Study of Early Education and Development: Wave 2, 2014-2015

The <i>Study of Early Education and Development</i> (SEED) is a major study about early years education and its impacts on child development. It is funded by the Department for Education and is undertaken by NatCen Social Research, the University of Oxford, Action for Children and Frontier Economics. The study follows just under 6,000 children across England from the age of two, through to their early years at school.<br> <br> The aims of SEED are to:<ul><li>provide evidence of the impact of current early years provision on<br> children’s outcomes</li><li>provide a basis for longitudinal assessment of the impact of early years<br> provision on later attainment</li><li>inform policy development to improve children’s readiness for school</li><li>assess the role and influence of the quality of early education provision on<br> children’s outcomes</li><li>assess the overall value for money of early education in England and the<br> relative value for money associated with different types (e.g. private,<br> voluntary, maintained) and quality of provision</li><li>explore how parenting and the home learning environment interacts with early years education in affecting children’s outcomes</li></ul>The longitudinal survey of families collects information at four time points: <ul><li>when the families’ child is about two years old (Wave 1 – baseline) (SN 8277) </li><li>when the child is about three years old (Wave 2) (SN 8278) </li><li>when the child is about four years old (Wave 3) </li><li>when the child is about five years old (Wave 4) </li></ul>Data for Wave 4 are not available yet.<br> <br> Further information and research from the study are available on the <a class="external" href="https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/study-of-early-education-and-development-seed" title="Study of early education and development (SEED)" target="_blank">GOV.UK </a>and <a class="external" href="http://natcen.ac.uk/our-research/research/seed/" title="SEED">NatCen</a> webpages.<br> <br> <p>The <i>Study of Early Education and Development: Wave 2, 2014-2015</i> is the second survey in the series. In total, 4,583 parents took part in the Wave 2 survey and the overall response rate was 82 per cent. Once weighted, the Wave 2 sample of families taking part in SEED is representative of all families with three-year-olds in England.<br> <br>In addition to collecting data from families, the SEED survey also collected data from staff at group settings attended by children in the SEED study (provided consent was given by the parent/main carer of the child). Staff were sent Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaires for each child in the SEED study who was attending their setting at the time of the age 3 interview. The staff survey was by post, with some telephone calls to encourage completion. In total, 1,661 providers completed child questionnaires, which equates to a response rate of 62 per cent.<br><br><span style="font-style: italic;">Latest Edition Information</span><br>For the second edition (December 2018), 5 variables covering wave 2 settings, the Sustained Shared Thinking and Emotional Well-being scale and the Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale have been added to the study and the documentation has been enhanced. </p>