Research conducted by parenting club Bounty on behalf of the Daycare Trust found that 53 per cent of the 2,260 mothers surveyed said that it would be harder to meet local families without children's centres and 35 per cent said that they would feel isolated.
A third said that it would be harder to see their midwife or health visitor and 29 per cent said they would miss out on advice about parenting skills. More than a quarter said that their child's development would suffer.
The survey revealed that 83 per cent of those questioned felt that councils should be required to spend all of their Sure Start funding on children's centres, rather than using it to plug funding gaps for other services.
It also found strong support for universal access to children's centres, with 80 per cent of mothers agreeing that their child would benefit from mixing with children from a range of different backgrounds.
The most popular services at children's centres were found to be stay-and-play sessions, which was named by almost two-thirds of mothers as their favourite, followed by health visitors at 53 per cent, rhyme/storytime at 34 per cent, and midwife support and advice with breast
feeding at 26 per cent.
Over half of mothers felt that local councils should be responsible for running children's centres, with 34 per cent preferring a charity or not-for-profit organisation. Only 3 per cent felt that they should be run by private, profit-making companies.
Of the mothers who use a children's centre, 15 per cent were aware that some services would be cut and 6 per cent thought that staff would be losing their jobs.
Anand Shukla (pictured), acting chief executive of the Daycare Trust, said, 'Our survey with Bounty mums shows how passionate parents are about Sure Start. They hugely value the services they can access, and see the benefits to their children's development.'
