The National Council for Voluntary Childcare Organisations (NCVCCO) were commissioned to examine the developments of Phase 1 (August 2004 to March 2006) children’s centres in rural areas and to demonstrate the part they play in improving access to services for the most disadvantaged children under 5 and their families living in rural areas. 

The report highlighted the Sure Start Unit’s ‘rural uplift’ funding which was welcomed by the Commission, however, the overarching message from the research is that the development of children’s centres in rural areas provides clear evidence that equality is not achieved by providing the same service for everyone. 

Rural proofing needs to be sensitive to the way that rurality combines with other types of disadvantage to compound the lack of opportunity and service access experienced by rural children and their families. 

An executive summary of the report is being prepared for publication.

In 2004 the Countryside Agency commissioned a small piece of research to monitor the development of extended schools in eleven local authority areas and to identity examples of good practice.  The results of the research were received by the Commission in 2005.  8% of the sample of 215 schools offered some form of service covering the five components of the core extended schools offer at that time, but no school in the sample provided 8am to 6 pm childcare all year round. 

The top three barriers to developing extended schools cited by rural schools were: financial support, staff issues and transport.  Management capacity, premises, parental demand, funding and sustainability were also identified as challenges to the successful delivery of extended schools services.