CHILDREN’S centres in two deprived areas are not meeting the needs of families in the area, according to government inspectors.

Centres in Pokesdown and Southbourne have both been ranked as “Requires Improvement” following visits by Ofsted.

The centres, in Stourvale Road and Somerset Road, are run by the YMCA on behalf of Bournemouth council and are collectively known as South Bournemouth Children’s Centres.

The report said: “Overall the group is not regularly engaging the large majority of families from the most deprived areas, especially within Southbourne.

“The local authority is not ensuring that information from the Department of Work and Pensions, local police and health partners is presented in a timely and helpful format for the group to have a clear and specific identification of the needs of lone parents, families experiencing domestic violence or teenage parents.”

Cllr Blair Crawford, chief executive of the Bournemouth YMCA and cabinet member for adult social care, said: “We’ve got 200 very vulnerable families in Southbourne and we simply do not have enough resources to help all of these people.

“I certainly don’t see this report as a disaster, it is realistic and the centres do need to improve.

“We all need to work together In Pokesdown and Southbourne to raise our game.”

The Ofsted report highlighted that both areas are within of the top 70 per cent of the most deprived areas nationally and contain varying levels of deprivation.

Ofsted also revealed that parental responses gathered by the centres show comparatively lower levels of satisfaction for the support, information and advice around employment, general benefit advice and tax credit information.

Jane Portman, executive director of adult and children services at Bournemouth Borough Council, said: “The South Bournemouth Children’s Centres are commissioned to the YMCA and we will be working closely with them to address the issues identified in the recent Ofsted report.

“In particular, we are working hard to supply all of our children’s centres with the level of data now required by the new inspection framework.”