Sure Start: £2.5 billion a year on early years care was well spent

Early help for low income families with young children pays off in markedly better school results and lower healthcare costs later in life. What advocates of the UK’s shrunken Sure Start service claimed all along turns out to true: a new study by the Institute for Fiscal Studies finds that children eligible for free school meals (an indicator of low income households) who live close to Sure Start centres perform three grades better in GCSEs than those who don’t. Previous IFS research found that about a third of the upfront cost of Sure Start was offset by reduced need for hospital care. The scheme cost about £2.5 billion a year when fully funded in the first decade of this century but that funding has since fallen by two thirds and many of the centres – intended as one-stop-shops for healthcare and childcare for under 5s as well as support for their parents – have been closed. Expect the Sure Start debate to restart under the next government.