Integrating services for young children and their families

In an effort to improve outcomes for young children and their families, governments in all developed nations are making efforts to integrate services more effectively. This Policy Brief explores the rationale behind these efforts, what is known about their effectiveness, and the implications for policy makers and practitioners. In this Brief, integrating services refers to the process of building connections between services of different types so as to create a system that is more comprehensive and cohesive, as well as services being more accessible and more responsive. Why is this issue important? Over the past few decades, families have become more diverse, and the circumstances in which they are raising young children have changed significantly. As a result, parenting young children has become a more complex and more stressful task for many families, and there are more families with complex problems