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Evaluation of Children's Centres in England (ECCE): Strand 3: Parenting services in children's centres: Research brief

Description:
This is the sixth report from the Evaluation of Children's Centres in England (ECCE) project, which is a six-year study commissioned by the Department for Education (DfE), and undertaken by NatCen Social Research, the University of Oxford and Frontier Economics. ECCE aims to provide an in-depth understanding of children's centre services, including their effectiveness for children and families and an assessment of their economic cost in relation to different types of services. The DfE describes the core purpose of children's centres as: "The core purpose of children's centres is to improve outcomes for young children and their families and reduce inequalities between families in greatest need and their peers in: child development and school readiness; parenting aspirations and parenting skills; and child and family health and life chances" Sure Start Children's Centres Statutory Guidance (2013:7). The ECCE evaluation is producing a very detailed picture of the first two phases of children's centres in England - those which are aimed at the most disadvantaged areas. The ECCE evaluation aims to describe how effective centres are in terms of using different managerial approaches, and the delivery of services and activities to families. ECCE also considers the cost of delivering different types of services, and it will establish estimates of the impact of children's centres upon a range of child, parent, and family outcomes. The fieldwork reported here presents one element of a multi-component longitudinal evaluation, which utilises a nested design, with a sample of children's centres participating in five different strands of work. The findings presented here are from the second wave of detailed fieldwork regarding the organisation and delivery of children's centre services for parents. It was deemed important to capture not only the views of the members of staff, but also of the parents who were attending the centres to obtain a broader picture of centre provision. Specifically, this study of parenting services aimed to collect information on: the provision for parenting and services for parents across the sample; staff perceptions on family needs; the range of parenting programmes delivered by a named children's centre and any associated centres within their cluster; how children's centres manage their services; staff perceptions of the benefits of services for parents and children; and parental views of children's centre services. (author abstract)
Resource Type:
Fact Sheets & Briefs
Country:
United Kingdom; England

Related resources include summaries, versions, measures (instruments), or other resources in which the current document plays a part. Research products funded by the Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation are related to their project records.

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