Pilots for the Child Development Grant (News, 19 March 2008) are to start in ten local authorities in the autumn and run until March 2011, when an evaluation will be published.
Low-income parents will receive a one-off payment of £200 as long as they take up services offered by children's centres.
A study published on the British Medical Journal website suggests that in order for the grants to be beneficial, services offered will have to be of high quality and incentives may need to be increased to bring about more complex behaviour change.
It examines conditional cash transfer schemes across Latin America, which the Child Development Grant is modelled on, and which offer disadvantaged families money to attend services such as parenting seminars or infant health check-ups.
The researchers found that schemes were most beneficial in low- and middle-income countries, with significant increases in children's visits to health centres.
But they also found that the UK Child Development Grant is much smaller than incentives used in Mexico and Colombia, where families are given around 20 per cent of their monthly household income and grants are maintained throughout a child's school years.
A DSCF spokesperson said, 'The BMJ report highlights that schemes similar to the Child Development Grant pilot have been shown to improve health and health behaviours in other countries, but that current evidence is limited. We are therefore testing whether similar schemes can be of benefit in the UK. An external evaluation is being undertaken by York Consulting in partnership with Ipsos Mori in March 2011. Decisions on any future roll-out will be taken in light of the evaluation findings and the wider fiscal situation.'