Capacity, a public interest body for children's services, analysed four high-achieving children's centres and found that they were focusing on tackling poverty as the main cause of poor health and under-achievement.
The children's centres were also offering a much broader range of activities than currently required by the Government, and were using parents and other local people to forge strong community links.
Margaret Lochrie, director of Capacity, said, 'You can't improve outcomes in the long term for children unless you support parents in reaching a better lifestyle. The children's centres need to support fundamental changes to family life. If family life is dominated by a lack of aspiration, high-quality nursery education is unlikely to be able to counter this.'
The report recommends training for children's centre staff on the impact of poverty and disadvantage on family life, and developing better systems for tracking users and evaluating outcomes.
The report also points out that some high-achieving children's centres are under pressure to attract a middle-class clientele who can afford to pay for services. It warns that the Department for Children, Schools and Familes should be evaulating and monitoring the capability of these children's centres to reach the families most in need.
Ms Lochrie added, 'Children's centres can be successful, and this success deserves continuing high-level resourcing. However, more important than resourcing is the need for the children's centre initiative to be more effectively linked to other anti-poverty measures. Without this, it may fail to deliver its policy goals.'
Children's centres - ensuring that families most in need benefit is at www.capacityltd.org.uk.