Extended schools and children’s centres are failing to attract vulnerable families, inspectors said today.

Inspectors from Ofsted found that support in Sure Start children's centres for ethnic minority groups and in particular for children who use English as a second language was “sometimes patchy” and often local authority and children’s centres staff failed to understand who were the “hard-to-reach groups” in their community.

This left newly arrived refugee children without extended services as schools rarely used family support workers to consult parents who lacked fluent or written English.