This week, the government announced that there are to be five more 'early excellence centres' in England.

This brings the number of these centres to 21 - just four away from the target of 25 by the start of the next academic year.

But what are they, and how do they work?

The centres are the product of a government initiative to ensure that all pre-school children have access to high-quality, early years education.

Help for families

The centres are provided through a partnership between local education authorities and the private and voluntary sectors.

Centres can provide training for childcare workers

But the centres do not just provide education - they bring together learning with childcare and social services.

And they are designed to develop new services for children, parents, teachers and childcare workers.

In practice, this means that centres educate youngsters, as well as helping them and their families in other ways, such as by providing parenting skills courses, family literacy classes and health advice.

Each centre tailors its services to suit the community it serves - some of the needs of an inner-city estate differ from those of an isolated rural community.

On the White City estate in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, an early excellence centre is evolving.

In April, the Randolph Beresford Early Excellence Centre was born from a collaboration between the education, health and social services departments.

Through early excellence centres, parents can get easy access to child health services

It is based at the former Livingstone Nursery School, where the centre's nursery education is still provided, and incorporates the local social services facilities, the health centre, and play service, all of which are conveniently nearby.

Although the centre is still developing, the range of services it already provides is impressive - particularly to those new to the concept of early years education involving more than just a nursery school.

A drop-in facility for parents helps support those feeling isolated and experiencing problems, while a family support group, with a skilled family worker on hand, can help people with parenting skills and other issues.

A counselling service provides further help, and also works with specific groups and individuals, such as refugees.

Training for childcare workers

Health visitors who attend the centre give advice on children's health issues, and help refer parents and their children for further medical attention at the health centre.

Social services introduce parents needing some form of help or support to various groups run by the centre, and children in care can make use of its extended hours - it cares for children from 8am to 6pm.

Creche facilities are available at the centre, from where parents can also access childcare workers.

Training and professional development for childcare workers is provided, and the centre can even help parents get back into education.

The number of early excellence centres is growing

It runs taster sessions of courses - for example, one in computer skills - to boost people's confidence before they take the step of joining a college or education centre elsewhere.

Other services includes classes for parents with English as an additional language.

Centre head Mary West, who was head of the Livingstone Nursery School, said: "Many of the services are about raising parents' self-esteem, and getting them to feel good about they way they are coping with their under-fives.

"The centre can also help them with training and ways of getting into work.

"The connections with the health centre and social services make them much more accessible for many people, because there can still be a stigma attached to them, which can make it difficult for people to approach them.

Monitoring

"Because everything has been brought together, people feel they can approach us with ideas for further services, which is quite exciting."

Before the centre was set up, the nursery school was already operating some of the extra services, now provided by the centre, on a voluntary basis, which was why it was selected by the Department for Education and Employment (DfEE), according to Ms West.

She said it received �85,000 from the DfEE to set up. Its continued funding came from a number of sources - mainly the local authority.

Like other early excellence centres, its work was monitored and evaluated, so the government could see how initiatives are working, and pass on examples of good practice to other centres and early years education providers.

"All we had to do as a nursery school was educate three to five-year-olds, but we were doing a lot more on a voluntary basis. Now it has been brought together on a formal basis, and we are still developing.

"A lot of people in London haven't got extended family here, and the centre works as a subsitute for that."