IJPDS International Journal of Population Data Science

Researchers from University College London, the University of Oxford, and the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts (NESTA) have investigated inequalities in the proportion of children that reach expected development at age 2-2½ years in England.

At least 14% of children in 2018-21 required developmental support at age 2-2½ years, rising to over 17% of children in the most deprived neighbourhoods. Boys were much more likely than girls to have delays in their development at age 2-2½ years, which is consistent with other international studies. Over a fifth of boys from the most deprived neighbourhoods did not meet expected development at this age.

This study, published in the International Journal of Population Data Science (IJPDS), used data from Health Visitor Service Delivery Metrics and a subset of complete records in the Community Services Dataset between April 2018 and March 2021. The measure of child development was the ASQ®-3 (Ages & Stages Questionnaire 3rd Edition), which is used during the universal health and wellbeing check at 2-2½ years in England.

Significantly, the study found very high missing data on child development in the Community Services Dataset as a whole from 2018-21. Despite 79% of children having the child development measure completed for them in the community, only 15% of eligible children had data recorded on their development.

Given the Labour Government's new (2024) commitment to increasing the proportion of children 'ready to learn' at age 4-5 years (based on an assessment of child development by the teacher in the first year of school), this study comes at an opportune moment. The authors recommend to improve data completeness, standardise ASQ®-3 implementation in English contexts, and develop robust referral and support pathways for children with developmental needs following ASQ®-3 scoring. This study provides a foundation for future research and policy decisions aimed at reducing developmental disparities and improving outcomes for all children in England.

The principal investigator, Jenny Woodman, said, "In 2024, the government committed to improving early child development in England, as part of their ambition to give children an equal start in life and reduce life-long inequalities. To really understand inequalities in child development age 2-2½ years and detect any improvements over time, we need a step change in data completeness and an early measure of child development that relates to the teacher-assessment of development in the first year of school".

 

Click here to view the full article

Jayu Jung, Research Fellow, UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health, University College London

Jung, J., Cattan, S., Powell, C., Barlow, J., Liu, M., Clery, A., Mc Grath-Lone, L., Bunting, C. and Woodman, J. (2024) “Early child development in England: Cross-sectional analysis of ASQ®-3 records from the 2-21/2-year universal health visiting review using national administrative data (Community Service Dataset, CSDS) ”, International Journal of Population Data Science, 9(2). doi: 10.23889/ijpds.v9i2.2459.