Research and policy
Research: The impact of Sure Start Local Programmes on five-year-olds and their families
13 Dec 2010
The Department for Education has published The Impact of Sure Start Local Programmes on five-year-olds and their families: Report of the longitudinal study of five-year-old children and their families. The report is part of an assessement of the impact of Sure Start Local Programmes (SSLP). It follows up on a randomly selected group of 7,000 children and families in 150 SSLPs who originally participated in the Impact Study of the National Evaluation of Sure Start (NESS). The study participants were assessed against Millennium Cohort Study (MCS) children and families with similar economic and demographic characteristics but with no access to SSLPs.
The report found SSLPs had eight significant effects:
- Children had lower BMIs
- Children experienced better physical health
- Mothers reported more cognitively stimulating home environments for their children
- Mothers reported a less chaotic home environment
- Mothers reported greater life satisfaction
- Mothers reported engaging in less harsh discipline
- Mothers reported more depressive symptoms
- Parents were less likely to visit their children’s schools for parent/teacher meetings or other visits.
The report found that there was no difference between NESS and MCS children in seven measures of cognitive and social development and four measures of socio-emotional development.
The full report is available from the Department for Education website.
