The Impact Of Sure Start Local Programmes On Three Year Olds And Their Families

"A principal goal of Sure Start Local Programmes (SSLPs) has been to enhance the life chances of young children and their families by improving services in areas of high deprivation. SSLPs were set up between 1999 and 2003 and were experimental in the sense of trying out different ways of working with deprived communities where provision had been poor for years ... 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 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)"--P. iv.