Nursery World - Research shows that children living near Sure Start centres gained higher GCSE grades

Children from low-income families who lived near a Sure Start centre did better at GCSE, according to new research from the Institute for Fiscal Studies.

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The research shows for the first time how Sure Start affected children’s educational outcomes up to the age of 16.

The study, funded by the Nuffield Foundation, analysed the effects of the expansion of the programme from 1999 to 2010.

This showed that access to a Sure Start centre improved all children’s educational outcomes through primary and secondary school, but was greater for children on free school meals, who gained three grades at GCSE.

This is equivalent to the difference, for example, between getting two Cs and three Ds and getting five Cs – and is six times larger than the effect on children not eligible for free school meals.

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