Nursery World - Study finds Sure Start benefitted children’s long-term health

New research from the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) reveals that children who accessed Sure Start children’s centres in their early years were far less likely to be hospitalised later on in life.

The IFS found that Sure Start centre usage reduced childhood hospitalisations, PHOTO Adobe Stock

The programme was found to deliver ‘long-lasting’ health benefits for children through to their teenage years.

The savings from reduced hospitalisations up to age 15 offset around 31 per cent of spending on Sure Start.

Funded by the Nuffield Foundation, the research is the first evidence of how the Sure Start programme affected children’s long-term health.

Focusing on the 2000s, when the programme was expanding, the research finds Sure Start:

The benefits for child health were likely due to stronger immune systems (which prevent infections in later childhood), less risky environments (reducing poisonings and accidents), improved mental health and potentially better behaviour during adolescence, states the report, which found no evidence that Sure Start affected mothers’ employment.

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