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.
'Often the families we speak to have no idea about the services that children's centres run for parents, such as adult education, and they are surprised when they hear about them. Outreach is key to raising awareness, but children's centres often do not have the resources to do enough work in this area.'
Mr Cooper also disputed claims made by Prime Minister David Cameron last August that Sure Start had been hijacked by 'sharp elbowed' middle class families who 'get all the services'.
'In some areas there is less need and it may be that there are a lot of middle class families using the services,' he said.
'However, we have not found any evidence that the middle-classes are taking over Sure Start and stopping important work being done with disadvantaged families. Our research shows that people in need are losing out because of this lack of awareness.'
He added, 'We also ask families what services they would like children's centres to offer, and there is huge demand for holiday childcare for children who are older than five. Finding holiday childcare seems to be the biggest challenge for a lot of parents.'
Coda Consultants' research with users of children's centres explored what impact they had had on the lives of parents and children.
Mr Cooper said, 'We have found there can be a transformational effect. Some parents have said that they were destitute and that their children's centres exposed them to things that they would never have done otherwise. Now they have achieved things like getting qualifications or entering employment, and these are parents who would never have considered doing these things before - in some cases, these were people who hardly left their homes before.'
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