Happy New Year 2025 from Gill

Happy new year to all our Better Start Bradford families, our projects that have worked with us over the last 10 years to deliver top-notch support and services, to our wider community (with thanks for the support they have consistently given us), to our Board members who have worked alongside the team to deliver this life-changing programme, and to our partners across all sectors for their involvement and commitment.

As we begin 2025, we are heading into our final year of the 10-year programme. We approach this stage with energy, excitement and enthusiasm for the year ahead, looking forward to celebrating our successes, sharing the learning and impact from the last 10 years, and embedding our legacy across the district and beyond.

Over the lifetime of Better Start Bradford we have delivered over 22 projects, a wide range of learning events, and thousands of family activities and sessions. All these, in addition to our evaluation, the Born in Bradford Better Start (BiBBS) cohort and our parent-led activities funding, have brought more than 25,000 children and parents into the Better Start Bradford family – that’s the equivalent of the population of Pudsey! That group will carry forward the best of our programme.

During 2024, many of our projects moved on from Better Start Bradford, many onto a wider stage being embedded into mainstream delivery. Some have secured external funding, building on the foundations established with us, and others have secured further Start for Life funding and will continue as part of the local authority offer.

In October last year we had a wonderful event at Bradford Cathedral to celebrate our projects, Better STARS Bradford, where we were able to showcase their amazing work and say thank you for their brilliant achievements and their impact on babies and families in the Better Start Bradford area.

Another highlight was our 7^th Baby Week Bradford , which was a resounding success. The theme in 2024 was play and over 1750 individuals took part over the week and attended over 30 free events, aimed at families with 0-3s, people who work in early years, and those interested in early childhood development.

As part of our ‘Sharing Knowledge, Shaping Futures’ work, the Better Start Bradford Innovation Hub delivered a series of joint webinars with us, highlighting the key findings from the programme evaluation to date.  This showed how our partnership created a great model for working together with researchers. I’m delighted to report that the BiBBS cohort has recently secured funding from The Wellcome Foundation for 8 years follow-up research building on the 10 years of evaluation carried out by the Better Start Bradford Innovation Hub.

Being part of the Better Start Bradford programme has been the most significant, exciting and rewarding work I have been part of although sometimes demanding and challenging. We have ensured the first 1001 days is built into thinking, strategy and service planning, we have really fought for the critical importance of prevention as an essential element of children’s wellbeing and we have created enduring system change to improve the lives of our families, both in the Better Start Bradford area and across the district.

In this final year of funding from The National Lottery Community Fund we will ensure the legacy of our work is secured, that the learning is put to good use and the change we aimed for when we set out on this journey is built into early years and child health system thinking and planning.

I want to quote Martin Luther King Junior to illustrate how we approached Better Start Bradford. He said: “You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.” We certainly didn’t know where we were heading when we set out, and each step brought new opportunities and challenges. We’re near the top of that staircase now and will bound up those final steps to whatever the future holds for us, for our friends, families and our partners, but confident that between us, we have made a much better start in life for many babies and children.

I’m looking forward to an exciting year and let’s head into 2025 with a much stronger step into making those first 1001 days better for every child.

Gill