Sure Start Play Data 2010 – 2020

The early years of a child’s life are critical in shaping lifelong emotional and social wellbeing.

In Northern Ireland, the Sure Start programme supports parents with children under four years old in disadvantaged areas. Sure Start projects deliver services designed to enhance children’s learning, health, and emotional and social development. 

To better understand the programme’s impact, ADR NI researchers are working with Sure Start’s Strategic Planning and Performance Group to link ten years of Sure Start data with NI health records - evaluating the health outcomes of this popular, government-led intervention for the first time. 

This work supports the Northern Ireland Programme for Government priority: “We give our children the best start in life.” The dataset will provide a wealth of information on early years interventions and their impact on childhood and lifelong adversity - supporting better policy, services, and resource allocation.