Austerity cuts are eroding benefits of Sure Start children’s centres

A study commissioned by the UK government has concluded that children’s centres set up to support parents of young children can improve the mental health of mothers and functioning of families but that these benefits are being eroded by cuts.

Findings from the study were quietly published with a mass of other documents just before Christmas by the Department for Education.1

The children’s centres were introduced under the last Labour government’s Sure Start programme to provide a range of services for parents and young children in deprived areas. However, ringfenced funding was removed by the coalition government’s austerity budget in 2010, so some centres have been closed, and others have seen their services cut by cash strapped local authorities.2

Researchers at the University of Oxford analysed annual interviews conducted with 2608 families registered with 117 Sure Start centres between 2012 and 2014 to assess the effect of cuts at some of the centres. They found that use of the centres was associated with positive effects on family functioning and home learning environments, that families experienced a less chaotic home life, and that relations between parents and children improved. Mothers using the centres showed improved mental health, and children exhibited greater social skills. These positive effects were greater in centres that didn’t experience cuts to staff and services.

The report concluded that the children’s centres “have the potential to promote better outcomes for families and to a lesser extent, for children and mothers” and seem to be targeting high need families successfully.

“Direct effects on children are more likely to happen if children are engaged in specific services provided by children’s centres (such as high quality education and care),” the report said. “In addition, centres that experienced budget increases and service expansion in 2011-2014 showed better effects on outcomes than those that experienced cuts and restructuring. This is an important message given the context in which children’s centres were operating when this evaluation took place.”

Michael Marmot, president of the World Medical Association and director of University College London’s Institute of Health Equity, who led a government commissioned review of health inequalities in 2010,3 said. “Sure Start children’s centres can improve parenting and have a favourable impact on parent-child interactions. The better resourced the centre, the more favourable the impact. Closing these centres, or reducing their funding, is a false economy. Investment in early child development is a rare example where efficiency (saving money) and equity (reducing inequality) come together.”