attend parents' evenings and other school activities. The report concluded: "A number believe that the experience of family outreach has set their lives on an entirely new track."

Anne Longfield, chief executive of 4Children, said: "This is further evidence that outreach work can really help those families who need support the most.

"We need to ensure that health visitors, social workers and schools are working well together through children's centres and extended schools to offer such support."

The study also found that although children's centres and extended schools have a key role in addressing child poverty, they need more help to target families in need. According to the report, greater support and training is needed to help outreach workers analyse demographic information and population trends.

In March, the Conservatives said they would replace Sure Start outreach workers with health visitors.