Evaluating the impact of Flying Start on early year outcomes using linked administrative data and a naturally occurring experiment.
Wales’s flagship early years programme, Flying Start, was introduced in 2007 and was offered to families living in the most socio-economically disadvantaged areas of Wales. Flying Start has been expanded twice (2012 – 2016, 2021 – present).
The programme is for families with a child aged 0 – 4 in a Flying Start area and includes:
– free quality, part-time childcare for 2-3-year-olds;
– an intensive health visiting service;
– access to parenting support; and
– support for speech, language and communication development.
Overview
Our project leverages a naturally occurring experiment – the expansion of Flying Start – which allows us to evaluate Flying Start’s impact on mothers and children using linked administrative data from the SAIL databank. The SAIL Databank is a collection of administrative data on health, schooling and other topics and contains NHS records for everyone in Wales.
Our main objectives are to:
- Measure the impact of Flying Start on families and children’s education and health outcomes until the end of primary school.
- Measure the impact of Flying Start on early detection and access to specialist services.
- Explore potential inequalities in the effectiveness of Flying Start. For example, does Flying Start have a stronger or weaker effect on younger mothers?
The project receives advice from Flying Start parents and staff.
Activities and Methods
This project links and analyses fully anonymised administrative data via the SAIL databank. We plan are comparing health and education outcomes for children and mothers based on whether they lived in disadvantaged areas that were just below the phase 2 funding threshold (i.e. not intended to receive Flying Start) and those just above the threshold (i.e. intended to be Flying Start areas).
Findings
Will be posted on this website from late 2026 onwards.
Lead Person
| Principal Investigator | Dr Meng Le Zhang |
Academics and Researchers
| Co-investigator | Professor Sally Holland (CASCADE) |
| Principal Research Fellow | Dr Martin Elliott (CASCADE) |
| Research Fellow | Dr Gareth Griffith (University of Bristol School of Medicine) |
Related Information
| Related Schools | n/a |
| Related partners | n/a |
| Funders | OPP147: ESRC responsive mode: secondary data analysis round one |
| Related publications | Not yet available |
| Related links | The impact of Sure Start on health and social care – CASCADE Flying Start: guide for parents and carers | GOV.WALES |
| Related documents | n/a |