Coordination, Fragmentation and Definitions of Need: The New Under Fives Initiative and Homeless Families

Abstract

SUMMARY. This article links together the broad coordination debate within the early years field, and how children's needs are conceptualised and defined. It does this in conjunction with an examination of the government's new Under Fives Initiative and the situation of the homeless families that some of the voluntary projects funded under the Initiative are intended to reach. For homeless families, mothers' more holistic perceptions of their children's needs are revealed as providing a good basis for coordination within and between sectors, as opposed to policy, agency and professional definitions of their needs. The latter are being forged and reformulated in the context of increasing service fragmentation, as well as short term government funding for the voluntary sector. Coherence in definitions of needs could provide a pragmatic response to such changes in service provision and funding.