Evaluation Plan

This part of the study will focus on how the programme and local offers are implemented, describing and explaining how and why this varies across contexts.

System-level

Aim: To understand the implementation of Start for Life across all 75 Local Authorities.

• We will analyse MI data and delivery plans.
• We will work with a smaller number of (12) LAs in greater depth, using interviews, surveys and local data collection to understand their local models.  

Individual-level

Aim: To explore families’ needs, expectations, access to, and experiences of services in the critical 1,001 days.
Within the evaluation Local Authorities:

• Case studies: 60 families will be recruited during pregnancy and and interviewed a couple of times a year for up to 3 years.
• Individual interviews: a small number of parents/carers will be interviewed once at any stage (pregnancy until 2 years after birth).

To hear more about the individual-level process evaluation, called Pathways study, click here. 

We will measure the impact on outcomes related to early child health and development, using national and local datasets as well as a survey.

These outcomes consist of three areas: 
infant feeding, parental mental health, and parent-infant relationships.

National and local datasets:

We are looking at how Start for Life impacts parents' and children's outcomes. This will include both administrative data and validated assessment scales.  

Survey:

We are exploring infant feeding and mental health outcomes for families in Start for Life sites (n=600) and comparing them with sites external to the programme (n=600), as well as locally collected individual data pre- and post-intervention with counterfactual data from sites not yet implementing Start for Life. 

By combining both process and impact data, we can:

a) identify the services associated with the most impact.

b) assess whether Start for Life is more effective in producing health benefits than usual care, with associated net cost savings.

c) test the overall contribution towards achieving the intended policy objectives.

d) provide examples of best practices that can be widely adopted across sites.

We will finish the final evaluation report in spring 2026, with interim reports arriving in spring 2024 and 2025.

More plans for publication and dissemination:

• Academic journal publications

• Local authorities taking part in the survey will receive an anonymised summary of findings for their local area

• Key stakeholders will be kept informed about progress and emerging findings throughout the duration of the evaluation, using a range of accessible methods (i.e., newsletters, leaflets, website, blog and/or social media)