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BBK NESS Site

Welcome to the home page of the National Evaluation of Sure Start (NESS). The evaluation is being conducted by a group led by Professor Edward Melhuish at the Institute for the Study of Children, Families and Social Issues, Malet Street, London, WC1E 7HX, which is part of Birkbeck, University of London.

This web site is intended for all those concerned with or interested in the evaluation of Sure Start, but has particular relevance for staff employed in Sure Start projects and local Evaluators of Sure Start projects.

The National evaluation is funded by the Sure Start Unit. The evaluation studies the effectiveness of Sure Start Programmes in England and will last until 2012.

The evaluation is made up of several sections: Implementation, Impact, Local Context Analysis, Cost Effectiveness and Support to Local Programmes.

Reports of the evaluation can be found under the relevant section at the top of this page.

Most documents are saved in Adobe Acrobat Portable Document Format (PDF). You will need to install a copy of the Adobe Acrobat Reader on your computer if you wish to view the documents.  A small amount of document are in Word and Power Point, you can download the Word Viewer or the Power Point Viewer to open them.

Many NESS reports are also available from https://www.education.gov.uk/publications/.

Latest Reports

Full Report on The impact of Sure Start Local Programmes on seven year olds and their families - 2012

Summary of the impact of Sure Start Local Programmes on seven year olds and their families - 2012

Full Report on The Impact of Sure Start Local Programmes on Five Year Olds and Their Families. -2010

Summary of The Impact of Sure Start Local Programmes on Five Year Olds and Their Families. -2010

Full Report on The quality of group childcare settings used by 3-4 year old children in Sure Start Local Programme areas and the relationship with child outcomes. -2010

Summary of The quality of group childcare settings used by 3-4 year old children in Sure Start Local Programme areas and the relationship with child outcomes. -2010