The impact of children’s centres: studying the effects of children's centres in promoting better outcomes for young children and their families Evaluation of Children’s Centres in England (ECCE, Strand 4) Research report December 2015 Pam Sammons, James Hall, Rebecca Smees, and Jenny Goff with Kathy Sylva, Teresa Smith, Maria Evangelou, Naomi Eisenstadt, and George Smith University of Oxford Contents List of figures vi List of tables viii Acknowledgements xi Evaluation of Children’s Centres in England: Research Team xii List of Abbreviations xiii Executive Summary xvi 1 Introduction [Goff, Sammons and Eisenstadt] 1 1.1 Past research about the effects of children’s centres or similar early interventions 3 1.2 Summary of evidence from past research on interventions which are similar to children’s centres 5 1.3 Overview of the ECCE Impact Report 10 2 Research Design and Methodology [Sammons, Hall, Smees and Goff] 11 2.1 Evaluation of Children’s Centres in England (ECCE) 11 2.1.1 Strands of the Evaluation 11 2.1.2 Evaluation sample 14 2.2 Aims of Strand 4 15 2.3 Methodology for studying the impact of children’s centres 17 2.3.1 The influence of variation on choice of methodology 17 2.3.2 Approach to estimating the impact of children’s centres 17 3 The Sample and Measures [Smees and Hall] 22 3.1 The Sample 22 3.1.1 Characteristics of the sample of children and families (users) 22 3.1.2 Characteristics of the sample of children’s centres 26 3.2 The Measures 28 3.2.1 Outcome measures at child age 3 years 28 i 3.2.2 Child, parent, family and neighbourhood measures: to contextualise the analyses of impact 34 3.2.3 Service use: families’ use of children’s centres, centre services and childcare36 3.2.4 Centre characteristics and processes 37 4 Impacts upon Child Outcomes at age 3 [Smees and Hall] 40 Key Findings 40 4.1 Identifying the effects of background characteristics: the contextual models 41 4.1.1 Child behaviour at age 3 42 4.1.2 Child cognitive ability at age 3 45 4.1.3 Child health at age 3 47 4.2 Identifying the effects of children’s centres 48 4.2.1 Effects of service use on child outcomes 49 4.2.2 Effects of centre characteristics and processes on child outcomes 58 4.2.3 Summary of combined child outcome models 63 5 Impacts upon Mother Outcomes at child age 3 [Smees] 73 Key Findings 73 5.1 Identifying the effects of background characteristics: the contextual models 74 5.1.1 Mothers’ mental health 74 5.1.2 Mother’s physical health 75 5.2 Identifying the effects of children’s centres on mother outcomes 77 5.2.1 Effects of service use on mother outcomes 77 5.2.2 Effects of centre characteristics and processes on mother outcomes 81 5.2.3 Summary of combined mother outcome models 82 6 Impacts upon Family and Parenting Outcomes at child age 3 [Smees] 85 Key Findings 85 6.1 Identifying the effects of background characteristics: the contextual models 86 ii 6.1.1 Family functioning: CHAOS, Parental Distress and Parent-Child Dysfunctional Interaction 87 6.1.2 Home Learning Environment 90 6.1.3 Household Economic Status 91 6.2 Identifying the effects of children’s centres on parenting/family outcomes 92 6.2.1 Effects of service use on family and parenting/family outcomes 93 6.2.2 Effects of centre characteristics and processes on family and parenting outcomes 97 6.2.3 Summary of combined family and parenting outcome models 99 7 Improving outcomes and meeting the needs of the most disadvantaged families [Smees and Sammons] 103 Key Findings 103 7.1 How do families with different levels of financial disadvantage differ? 105 7.1.1 Child development and financial disadvantage 105 7.1.2 Mother’s wellbeing and financial disadvantage 106 7.1.3 Family functioning and financial disadvantage 107 7.1.4 Stressful life events and financial disadvantage 108 7.2 How do families with different levels of financial disadvantage use services? 109 7.2.1 Use of services at baseline 109 7.2.2 Total time spent at the registered children’s centre 110 7.2.3 Patterns of service use over time 110 7.2.4 Use of the three most popular services 112 7.3 What are the benefits of children’s centres for the most disadvantaged families?113 7.3.1 Children centre impacts for disadvantaged families 113 7.4 Conclusions 114 8 Discussion and Conclusions [Sammons, Hall, Smees and Goff] 117 8.1 Investigating Impact 118 iii 8.1.1 Creating measures and indicators 120 8.2 Modelling the effects of children's centres 120 8.2.1 Reaching the disadvantaged 120 8.3 Overview of main findings for the user sample 121 8.3.1 Influences on Child Outcomes 121 8.3.2 Influences on Mother Outcomes 123 8.3.3 Influences on Family outcomes 124 8.3.4 What are the effects of the most commonly used individual services? 