Early years

Boy and girl toddlers playing with bricks

Almost all children now experience some formal early childhood education and care well before they start school. Our early years research improves understanding of this provision, including its impact on children’s development and the extent to which it can alleviate the effects of disadvantage.

Our work in early years research explores the impact of early childhood education and care on children’s outcomes and development. We also want to understand how early years provision does, or could, tackle disadvantage by addressing the attainment gaps already apparent between children of different socioeconomic backgrounds by the time they start school.

Parents, home and the family context are also relevant to our work in early years. For example, we are interested in how childcare provision is subsidised and how this affects the education, training and employment choices of parents.

We also want to improve understanding of how the private and not-for-profit sector childcare providers operate, and how good quality provision can be achieved and maintained. This includes questions of funding, regulation and staffing models.

Our team


  • Eleanor Ireland headshot

Our impact in early years


  • Our report by Professor Sandra Mathers showed the role graduates play in closing the quality gap in early years provision. This has informed the government’s Early Years Workforce Strategy which highlighted the need to maximise the number of specialist early years graduates in disadvantaged areas.

  • Research by Dr Sara Bonetti found that early years professionals face poor pay, limited progression opportunities and a lack of social recognition for the importance of their role. Staff recruitment and retention are persistently difficult. The reports have shaped some of the work of the Social Mobility Commission and have been used extensively by sector organisations and the government.

  • Dr Gabriella Conti and Dr Sarah Cattan’s project on the health effects of Sure Start showed that it delivered long-lasting health benefits for children through their teenage years, including a significant reduction in hospitalisations and savings to the NHS. Their public health research continues to inform the Early Intervention Foundation’s work, commissioned by the Department for Education, with local authorities on designing effective early childhood services.

A new series from the Nuffield Foundation

Are young children today happier, healthier and better prepared for school? The Nuffield Foundation has launched a new series to bring together the research evidence on the changing face of early childhood in the UK.

Read more

Early years projects

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We aim to improve people’s lives by funding research that informs social policy, primarily in Education, Welfare and Justice. We also fund student programmes that give young people skills and confidence in science and research.

We are an open, collaborative and engaged funder that offers more than money. Through connecting the individual projects we fund, we strengthen their collective impact and give voice to an overarching narrative.

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