How a collective impact initiative contributed to outcomes of young children in Lambeth
How a collective impact initiative contributed to outcomes of young children in Lambeth
Programme-wide analysis of Lambeth Early Action Partnership using linked population datasets
Promising findings for LEAP and very young children
This analysis presents the associations between family engagement with Lambeth Early Action Partnership (LEAP) services and child outcomes in the early years. Using datasets linked to a statutory assessment of child development and health visiting data, we established that very young children from families who engaged with LEAP were more likely to reach expected levels of overall development than their peers.
Discover comparisons between early years children living in the same area of Lambeth, whose families did and didn’t engage with LEAP.
Authors
Gemma Luck, Public Health Intelligence Manager, LEAP
Dakota Langhals, Senior Data Analyst – Evaluation, LEAP
Who is this for?
These learnings will be useful for anyone with a professional or academic interest in early years development, particularly in areas of greater need – and for those exploring the effects of collective impact initiatives.
The background
LEAP has funded and improved more than 20 Lambeth services to meet the needs of families from pregnancy all the way through the early years of childhood.
We have operated in an inner-London community where 68% of children live in ‘very deprived’ neighbourhoods. We’ve delivered services in parts of Lambeth where young children experience greater inequalities than children in the rest of the borough.
LEAP is a collective impact initiative. All our services and activities linked together and worked towards shared goals to improve outcomes for very young children. Evidence suggests that the areas of children’s development which LEAP has focused on can have a significant impact on their long-term life chances, and outcomes, and are crucial to reducing health inequalities.
Until recently, LEAP has not had access to many administrative datasets that enable analysis of child outcomes in the early years. The current research uses well-established administrative datasets to understand how key LEAP child outcomes may differ in comparison with non-service participants.
Key findings for children from families who engaged with LEAP services
- 2.5-year-olds were 40% more likely to develop to expected levels than their peers overall.
- The more LEAP services a family engaged with, the likelier their 2.5-year-old would reach at least expected levels of overall development.
- We found no significant differences in developmental outcomes for children at the end of reception compared to their peers. However, mitigating factors – including data limitations, greater levels of need, Covid-19 and the cost-of-living crisis – are likely to account for this.
