Role of children’s centres

Children’s centres play a key role in improving outcomes for all young children and reducing inequalities in outcomes between the most disadvantaged children and the rest.

Children’s centres are aimed at parents and carers with children under five years old, but will work closely with other initiatives such as Extended Schools so that families have easy access to age appropriate services throughout childhood.

Children’s centres provide a range of services depending on local need and parental choice. They aim to offer information, advice and support to fathers, mothers and carers, as well as integrated childcare and early learning, health services, family support, parental outreach and employment advice. The idea of children’s centre is to focus on the local needs of the area they are in and particularly, to provide for children most in need, so resources will be targeted where there is most deprivation.

Members of the local community are strongly encouraged to play an active role in the development and delivery of services in children’s centres.  In particular, parents and carers views form an important element of children’s centres governance in Hampshire, represented through Parents’ Forums. Each children’s centre has a Partnership Board, consisting of representation from centre users (including the Parents’ Forum), service providers, local schools and voluntary/community members.