<p>British Journal of Social Work Vol. 42 no. 2 (Mar 2012), p. 265-282</p> <p>Available in library.&nbsp; See journal shelves.</p> <p>Available online.</p>

The preventive approach developed in child-care policy in recent years is apparent in the development of children's centres. While prevention as a concept is well known, excavation of the complex mechanisms by which service users journey from one level to the next remains relatively undeveloped. The preventive approach in childcare has included key elements, including notions such as family support, social exclusion, child well-being, information sharing and multi-professional/agency interventions. However, the very high thresholds operated by mainstream services such as children's social care mean that children's centres are a significant resource for high-need vulnerable families who fall below this threshold, as well as those whose needs are met by more Universalist services. Understanding the mechanisms by which preventive approaches respond to needs is of considerable significance if those responses are to be adequate for high-need families. This paper focuses on the approach of children's centre managers, their preventive orientation, to understand its place in the mechanisms of prevention and finding considerable divergence in their views about the focus for service provision. This has considerable implications in practice for, in particular, higher-need families, and theoretically in our understanding of prevention. These implications are discussed.