Exploration of how administrative data is being used to evaluate the impact of Sure Start and Flying Start

The ADR England Community Catalyst Children at Risk of Poor Outcomes is hosting an online event: Exploration of how administrative data is being used to evaluate the impact of Sure Start & Flying Start. Register now to secure your place.

Explore how administrative data is being used to evaluate the impact of Sure Start (England and Northern Ireland) and Flying Start (Wales). These government initiatives are designed to support families and young children in disadvantaged areas, helping to give them the best start in life. Our speakers will demonstrate how they harnessed administrative data to explore the programmes' effect on child development and outcomes, providing evidence to inform better policy and practice. The webinar will also showcase how data-driven insights can strengthen programme evaluation in the context of children's social care, demonstrating its powerful potential.

The team is pleased to announce the following speakers:

Dr Sarah Cattan – Research Fellow, Institute for Fiscal Studies and Economist, Nesta

The short and medium-term effects of Sure Start on children's outcomes

This presentation will give an overview of the findings of a multi-year programme of research using administrative datasets aimed at evaluating Sure Start’s impacts on education, health, absences, special educational needs, crime and social care, and drawing a cost-benefit analysis for the programme. 

Dr Meng Le Zhang - Research academic and data scientist, Cardiff University

Measuring the impact of Sure Start in Northern Ireland on health and social care outcomes

This presentation will explain how we used administrative data on every child born in Northern Ireland alongside a quasi-experiment to measure the impact of Sure Start. We will discuss our findings related to the impact of the programme on area-level inequality and how it reduces interventions from children's social services.

Tony Whiffen - Research Associate, Skills & Employability, Education, ADR Wales

Flying Start in Swansea - Linked Data Research to Support Further Outcomes

The Flying Start Linked Data Project is an ongoing research project hosted in the SAIL Databank and linked to the delivery of the Flying Start early years programme to support children in Wales (equivalent to the Sure Start programme in England). Utilising individual-level data for just one authority (Swansea), this presentation will cover the main project findings and their subsequent impact on the Flying Start programme in Wales.

The session will be chaired by Professor Karen Broadhurst, Lancaster University, who is the Co-lead for the ADR England Community Catalyst Children at Risk of Poor Outcomes project.

About the project

Co-funded by ADR England and Foundations – What Works Centre for Children and Families, the ADR England Research Community Catalyst: Children at Risk of Poor Outcomes aims to increase use of the ADR UK flagship datasets, and to support a community of researchers and analysts focused on children and young people supported by early intervention services or children’s social care in the UK

We will email you a Zoom webinar link by Monday 3 November, any problems with registration, please email marie.greaves@swansea.ac.uk.

Event details

When: Tuesday 4 November, 14:30 - 16:15

Where: Online

Cost: Free

Register now