Community Engagement and Co-production
Better Start Bradford placed local parents and families at the heart of its decision making from day one.
We set out to deliver a programme driven by our community, providing a climate within which community members worked in partnership with us to design, deliver and evaluate the programme. This meant involving and including them in:
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Shaping the programme during the National Lottery funding application stage
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Co-designing our 20-plus projects
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Helping shape the Better Start Bradford brand and its campaigns
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Becoming community representatives on the Better Start Bradford Partnership Board
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Co-delivering projects through volunteering opportunities
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Leading on parent panels to make funding decisions
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Being equal partners in commissioning projects and appointing staff
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Applying for funding and setting up community-led initiatives
Embedding the community voice in everything we delivered meant that change would last long beyond the life of the programme.
Co-production with Families: A community engagement toolkit by Better Start Bradford
This toolkit highlights the importance of good community engagement and outlines our approaches to it.
It:
1. Outlines our model for community engagement
2. Shares successful approaches based on our experience
3. Signposts people working in communities to other learning materials and resources
With practical advice and case studies, this is for you if you work in a community setting, particularly if you'd like to involve community members in decision making.
Earliest Years of Life Podcast Series: Co-production with the Community
In this episode, Zak and Kerry explore the importance of working alongside communities, especially parents and carers, and the principles that underpin meaningful engagement.
Joined by Gill Thornton, Director at Better Start Bradford; Shahid Islam, Principal Research Fellow at Born in Bradford; and Shummel Uddin, Family and Community Engagement Team Manager at Better Start Bradford, this rich discussion centres around co-design, inclusive approaches, trust building, and the local and national evidence driving better outcomes for families.
Further tools and resources
A practical toolkit for voluntary and community organisations wishing to develop their work with dads and male carers, drawn from our 10 years of work in Bradford
From 2015-2025, Better Place has identified and overseen improvements to local parks and outdoor spaces with the aim of providing a healthier and happier environment for babies, young children and families. They have put together these Top 10 Tips in the hope that they may help you deliver your own community project.
Local evaluation and further reading
Download the story of the Happy Early Years (HEY!) Fund - our innovative project putting parents in the lead to develop and deliver their own early years activities
Download the final evaluation report from the Better Start Bradford Innovation Hub for the Neighbourhoods Project
Our Neighbourhoods Project ran from 2019 to 2024 and this video gives a snapshot of the wonderful work the team delivered during that time.
Thanks to our Better Place project the Neighbourhood Resource Centre on Ventnor Street now has a new beautiful outdoor play and garden space for the whole community to enjoy.
National evaluation and further reading
This report focuses on systems change through parent and community-led services and putting the family at the centre of services. Key learning and lessons from across the A Better Start (including Better Start Bradford) programme are also shared.
At the 2024 A Better Start annual online conference, Tanya Spence, People in the Lead Manager at the Lambeth Early Action Partnership, leads a workshop and discussion on community engagement, including a case study from Better Start Bradford about our Parents in the Lead and HEY! Fund initiatives.
This is the second themed report for the national evaluation of A Better Start (ABS). It outlines key findings related to parental engagement, a core element of ABS and this aligns with The National Lottery Community Fund's wider co-production strategy.
This report allows readers to hear directly from A Better Start parents, practitioners and directors as experts (including Better Start Bradford) in co-production on how families are contributing to service development, design and delivery, and improving systems around them. The report also contains links to recorded presentations.
You may also like to look at...
Dive into our Earliest Years of Life podcast - an uplifting and engaging series that looks at how formative babies’ earliest months and years are.
Dip into our library of research and evaluation reports, articles, family and early years resources, videos, podcast episodes and more!
Over 300 volunteers gave their time and skills to make a real, lasting difference to families in Bowling and Barkerend, Bradford Moor and Little Horton since the start of the Better Start Bradford programme.
A range of useful resources for anyone running community playgroups and activities