If an early learning delivery platform focused on home and community-based settings in low-income communities can shift outcomes for children as it goes to scale, it should inform more enabling approaches to government regulation and funding.

If an early learning delivery platform focused on home and community-based settings in low-income communities can shift outcomes for children as it goes to scale, it should inform more enabling approaches to government regulation and funding.

Every weekday morning in South Africa hundreds of thousands of young children leave their home to attend an early learning programme. We know these places by various names - preschools, creches, playgroups, day mothers - but they all have one thing in common. They are sites of potential transformation in a young child's developmental trajectory.

The most familiar types of early learning programmes are those in purpose-built facilities. Less visible - and less appreciated - are the thousands of programmes run in homes and multipurpose community venues. Yet in underresourced communities it is these types of programmes that provide a lifeline for families, offering not only structured play and learning opportunities for vulnerable children, but also vital childcare that enables parents to work.

Now, a landmark new study of the SmartStart early learning network shows that these programmes are boosting outcomes for children - and offers intriguing insights into how they are doing this. The findings will be presented to a global audience at...