Speaking at the charity's conference on extended schools and children'scentres last week, chief executive of 4Children Anne Longfield saidletters had been sent out to schools this week outlining the plans.
Kevin Woods, assistant director of children's centres and extendedschools at the Department for Children, Schools and Families, confirmedto conference delegates that 65 per cent of schools are providing accessto extended services, and said the Government was on target to meet itscommitment of all schools providing access to services by 2010.
Mr Woods took questions from delegates about the problems faced byparents on benefits, in light of changes from next month when loneparents of children aged 12 and over will be expected to look forwork.
Mr Woods said that the Government had started Child Poverty Pilots innine areas, bringing Job Centre Plus workers into children's centres sothey are seen as part of the children's centre workforce (News, 19March).
He said that having revenue and customs advisors in children's centreshad been highly successful, and would enable parents to gain a betterunderstanding of how they could claim tax credits when going back towork.
On the issue of extending school governing bodies across children'scentres, Mr Woods said, 'Half of children's centres are on school sitesand the other half aren't. Locally, some decide to have sub-boards ortwo separate boards. We don't want to dictate how this should done, butwill look at best practice'.
He also said that the Government would legislate so that Ofsted would beable to inspect children's centres in a more integrated way, and notjust their childcare provision.