125 8.4 Improving outcomes and meeting the needs of the most disadvantaged families 126 8.5 Children’s centres impact: drawing the findings together 128 8.6 What children’s centre features influence families’ outcomes? 130 8.7 Conclusions and Implications 131 NOTE: Some limitations of the Impact Analyses 134 9 References 137 10 Glossary of Terms 147 Appendix A – Children’s centre literature (Introduction) 157 A1 The historical development of children’s centres 157 A2 Past research on the effects of children’s centres/similar early interventions 158 A2.1 Sure Start Local Programmes (NESS Study) 158 A2.2 Other research on the impact of children’s centres 161 A2.3 Family Centres 162 A2.4 Head Start and Early Head Start 163 A2.5 Flying Start 165 A3 Overview 166 Appendix B – Chapter 2 (Method) 167 B1 Evaluation of Children’s Centres in England (ECCE) 167 iv B2 Research rigour 169 B.2.1 The Maryland Scientific Methods Scale 169 B3 Sample, multilevel weighting procedures and analysis 170 Technical Appendices list 171 Technical Appendices available via the Oxford ECCE website, (available through this link): 1 Review of the literature relating to children’s centres 2 Characteristics of the Sample 3 Comparison of Cluster Analysis techniques available for ECCE Strand 4 data reduction: Hierarchical vs. Two-Step 4 Impact upon Child Outcomes at Age 3+ 5 Impact upon Mother Outcomes at Child Age 3+ 6 Impact upon Family and Parenting Outcomes at Child Age 3+ 7 Improving outcomes and meeting the needs of the most disadvantaged families 8 Exploring predictors of outreach visits, and health visitors/midwife services v List of figures Figure A Sets of child, mother, family and neighbourhood predictors (contextualising controls) tested in multilevel models of different on various child and family outcomes ... xx Figure B Contextualising controls, centre characteristics, and measures of centre and service use tested in multilevel models of different on various child and family outcomes ........................................................................................................................................ xxi Figure C Overview of Positive Impacts ......................................................................... xxix Figure 2.1 The children’s centre use and service use constructs tested in models that predict various child, mother, and parenting outcomes at child mean age 38.1 months (n=2,608 families, n=117 centres) .................................................................................. 20 Figure 2.2 The children’s centre characteristics tested in models that predict various child, mother, and parenting outcomes at child mean age 38.1 months (n=2,608 families, n=117 centres) ................................................................................................................ 21 Figure 3.1 Age in months distribution for ECCE children at Wave 1 ............................... 22 Figure 3.2 Age in months distribution for ECCE children at Wave 3 ............................... 23 Figure 3.3 Sets of child, mother, family and neighbourhood predictors (contextualising controls) tested in multilevel models of different on various child and family outcomes at child age 3 years ............................................................................................................. 35 Figure 3.4 Contextualising controls, centre characteristics, and measures of centre and service use tested in multilevel models of different on various child and family outcomes at child age 3+ years ....................................................................................................... 39 Figure 4.1 Influences on Externalising behaviours at age 3 ............................................ 44 Figure 4.2 Influences on Internalising behaviours at age 3 ............................................. 44 Figure 4.3 Influences on Pro-social behaviours at age 3 ................................................ 45 Figure 4.4 Influences on Naming Vocabulary at age 3 ................................................... 46 Figure 4.5 Influences on Picture Similarities at age 3 ..................................................... 47 Figure 5.1 Influences on GHQ-12 Questionnaire scores (CVA) ...................................... 75 Figure 6.1 Influences on CHAOS (CVA) ......................................................................... 89 Figure 6.2 Influences on Parental Distress (CVA) .......................................................... 89 Figure 6.3 Influences on Parent-Child Dysfunctional Interaction (CVA) .......................... 90 vi Figure 6.4 Influences on early Home Learning Environment (HLE) at age 3 .................. 91 Figure 7.1 Child health and development at age 9-18 months ...................................... 105 Figure 7.2 Mother’s mental health and