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Better Stars Bradford

17 October 2024

Sharing Knowledge, Shaping Futures

Celebrating Better Start Bradford’s projects at Bradford Cathedral – Better Stars Bradford

Better Start Bradford is part of the 10 year (2015-2025), £215 million A Better Start programme (ABS) funded by The National Lottery Community Fund. Focusing on early childhood development, there are five ABS partnerships based in Blackpool, Bradford, Lambeth, Nottingham and Southend, all supporting families to give babies and young children the best possible start in life. Working with local parents, all the partnerships have developed and tested ways to improve children’s diet and nutrition, social and emotional development, and speech, language and communication.

As we come to the natural end of the Better Start Bradford programme in 2025, we are hosting a series of events, workshops and webinars as part of our Sharing Knowledge, Shaping Futures legacy programme.

To showcase our project’s achievements since 2015 we hosted our ‘Better Stars Bradford’ project celebration event at Bradford Cathedral on 10 October 2024. Since we started, we have delivered over 22 projects and each of those projects were showcased with a large celebration board showing their background, highlights, impact and quotes from service users.

The celebration boards were presented in an ‘exhibition’ style down the whole central aisle at the Cathedral. Projects who had videos had them running on laptops at the sides of their boards, with additional materials (such as leaflets and handbooks) displayed as well. The event also had lovely celebratory music and an afternoon tea for guests.

Gill Thornton, Director of Better Start Bradford, and Vicki Smith, Funding Manager from The National Lottery Community Fund, thanked all our projects for the impact they have had in Bradford, on the overall A Better Start Programme and on national early year’s policy.

Over 160 people attended, including current and past project staff, volunteers and Better Start Bradford staff.

Commenting on the event, Gill Thornton, Director of Better Start Bradford, said:

It was quite mind-blowing to see the exhibition showing how many amazing things our projects and Better Start Bradford have done with so many of our parents and children. Feedback from the attendees was massively positive, and they were also awestruck.  Congratulations and thank you to everyone who attended and all the team members who worked so hard to get it all together, it was an unqualified success and you should all be very proud.

Vicki Smith, Funding Manager from The National Lottery Community Fund, said:

It was a privilege to attend the Better Stars Bradford event and see and hear about all the achievements of the Better Start Bradford projects. The last 10 years have not been without significant challenges - austerity, COVID, political uncertainty and the cost-of-living crisis, which has impacted the lives of babies and young children in all five of the A Better Start areas and across the UK.

Despite these challenges, Better Start Bradford has shown unwavering ambition for the families of Bradford, displaying such creativity and innovation to reach into communities to offer support and solidarity when it was needed the most.

From a wider perspective, evidence and learning from the ABS programme is already starting to influence national policy and practice. Most recently ABS has been referenced in the 1001 days manifesto for babies. It has also been mentioned in the Government’s Start for Life Guidance and learning from ABS has influenced the development of the Family Hubs and Start For Life programme.

Your work has also played a part in developing our own new strategy. The evidence and learning from all five partnerships fed directly into our Children and Young People mission.

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News / 23rd October 2024
CABAD appointed to lead legacy project at Better Start Bradford

Better Start Bradford has appointed a collaborative led by CABAD (Community Action Bradford and District) to deliver consultancy support for a project to develop the programme’s legacy.

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