The Insitute of Fiscal Studies has published research looking at the health impacts of Sure Start, which has found that an additional Sure Start centre per thousand children prevented around 2,900 hospitalisations per year at age 5, and more thanm13,150 hospitalisations each year for 11- to 15-year-olds.

Commenting, Early Years Alliance chief executive, Neil Leitch, said:

“The fact that the Sure Start programme is still paying dividends for children into their teenage years is yet more confirmation of what we already know – that investing in young children is not only the right thing to do, it is also a sound financial decision. 

“Recent governments have shamefully let down children and families by not only cutting Sure Start services which reduce hospitalisations, and do much more good besides, but also by allowing funding for under-five education to dwindle to far less than the cost of delivering it. 

“If the government genuinely cares about our national finances, it should have no hesitation in making a significant investment into early childhood development, since the high-quality early years provision all children deserve will more than pay for itself in the years to come.”