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Evaluation of Children's Centres in England (ECCE): The extent to which centres 'reach' eligible families, their neighbourhood characteristics and levels of use: Research report

Description:
This report forms part of the national Evaluation of Children's Centres in England (ECCE) research study. The overall research focuses on national samples of children's centres set up in the first two phases of the national programme, which particularly focused on the 30% most disadvantaged areas in England. The evaluation as a whole studies the management, organisation and programmes offered in the centres; it includes a longitudinal study of families and children who used these children's centres, and a cost-benefit analysis of the programme. A key objective of the Sure Start Children's Centre programme was that centres should serve areas, families and children with high social needs. This report addresses three main questions: 1. How were the local areas, served or ?reached' by each centre, defined? 2. What were the principal characteristics of these areas and how were they changing over time? 3. How well were centres serving these areas in terms of take-up or ?reach' and levels of use? This study draws on three sets of data, which in combination address these three main questions: 1. A survey of local authorities that contained one or more of the 128 centres from the national sample (Stage 1) (see Appendix A for the sampling process). 2. An analysis of a wide range of relevant national neighbourhood data for each centre (Stage 2). 3. A follow-up survey of the local authorities that processed children's centre data centrally, to estimate take-up and usage (Stage 3). The aim was to provide new and up-to-date information on the areas served by the children's centres and how well these were covered. The data collected will also contribute to the impact evaluation by providing robust information on the local context for each centre in the study. (author abstract)
Resource Type:
Reports & Papers
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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