Parents 'struggling to access vital child services' across the West Midlands

The report by Action for Children also reveals that more than a quarter have no access to these ‘lifeline’ services at all.

The children's charity is urging the next prime minister to take urgent action to ensure every child in the region gets "the foundations they need to thrive".

In a survey, 62 per cent of the region’s parents with children aged from newborn to five told the charity they wanted more high-quality support available to help with parenting, with almost half fearing that being unable to access early years support would affect their own mental health.

Early years services, normally found in children’s centres and family hubs, include baby and toddler groups and parenting programmes.

These types of services also allow professionals to identify early more serious issues facing families.

More than a quarter of parents polled in the West Midlands said the main barrier to accessing support was that the services were simply not available locally, while parents who weren’t within walking distance of services cited the cost of petrol or public transport as their biggest challenge.

The charity is now calling on the next prime minister to ensure every family has access to key early years services in their area as a core part of the ‘levelling up’ agenda.

Rossanna Trudgian, head of campaigns and public affairs at Action for Children, said: “Every child deserves a chance at having the best start in life, that’s why we’re worried that disadvantaged children are being blocked from accessing the services that allow them to catch up and level up for when they start school.

“We know from our own frontline services that helping families as early as possible is more effective in the long run, so investing in high quality child support and parenting programmes in every community should be a core part of the ‘levelling-up’ agenda.

“We urge the next prime minister to take urgent action to deliver a long-term plan for early years services, with sustained investment in parenting support to ensure every child in the West Midlands and across the country gets the foundations they need to thrive.”

The report examined the likely number of referrals for further help that did not happen because parents missed out on parenting support, revealing 415,979 parents across England were likely to have missed out on further help.