New research has shown that an early years support programme for families improved GCSE results and reduced the need for additional support for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).
The Institute for Fiscal Studies reports that the Sure Start programme – which ran from 1999 to 2010 as a network of ‘one stop shops’ for services for families with children under the age of five – generated big improvements in the educational performance of children, particularly those from low-income families or ethnic minority backgrounds.
Living near a centre increased performance at GCSE by three grades for children eligible for free school meals – equivalent to getting five grade Cs rather than two Cs and three Ds.
And, while Sure Start increased the prevalence of support for SEND at young ages, it reduced it at adolescence, such that at age 16, the need for education, health and care plans (EHCPs) decreased by 9 per cent – or more than 1,000 children per year.
Ruth Maisey, an Education Programme Head at the Nuffield Foundation charity, which funded the research, said: “Local authorities and schools are experiencing significant problems with securing sufficient special educational needs provision to meet families’ rising needs.
“It will be important to consider how early provision of integrated services might form part of the solution, given the demonstrable effect of Sure Start in reducing the need for EHCPs.”