Information on services provided by Sure Start Children’s Centres to prevent or respond to violence against women is not available centrally. All Sure Start Children’s Centres offer as a minimum outreach services to families at risk of social exclusion; health and family support services, help with employment and training, advice and information for parents, and centre based activities for children and families. Family support services will be tailored to respond to needs in the local area and we encourage children's centres to ensure that parents or other family members experiencing domestic violence have access to appropriate support. Other family support services, such as structured parenting programmes, may contribute to prevention of domestic abuse. A focussed study ‘Sure Start Local Programmes and Domestic Abuse’ carried out as part of the National Evaluation of Sure Start, published in July 2007, found that Sure Start Local Programmes had developed a good awareness of issues of domestic violence and use their responsibility to address the needs of children at risk to develop innovative and effective methods of informing and supporting their communities around the dangers of domestic abuse. A summary and the full report is available on the Sure Start website at:
http://www.surestart.gov.uk/publications/?Document= 1927