01274 723146

[email protected]

Innovation Fund

Do you have a great idea for a project or activity that would benefit 0-3 year olds?

You might be able to bring it to fruition with our Innovation Fund: a special fund set up to improve the lives of children aged 0-3 in the Better Start Bradford area (Bowling and Barkerend, Bradford Moor and Little Horton).

Local parents, community groups and organisations can apply to pilot and test ideas for new initiatives designed to help us achieve our programme outcomes.

What do we fund?

We fund innovative and creative proposals to help children in our area to:

  • Eat well and be healthy
  • Talk and communicate well
  • Be confident, friendly and understand their emotions and behaviour

We are particularly interested in new ideas and new approaches and at this time are particularly interested in proposals that will:

  • Improve oral health in 0-3s through initiatives such as supporting parent supervised tooth brushing and reducing the intake of sugar in drinks and food
  • Support dads in being more involved in the lives of their 0-3s and contributing to their development

We have identified other gaps however so if you have an idea for engaging and supporting parents who have challenges in their lives (e.g. poverty, domestic abuse, housing and debt) please get in touch.

How much money is available?

Individual awards range between £2,500 and £100,000 (subject to criteria). The fund will cover all realistic costs – we can help you to work this out. We anticipate that most proposals will be for short-term pilots (around one year). In order to receive funding for a longer-term project you will need to have detailed costings and full evaluation and delivery plans. We can advise on these.

Who can apply?

  • Local voluntary and community sector organisations and groups including those led by parents
  • New and emerging groups – provided they meet our basic quality assurance checks
  • Any other groups or teams prepared to work in partnership with Better Start Bradford – but only where proposed activity adds value to and enhances our programme and does not replace or replicate existing provision

What are the criteria?

First you need to assess your idea against our checklist in the guidance document. If you are not sure about any of the answers then please contact us to discuss it.

Applications for new initiatives must meet the following requirements and criteria:

  • Activities must be geographically located within at least one of the Better Start Bradford wards (Bowling and Barkerend, Bradford Moor, and Little Horton)
  • Activities must be for children aged 0-3 and/or expectant parents
  • Activities must contribute to at least one of the Better Start Bradford outcomes or be focused on increasing the engagement of local people in the Better Start Bradford programme
  • Activities must not duplicate current commissioned services or services which have been cut
  • Activities must not duplicate current Better Start Bradford projects
  • Activities must be able to incorporate evaluation i.e. we will need identifiable details of participants and ways to measure the change resulting from the activity
  • Your planned approach should align to the Better Start Bradford and The National Lottery Community Fund brand and values

Innovation Fund Guidance Notes [WORD]

Application form: If you have met the requirements and answered yes to all the checklist questions, you can download an application form. Each section has a maximum word count, but if you can say what you need to in fewer words that is fine.

Innovation Fund Application Form [WORD]

Contact details: Gill Thornton 01274 723146 or by email to [email protected]