Interventions which improve the educational attainment of children can have long-lasting economic impacts. This is because improved academic scores, such as GCSEs, are associated with higher likelihood of employment and wages. 

This report provides an economic breakeven analysis for Teens and Toddlers - an educational programme designed to help young people succeed at school through the experience of mentoring nursery children. It demonstrates the improvement in GCSE attainment required for the T&T programme to cover its costs. 

Key findings 

• The increase in lifetime earnings of a Teens and Toddlers (T&T) student obtaining a one grade improvement in a single GCSE subject as a result of the programme is around £8,500. 
• Over the past 8 years, Power2’s Teens and Toddlers programme has cost around £2,000 per pupil. 
• This means that 23% of students would have to obtain a one grade improvement in a single GCSE subject as a result of the programme for the benefits to outweigh the costs. 

In order to carry out a comprehensive cost-benefit analysis, additional work should be done to estimate the academic attainment of T&T participants in the absence of the intervention. A randomised controlled trial is the gold standard in terms of evaluating the impact of an intervention, but it would have challenging cost, logistical and ethical issues to consider. If this was not possible, an alternative option would be to use the National Pupil Database to create a matched comparison group for students who were recommended to T&T but did not take part or dropped out, or based on other observable characteristics. 

Download this report