Co-location of child and family services

Idea for Action Summary

The location of services influences their use by caregivers with babies and toddlers.

While it may be complex to place key services such as healthcare, childcare, healthy food options, parks, schools and employment opportunities all within close reach of where families live, a solution is to cluster them to reduce the number of trips caregivers have to make. This helps to reduce caregiver stress. It also helps cities streamline management costs, by allowing for sharing of space and some staff. Finally, co-locating services allows for better integration of different early childhood services and simplifies uptake of referrals, which improves early childhood development outcomes.

City governments can use data on where families with young children live, and on utilisation of services, to best inform the location and expansion of future services. They can also design infrastructure and regulations to attract services that are provided by private organisations in specific areas and encourage regular coordination at the level of frontline worker and managers between different service providers.