Study Design

Families in 150 communities throughout England were randomly selected from Child Benefit records. Those currently taking part in the study form what is known as the "longitudinal sample". This is the group of families and children who are being followed up over time. They have taken part in interviews when the children were 9 months, 3 years, 5 years and 7 years old.

These families are all living in areas where Sure Start services are available. Data collected at each age point is analysed on its own and also analysed against a comparison group. The comparison group consists of 2782 families taking part in the Millennium Cohort Study, who live in areas similar to those in our study but where Sure Start is not available.