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More than a third of low-income families struggling to access 'lifeline' early years support

Families Birth to Threes Provision
A new report finds that 35 per cent of lower income parents with children from birth to age five have struggled to access child development and parenting support in children’s centres and family hubs across England.
The research by Action for Children highlights the struggle faced by low-income families to access parenting support, PHOTO Adobe Stock
The research by Action for Children highlights the struggle faced by low-income families to access parenting support, PHOTO Adobe Stock

The research by Action for Children is based upon a survey it carried out of 2,000 parents of children up to the age of five.

Despite the Government’s ‘levelling up’ target to improve learning outcomes at age five, low-income parents were found to be 40 per cent more likely to have problems accessing early years support than high-income families.

Overall, 42 per cent of parents of children under five, equivalent to 2.7 million in total if the figure is applied to parents nationally, had either struggled or been unable to access at least one parenting support service in the past five years, the research found. 

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