The conference, 'Coram Community Campus: A joined-up service for young children and families', considered the importance of supporting families via open-access, mainstream services. The Coram Community Campus was given as an innovative model in which agencies work in partnership on one site to offer a range of family support for the local community, including a homeless families centre, adoption service, parents centre and various nurseries.
The campus has been the subject of a research project funded by a grant from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation. Dr Valerie Wigfall and Professor Peter Moss from the Thomas Coram Research Unit, Institute of Education, presented their findings at the conference.
Caroline Slocock, joint divisional head of the DfEE Early Years and Childcare Unit, said, 'This is an area of increasing importance whatever Government comes to power on 7 June. It is important to focus on what the person using the services wants or needs.'
