Veterans of the last Labour government have called on Keir Starmer to put a new Sure Start-style programme at the heart of his election manifesto after research showed its transformational impact on poor children.
Gordon Brown, the former prime minister who first announced the Sure Start initiative as Labour chancellor in 1998, was among those urging the opposition leader to prioritise the early years last night.
He said: “The wilful destruction of Sure Start and the reductions of children’s benefits after 2010 has set back opportunities for millions of children’s futures. That’s why our country desperately needs a new Sure Start.”
Three former Labour education secretaries added their voices, among them David Blunkett, who said a reinvention of the policy was “crucial to the wellbeing of so many young people in the years to come”.
The pioneering Sure Start programme, which set up “one-stop shops” in disadvantaged areas, bringing early years, health and family support services under a single roof, is widely regarded as one of New Labour’s most popular and successful policies.
Now, new research by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) has shown for the first time how the programme generated significant improvements in the academic attainment of children from low-income backgrounds years later.
Analysis published on Tuesday found that children who were eligible for free school meals and had access to a Sure Start centre boosted their GCSE results by three grades – equivalent to the difference between getting two Cs and three Ds and getting five Cs – relative to similarly poor children who were not able to access Sure Start.
The effect was most pronounced among children who benefited from Sure Start centres set up early in the programme, before 2003, which had bigger budgets and more successful outreach programmes, the IFS research found.
It also found that Sure Start increased the prevalence of support for special educational needs (SEN) among younger children, as problems were picked up and addressed early on, reducing the need for education, health and care plans later.
“These results tell us in detail what most parents already know,” said Brown, “that if you provide a supportive environment to children in their early years and invest in their futures, the results will be life-transforming. I was determined after 1997 to create Sure Start to do just that.”
Alan Johnson, who served as Labour education secretary from 2006 to 2007, said: “The creation of Sure Start was one element of Labour’s plan to eradicate child poverty by 2020 which we were on course to achieve before losing the 2010 election.
“We can’t recreate the past but we know the crucial importance of early intervention and this report emphasises the need to restore it to the forefront of Labour’s thinking whether it be on education or social services.”
Estelle Morris, who served in the role between 2001 and 2002, said the IFS results showed the importance of long-term investment and constant evaluation. “So often, policy-makers discard promising initiatives to save money and the whole cycle has to start again.
“Why would anyone want to waste time and resources constantly re-inventing the wheel when there is good strong evidence about what works? Sure Start has made a real difference not only to children’s lives but to their families and wider community.”
Lord Blunkett, education secretary from 1997 to 2001, added: “Sure Start was always one of those programmes that the public yearned for, but politicians rarely deliver. Namely, a long-term policy without short-term electoral gain, but transformational outcomes many years down the line.
“It is why I was so proud to be part of initiating the programme, and remain convinced that its reinvention is crucial to the wellbeing of so many young people in the years to come.”
Childcare and early years is expected to be a key battleground in the run-up to a general election. While the Conservatives have prioritised the roll-out of their expanded free childcare offer to help parents return to work, many in the sector are concerned about the decline in toddler development post-Covid.
The shadow education secretary, Bridget Phillipson, has said that childcare reform will be her first priority, but although she is deeply proud of Sure Start she does not believe that simply winding back the clock will give children the better future they deserve.
At its peak, total spending on Sure Start was about £2.5bn a year in today’s prices but spending has since fallen by more than two-thirds and many centres have been closed or scaled back. The government’s new family hubs programme has £300m funding to cover 2022–25 in just 75 local authorities.
The IFS findings build on earlier research about the impact of Sure Start on future health, which found that almost a third of the upfront cost of the programme was offset by savings to the NHS through reduced hospitalisations.
On education, researchers found that access to a Sure Start centre improved children’s academic performance through primary and secondary school but the impact was most pronounced among low-income children and children from minority-ethnic backgrounds.
When considering all children – rather than just those from low-income backgrounds – all pupils who lived near and had access to a centre for their first five years performed 0.8 grades better at GCSE than those further away. For children eligible for free school meals, that increased to three grades.
Nick Ridpath, research economist at the IFS and co-author of the report, said: “Sure Start generated substantial benefits for disadvantaged children throughout their education, helping to close the disadvantage gap in attainment.
“Centres with more resources generated much larger benefits, partly because the extra funding allowed them to reach out to families who were less likely to engage with Sure Start but who stood to benefit a lot. The return on investment in integrated early-years services that are given the resources to reach those most in need can be very large.”
Neil Leitch, CEO of the Early Years Alliance, said: “This study makes clear just how vital children’s centres are, not just as a places where families can go for advice and guidance, but also as a source of vital learning opportunities that support children’s long-term development and, as this research shows, improve their life chances.
“While the government’s new programme of family hubs is undoubtedly welcome, with the current rollout limited to 75 local authorities, it’s very difficult to see how the plans will compensate for the sheer scale of children’s centre closures that have taken place over recent years.”
A Labour spokesperson said: “The last Labour government transformed young lives, and if we’re privileged to form the next government, Keir Starmer’s changed Labour party will transform lives again.
“Our mission-focused Labour government will embark on a decade of national renewal, with reducing child poverty and expanding opportunity at its heart. With Labour, children will be the healthiest and happiest generation ever.”
A Department for Education spokesperson said expenditure on Sure Start at its peak would represent a quarter of current overall spending on early years thanks to the government’s huge investment in expanding childcare.
“We continue to invest in family hubs, which now cover half of all upper-tier local authorities and provide a number of advantages over the Sure Start model, including access to support up to when children turn 19 or 25 if they have special educational needs or disabilities, a wider range of support and an evidence-led focus on the crucial 1,001 days of a child’s life.”
