Evaluation of Early Support

The impact of Early Support in Pathfinder areas was evaluated in 2005 by a research team based in the Universities of Manchester and Central Lancashire.

A full report and summary were published by the Department for Education and Skills in October 2006.

Overview of the research

The research was designed to evaluate the impact, effectiveness and outcomes of Early Support from the perspective of families and service providers.

The evaluation was of activity in 45 locations and the challenge was to understand how Early Support operated in different settings. Although some elements were constant, for example, the use of the Early Support materials, there were significant variations in:

• local context
• the extent to which multi-agency partnerships had developed
• the degree of family participation
• allocated resource to support service development.

The evaluation set out to understand which aspects of Early Support had which effects in which circumstances. This information was needed to justify and inform the further development of the national programme.

There's more...

... find out about the key findings

... read about the evaluation method and the research team

... see a PowerPoint, presented at a conference in November 2006, which summarises the research findings

... read our news item about the findings of the study.