Early Childhood Interventions (ECI) offering disadvantaged children preschool and family support services in the US show long-lasting health impacts. Can these benefits hold when these programs are offered to all children in contexts with universal healthcare? We evaluate the short- and medium-term health impacts of Sure Start, a universal integrated ECI in England, exploiting its 11-year rollout and administrative hospitalizations data. One additional Sure Start centre per thousand age-eligible children increases hospitalizations by 10% at age 1, but reduces them by 8-9% across ages 11-15. Impacts are concentrated in disadvantaged areas and likely driven by both health and non-health services.
Authors
Sarah Cattan
Sarah is an Associate Director in the Education and Skills sector at the IFS, holding a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship.
Gabriella Conti
Gabriella is a Research Fellow of the IFS and a Professor of Economics in the Department of Economics and in the Department of Social Science at UCL.
Christine Farquharson
Christine's research examines inequalities in children's education and health, especially in the early education and childcare sector.
Rita Ginja
Rita is an IFS Research Associate, an Associate Professor at the University of Bergen and a Research Associate at the Uppsala University.
Maud Pecher
More from IFS
Understand this issue
Policy analysis
Academic research
