Sure Start children's centres

Guidance on delivering health services in children's centres - Department of Health website (July 2007)

Children's centres provide good quality integrated services to children under five and their families, in order to give every child the best possible start in life, and have a broad and lasting impact on children, their parents and the wider community.

The Sure Start children's centres programme is based on the concept that providing high-quality integrated services (health, education, family support and care), particularly in disadvantaged area, leads to positive effects for children, families and their communities, including:

• Improved educational outcomes for children and parents
• Enabling parents to study and work
• Helping lone parents to access work and training opportunities
• Reduced crime rates
• Improved health outcomes
• A reduction in child poverty

Children's centres are part of the wider Sure Start programme, which encompasses targeted services in disadvantaged areas, and universal services for all children aged 0 to 16.

What do they do?

Children's centres serve children and their families from the antenatal period, through until children start in reception or Year 1 at primary school. Each centre will offer the following services to families with babies and pre-school children:

• Good quality early learning integrated with full day care provision (a minimum of ten hours a day, five days a week, 48 weeks a year)
• Good quality teacher input to lead the development of learning within the centre
• Parental outreach
• Family support services
• A base for a childminder network
• Child and family health services, including antenatal services
• Support for children and parents with special needs
• Effective links with Jobcentre Plus, local training providers and further and higher education institutions

Children's centres act as a 'service hub' within the community, offering not only a base for childminder networks, but also a link to other daycare provision, out-of-school clubs, and extended schools, for example. Centres may also offer other services, such as training for parents (eg parenting classes, basic skills, English as an additional language), benefits advice, childcare services for older children, and toy libraries.

Most centres will be developed from Sure Start local programmes, neighbourhood nurseries, or early excellence centres, but local authorities are also being encouraged to think imaginatively about developing other forms of local provision. Although children's centres bring together locally available services and integrate management and staffing structures, they can be developed across more than one site.

Who is involved?

Children's centres require a wide range of staff to deliver integrated services. Not all staff will be employed directly by the centre, and the precise composition of each workforce will vary from one centre to another, but centre staff are likely to include:

• A centre manager
• Teachers - all children receiving care and early learning will have their activities planned and substantially led by a qualified teacher
• Nursery assistants or nurses, who will work closely with teachers and play a key role in helping children's development
• Family support staff (including some experienced in outreach work) whose work should be evidence-based and targeted to impact on outcomes for families; they will need to develop close links with social services, health services and voluntary organisations to ensure support for interventions
• Health professionals (such as health visitors and speech and language therapists)
• Childminders and a childminder network coordinator
• Jobcentre Plus staff the nature of their involvement will vary, but their role will be to provide parents with easier access to training and job opportunities

What is their structure and accountability?

Local authorities have strategic responsibility for the delivery of children's centres; working closely with other local partners, they will decide how and where centres will be offered.

The Sure Start Unit has an overview at national level. There are regional Sure Start teams within each of the nine regional government offices. These teams support and work strategically with local authorities to ensure delivery of the Sure Start agenda.

Where are they?

Initially, children's centres will be based in the 20% most disadvantaged wards (as measured by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister Index of Multiple Deprivation). Start-up guidance was first issued to local authorities in 2003, and by January 2005 there were 188 designated centres. All 524 Sure Start local programmes (introduced in waves between 1999 and 2003) are to become Sure Start children's centres by March 2006; and by March 2008, there will be 2500 children's centres, making Sure Start type services available to all children under five in the 20% most deprived wards.

However, the Government's ten-year strategy sets a clear goal to establish 3500 centres reaching all communities by 2010. Outside disadvantaged areas, local authorities will have more flexibility to determine how centres should develop to meet the needs of more affluent communities.