Children’s Centres are “coming of age”, now supporting
as many as one million families across the country,
and becoming a cornerstone for early intervention and
prevention within our communities. That’s the underlying
message that emerges from the results of 4Children’s
2013 Census of Children’s Centres.
This is the third annual national-level Census of Children’s
Centres, which seeks to build a greater understanding of
how they are operating, their reach and activities and the
changes taking place. We wanted to find out about the
services that Centres were offering, the challenges that
local authorities and Centre Managers face and how they
are responding. Importantly, at a time of major budget
reductions we wanted to discover what effect this is having
on services and support for children and families.