Who uses services for school age children: evidence from the National Evaluation of the Children's Fund

The UK government has made integration of services for children a priority with the target being a better and more integrated provision of preventative services under the various schemes such as the Children's Fund and Sure Start. This article gathers evidence from the National Evaluation of the Children Fund with the aim of analysing the characteristics of users and non-users of services in order to see whether the target groups have been reached. The article provides evidence that the services have reached their target groups, although different services are used by different kinds of families, and is set within a wider context of the analysis of service provision and use.