About this study

We've evaluated a Government pilot that provided free early-years education to 13,500 disadvantaged 2-year olds.

The pilot aimed to improve children’s development - specifically a child’s social confidence, independence, language ability and their non verbal reasoning skills. It typically offered children 7.5 hours of early years’ education a week for 38 weeks of the year.

You can read the findings of our evaluation here. We found that, on the whole, the pilot successfully recruited disadvantaged 2-year olds, but didn’t significantly improve their general development. However, when a child attended a higher-quality nursey, childminder or play group, there was a positive impact on their language ability.

Potential policy impact

From September 2009, 15% of disadvantaged 2-year olds will receive 10 or 15 hours a week of free early years’ education.

Our evaluation suggests possible measures that the Government might need to make if they want to maximise the positive impact of this policy.

Method

We compared 1,000 families who were taking part in the pilot with a group of 1,400 families living in a similar area where the pilot wasn’t available.

We matched these two groups across a range of characteristics and interviewed them at the start and end of the pilot placement. Any differences between families found in the second interview could then be attributed to the impact of the pilot.

We also interviewed practitioners and visited pilot settings to assess the quality of childcare on offer.

The evaluation was conducted in partnership with the University of Oxford.