Poor parents struggle to access children's centres, warns charity
Joe Lepper
Friday, September 6, 2013
Disadvantaged families are struggling to access children's centre services due to cuts from early intervention budgets, the Children's Society has warned.
In its latest report, Breaking Barriers, the charity is calling for ministers to pledge no further cuts to the Early Intervention Grant, which pays for centres. The charity also wants to see children’s centre money ringfenced.
By 2015, the Early Intervention Grant will be £1.5bn, half the money available in 2010. Previous research has showed that hundreds of children's centres have had to close over the past three years, while others have had to start charging for services due to cuts in their grant levels.
The report includes a survey of 170 parents who live in areas of deprivation and found that many are already struggling to access support.
One in four said they found it difficult to access their local children’s centre. A common response was that centres were not within “pram-pushing” distance. A third said they faced travel costs to reach a centre, which was a particular barrier for poor families in rural areas.
Those who do not speak English as a first language are the group least likely to access services. Of those interviewed, 87 per cent were not aware of their local children’s centre services.
Staff said providing support in different languages was difficult due to the cost involved.
Other recommendations made by the charity include piloting birth registration at children’s centres to raise awareness of services. Health services also need to share more information with children’s centres, particularly when children are born.
Children’s centre staff told researchers they struggled to target the most disadvantaged families in their local area due to poor information sharing from other services.
The Children’s Society’s chief executive Matthew Reed said: “Children’s centres do vital work supporting some of this country’s most vulnerable families. Yet our report outlines deeply concerning funding cuts and a catalogue of barriers that are preventing too many of the families that need them most from using these crucial services.
“We know that prevention now is better than struggling with these problems down the line, and can be cheaper in the long run.”
The report is also calling for all councils to carry out a review of their children’s centre locations to ensure they are in areas where they can be easily accessed by disadvantaged families.
It references 4Children’s 2012 survey of children’s centre staff, which found many are struggling to fund work to target the most disadvantaged families, such as hiring outreach workers.
This survey found that staff at six out of 10 centres had seen their budgets cut and half said their finances were less sustainable. Access for poorest families was also being undermined by a fifth of centres saying they had to charge for services that were formerly free.
In January, it emerged that 400 children’s centres had closed between 2010 and 2012, and half no longer provided onsite childcare.
On Wednesday, leading council officials told members of the House of Commons Education Committee that universal access to children’s centre services will end in many areas due to government cutbacks.