NFER was commissioned to undertake the research in light of the coalition's aim to make children’s centres focus "much more effectively on those families who need them the most". Coupled with the creation of the early intervention grant and the subsequent removal of ringfenced funding, the researchers investigated how centres are targeting their resources and what challenges they have come up against.
Case studies of six local authorities, which involved interviews with staff, visits to children’s centres and focus groups with staff, found that centre managers sometimes struggled to access data particularly from health services.
The report stated: "For children’s centres, local data, and data from midwives and health visitors were the most important. Live birth data is not always available to children’s centre staff, due to difficulties in gaining the relevant permissions from health services.
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