The Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Bill will enshrine children's centres in law. It includes plans for all centres to have governing bodies.
Dwynwen Stepien, director of the National Children's Bureau's early Childhood Unit, said: "It is inappropriate to impose one system of governing bodies when it is clear that local commissioning must be relevant to partners."
She added that centres run by voluntary organisations may have their own arrangements undermined, as they already have governance and commissioning arrangements in place with local service providers and community members as part of the commissioning process.
John Harris, chair of the Association of Directors of Children's Services Families, Communities and Young People Policy Committee, said: "It will be difficult for a centrally-imposed format to reflect the variety of partners and stakeholders involved in running children's centres at a local level. Such structures are best agreed locally in order to build on the local relationships already in place."
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