Service users as gatekeepers in Children's Centres

Children's Centres are the latest in a line of initiatives designed to provide neighbourhood-based family support. These are part of a spectrum of preventive services from Universalist (primary prevention) to permanence and rehabilitative work (quaternary). High levels of need confronted by tertiary Child Care Social Work and Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services, mean that the contribution of these centres at secondary level and responsiveness to its higher-level needs, have become particularly important. At the same time, the involvement and perspectives of service users have become equally important in the evaluation and development of centres. Users, though, can help create the culture and expectations in centres just through the processes of interaction developed over time. However, although users have evaluated services for their openness, we know little about the part played by service users themselves – particularly through their informal interactions and culture – in the responsiveness of centres to higher-need families for whom secondary level prevention is appropriate. This paper focuses on the part played by service users as gatekeepers showing they can play an important, and sometimes limiting, part in the responsiveness of centres. The theoretical and practical implications of this for prevention are discussed.