Nursery World - Lack of awareness hampers access to children's centres

Misconceptions and a lack of awareness about the services on offer are the main factors keeping more families from accessing their local children's centre, a research company has found.

Coda Consultants, which has carried out research for more than 30 children's centres over the past year among both users and non-users of centres, claims that changes made to Government policies over the years have left many families confused over what Sure Start is and who is able to benefit from children's centre services.

In an interview with Nursery World, William Cooper, director at Coda Consultants, said that common findings had emerged from interviews with non-users of children's centres in areas such as Dorset, Hertfordshire, Warwickshire, the Midlands and London.

He said, 'For more than a third of parents we have spoken to in different regional areas, we have found that the main issue has been lack of awareness - often parents are confused about what the core offer of a children's centre is. One popular misconception is that children's centres only offer daycare, or that they are only for disadvantaged families.

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