ABSTRACT
The Elizabeth Fry project has, from the beginning, involved a variety of relationships between voluntary, statutory organisations, professional and volunteer workers, parents and children, the centre and the wider community. Families attend the Centre by referral, by the Probation Service, the Health Authority, Social Services and other organisations such as Home Start. Moreover, all family centres have to assimilate an attitude to evaluation in which it can no longer be acceptable to rely on professional subjectivity. The most common cause for referral has been ‘inadequate parenting skills’. The senior family worker finds that most of the children follow normal developmental stages but slowly. A nursery for children under 5 years old was included in the provision. More direct involvement of mothers with their children was planned through the introduction of a Toy Library and more formal structuring of joint mother/child activities.
