Pilots for the Child Development Grant (News, 19 March 2008) are to start in ten local authorities in the autumn and run until March 2011, when an evaluation will be published.
Low-income parents will receive a one-off payment of £200 as long as they take up services offered by children's centres.
A study published on the British Medical Journal website suggests that in order for the grants to be beneficial, services offered will have to be of high quality and incentives may need to be increased to bring about more complex behaviour change.
It examines conditional cash transfer schemes across Latin America, which the Child Development Grant is modelled on, and which offer disadvantaged families money to attend services such as parenting seminars or infant health check-ups.
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