National Evaluation Report

The Impact of Sure Start Local Programmes on Three Years Olds and their Families

This second phase of the Impact Study of the National Evaluation of Sure Start (NESS) focuses on over 9000 3-year-olds and their families in 150 SSLP (Sure Start local programme) areas who were initially studied when the children were 9 months of age. These children/families were compared at three years of age with 1,879 children/families who participated in the first (i.e. 9 months) and second (i.e. 3 years) sweeps of the Millennium Cohort Study (MCS) and who resided in similar areas that did not have SSLPs. In order to compare cases from areas as similar to the NESS Impact Study
areas as possible the MCS sample was selected from the entire MCS cohort in England based on characteristics of the areas in which they lived.