Study title

Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.Sure Start represents a unique approach to early intervention for children 0-4, their families, and communities. Rather than providing a specific service, the Sure Start initiative represents an effort to change existing services. This is to be achieved by reshaping, enhancing, adding value, and by increasing co-ordination. In light of this model, three core questions need to guide the overall evaluation of Sure Start:1. Do existing services change? (How and, if so, for which populations and under what conditions?)2. Are delivered services improved? (How, and if so, for which populations and under what conditions?)3. Do children, and families benefit? (How, and if so, for which populations and under what conditions?)The National Evaluation of Sure Start (NESS) study concerns the third question, addressing it through a longitudinal study comparing children and families in similar areas receiving and not receiving Sure Start programmes. Over time, NESS has followed up 7-year-olds and their families in 150 Sure Start Local Programme (SSLP) areas who were initially studied when the children were 9 months, 3 and 5 years old. The 7-year-old study followed up a randomly selected subset of the children and families previously studied at younger ages. The non-Sure Start children and families are a subset of those in the Millennium Cohort Study (available from the UK Data Archive under GN 33359), though these respondents are not included in this dataset. Further information about the NESS project is available from the documentation and the Birkbeck, University of London NESS project webpage. For the second edition (December 2012), data and documentation from the NESS surveys of 5- and 7-year-olds and their families were added to the study.Main Topics:A variety of child, family and community-level topics were examined over time, including: child characteristics, e.g. age, gender,...