ABSTRACT
The scale of need outlined above, the immense cost in terms of the social and emotional consequences of not improving the well-being and the safety of our children at the early stages of their life, must dictate that addressing the above issues must be of the highest priority for both national and local government. To begin to effect this step change in services and to transform outcomes for all our children and young people the priority given to safeguarding must be brought about through ‘strong and effective leadership, early intervention, adequate resources, and quality performance management, inspection and support’ (Laming 2009:13). Children’s centres as the key arm for the delivery of services for children must stand at the very heart of reform for children and must be pivotal in creating services and opportunities that help prevent young children from becoming one of the above statistics.
