‘One-stop shopping’: Meeting diverse family needs in the inner city?

Abstract

SUMMARY The term ‘one-stop-shop’ has become absorbed into everyday language in Britain, used to describe a particular form of social organisation, but what exactly do we mean by ‘one-stop-shopping’ for family support? How does the concept fit within the context of mainstream service provision and can this model of multi-agency practice make a real difference in terms of the families it reaches and the quality of support it provides? This paper examines the Coram Community Campus, an innovative model of service provision for young children and families, located on a site in a multi-ethnic area of Inner London. The Campus was set up to provide a ‘one-stop-shop’ for local parents and their young children, bringing together onto one site a range of services which offer care, education, support and other facilities. The Campus has been evaluated during its first two years. The paper presents some of the findings of the research, drawing on case study material and interview based work with families who use the services, in order to shed light on the ways in which this model of multi-agency working is endeavouring to meet diverse family needs.