Report highlights the diversity of provision in children's centres in deprived areas

Forty-six different services and programmes were available, with 82 per cent of centres providing early education and childcare.

Seven in ten children's centres are managed by local authorities.

The first report from the Evaluation of Children's Centres in England (ECCE) draws on a survey and phone interviews with children's centre leaders in Phase 1 and 2 centres. More than 500 children's centre leaders in deprived areas took part in the survey between July and September last year and some of them will be approached next year to monitor any changes.

The report highlights the diversity of provision and the rapidly changing environment for children's centres. The six-year evaluation by the National Centre for Social Research (NatCen), the University of Oxford and Frontier Economics was commissioned by the Department for Education.

Dr Emily Tanner, senior research director at NatCen Social Research and one of the report's authors, said that the aim of the first stage of the research was to provide a profile of children's centre provision in deprived areas, including factors such as management, location, staffing, the services they provide and how they are financed.

'As well as providing a snapshot of provision at the start of this study, this report leads on to subsequent stages of the evaluation which will ultimately tell us about the impact of children's centre services on children and their families.'

She added, 'A small number of centres are providing valuable information on costs of service provision. Ultimately, the evaluation will provide an in-depth understanding of children's centre services, including their effectiveness and cost in relation to different kinds of management and delivery.'

The team has also carried out interviews with nearly 6,000 families who have young children attending the centres. Meanwhile, other members of the research team at Oxford University and Frontier Economics have been visiting centres to find out more about how services are delivered and their cost. In-depth research is being carried out by Professor Kathy Sylva at Oxford University and her team, who are visiting 120 centres and families, and who will also carry out follow-up visits to assess children's language, cognitive development and social and emotional development.

Interim reports will be published on how centres are changing, and a final report in 2015 will examine the impact of children's centres for children at 36 months and their families, with a cost-benefit analysis.

• Evaluation of Children's Centres in England (ECCE) Strand 1: First survey of children's centre leaders in the most deprived areas

KEY FINDINGS

Management

• 58 per cent of leaders manage one centre, 35 per cent two or more centres, and 7 per cent more than four (figures rounded up).

• 81 per cent of centres were managed by a local authority, school or both.

• 97 per cent of centres had a main site.

• Most centres were close to other services, such as schools (90 per cent), centre-based childcare and early education (89 per cent), a park or playground (89 per cent) and health centre (88 per cent).

• 50 per cent of centres had developed from Sure Start Local Programmes, others from community centres (29 per cent), Neighbourhood Nurseries (14 per cent), and local authority maintained nursery schools (13 per cent). Around a quarter of centres were completely new.

Services

• Parent and family support services or groups (93 per cent)

• Breast-feeding support (91 per cent).

• Evidence-based parenting programmes (85 per cent).

• Health visitor clinic (82 per cent).

• Early learning and childcare (82 per cent).

Staff

• Average annual salary £15-£20,000; 3 per cent paid more than £40,000.

• Half of staff had NVQ Level 3 or equivalent, with 63 per cent of leaders holding the National Professional Qualification for Integrated Centre Leadership.

• Just under half of centres had an EYP and at least one member of staff in 77 per cent of centres was a qualified teacher.

Users

• Average number of users over three months was 337, with some centres reporting up to 4,000.

• 28 per cent of families had used only the childcare and early years services during the past month.