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Sure Start children’s centres prevented 13 000 hospital admissions a year, study estimates

BMJ 2021; 374 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.n2032 (Published 16 August 2021) Cite this as: BMJ 2021;374:n2032
  1. Adrian O’Dowd
  1. London

Around 13 000 admissions of children to hospital each year were likely to have been prevented by the work of the Sure Start children’s centres that were set up across England in 1999 to support parents of young children, the Institute for Fiscal Studies has concluded.

In a report published on 16 August the institute examined the effects of the Sure Start scheme to see how it had affected children’s health up to the age of 15.1 The centres were set up to bring together health, parenting support, childcare, and parental employment services into one place for families with children under the age of 5 years.

At its peak in 2010 Sure Start received more than …

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