The Public Accounts Committee report states: 'There is a risk that the2,000 people undergoing training as early years professionals and 800 ascentre leaders will not be sufficient for the centres required in thesecond and third phases of the programme.'
The report said children's centres were failing to reach the mostdisadvantaged families, citing data from last year's National AuditOffice report, which found that only one third of 30 children's centresvisited had 'proactively sought out hard to reach families'.
There is a danger that as children's centre are rolled out nationallythe focus on services for disadvantaged families will be lost, itadded.
Centres need more support in financial management. 'There areconsiderable differences between the sums that different centres spendfor each family using key services - for example averages of 7 to20 for each family seen by healthcare staff, and a lack ofunderstanding of what the unit costs of activities should be,' thereport said.
Uncertainty about funding had increased the difficulty of managing somecentres.
The report said the department was 'slow' to produce guidance onperformance measurement and monitoring. To download the report visit:www.parliament.uk/parliamentary_committees/committee_of_public_accounts.cfm.
