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On 19 December 2006, the National Audit Office (NAO) published a report (Sure Start Children’s Centres (HC 104 2006-2007)) which finds that the centres are valued by most of the families who use them. The families reached by children’s centres are some of the most disadvantaged, though the early signs are that more still needs to be done to reach and support some of the most excluded groups. The costs of centres, and of activities in centres, vary widely, and local authorities and centres that the NAO visited needed to understand their costs better and assess whether they were using their funds cost-effectively. The NAO found that there was no close relationship between spending by centres and the number of children and families using key services.
The report makes recommendations to improve the delivery of services within the centres. These include projects to reach identified disadvantaged groups; training staff in financial expertise and new ways of working; centres and local authorities establishing the cost of activities; enhancing relationships with partner agencies; and better local monitoring to secure value for money. The report also contains details of a model used by one local authority to allocate resources, and gives examples of good practice in reaching families with the highest needs, forming effective partnerships and monitoring performance.
The report can be viewed on the NAO website