12 Holly Jolly Moments

We began 2020 in style with no less than a Royal visit! We were thrilled to showcase our work when the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge (now the Prince and Princess of Wales) visited Bradford, meeting with parents/carers and their babies and toddlers from Little Dots, a music and play group funded by our Parents in the Lead Activities Fund and run by Shine West Bowling. They also met our Older Yet Wiser project, run by ChildsSide who ran workshops for grandparents with child-caring responsibilities.

The Princess of Wales has since set up the Royal Foundation for Early Childhood, and we like to think we played just a tiny part in influencing its development one chilly day in Bradford…

Read more here.

On 12 February 2019 we introduced some special new characters to the world…

The Big Little Moments characters show how the little moments you share with your child add up to something much bigger, giving them skills they need to develop into healthy, bright adults.

There are 8 ‘moments’ including ‘sharing a story’, ‘making everyday moments fun’ and ‘talking to the bump’, each with its own animated video to show you the way.

The characters and their messages have reached thousands of people across the nation since 2019, and they’re still going strong with the introduction of a giant interactive Big Little Moments jigsaw in 2025!

Find out what they’ve got to say on our website.

Over 11,000 have engaged with our speech and language projects over the last 10 years!

We commissioned BHT Early Education and Training to deliver Better Start Imagine and Talking Together.

Better Start Imagine was an enhanced book-gifting scheme, providing children with a book every month from birth to their fifth birthday.

An amazing total of 275,614 books were gifted to children over the ten years of Better Start Bradford with 8 Little Free Libraries installed across green spaces in the Better Start Bradford area!

Talking Together was designed by BHT Early Education and Training to improve the home learning environment for children aged two at risk of language development delay.

The project assessed over 5000 children and 40% were referred into the Talking Together programme.

Say something about Talking Bradford…

Since 2017 our Better Place project has been working its magic across parks, pocket parks, community centres, streets and green spaces all across the Better Start Bradford areas of Bowling and Barkerend, Bradford Moor and Little Horton for families with children aged 0-3.

Over £2 million has been invested in the area with 25 acres in area of landscape improvements – that’s the equivalent of 19 football pitches! Alongside the improvements, the team have engaged the community in nature play with a massive 1629 Better Place outdoor play sessions being delivered in parks and green spaces with over 18,700 children attending.

We are absolutely thrilled that Better Place Bradford will be able to continue their fabulous work until March 2027. This means they will be able to continue supporting families and improving outdoor spaces for a little longer. They will continue to work in the Better Start Bradford area and sites and spaces beyond. Their much-loved sessions and outdoor activities will be back soon, so make sure you keep checking their Facebook page.

Check out this video highlighting the amazing work that they have done.

Come Outside – A Better Place Project

Our very first Baby Week Bradford took place in November 2018 and eight years on, it’s still going strong from 14–20 November!

Over the years we’ve been delighted to welcome some special guests, including Baroness Floella Benjamin, Dr Amir Khan, and George Webster. More than 10,000 of you have taken part, whether by attending events or hosting your own activities.

In celebration and recognition of bringing Baby Week to Bradford and developing it over 8 fantastic years, we’re sharing our journey, experiences and top tips for anyone who might be interested in taking on the challenge in their local area.

We were honoured to be invited to the national Baby Week Conference 2025 in Leeds to launch this fantastic resource.

Part story, part toolkit, this publication includes:

The purpose and brief history of Baby Week nationally and in Bradford
Highlights from each of our 8 years as lead organisation for the Bradford district
The key ingredients of a Baby Week
The impact and benefits that have emerged in Bradford
Our top ten tips for delivering a Baby Week

You can download your copy below at the link below or order a limited edition printed copy.

Better Start Bradford has long understood the importance of the role of dads and male carers in their children’s early years, and how their involvement leads to better cognitive and social development, empathy and self-esteem.

Based on our experience and learning, we’ve developed a toolkit to help other organisations in their work with this important group, and we’re delighted to present it here.

The purpose of the toolkit is to:

– Outline a model for working with dads and male carers.
– Share successful approaches based on our experience.
– Signpost people working with dads and male carers to other learning materials and resources.

Download your copy today and visit our webpage to find out more about our work with dads.

On a beautiful autumnul gorgeous sunny day in September, we wanted to say thank you to all of our local families with a celebration event. Over 200 local residents came to live performances by Punjabi Roots and BoomChikkaBoom, children’s crafts, outdoor play, funky den building, a giant outdoor marble run and storytelling sessions,

From 2015-2025, over 40,000 people (expectant parents, families and children 0-3) have been involved in over 20 Better Start Bradford projects over the last 10 years.

Families celebrate a decade of Better Start Bradford at Family Fun Event

Better Start Bradford and Born in Bradford were proud to host a special two-day conference celebrating 10 years of partnership, community collaboration, and positive impact in giving babies and young children in Bradford the best possible start in life.

The conference, held on Wednesday 15 and Thursday 16 October at The Great Victoria Hotel, brought together community partners, researchers, early years practitioners, local community members, and local and national policymakers to reflect on a decade of innovation, evaluation and collaboration, and to look ahead to the future of early childhood support across Bradford, and what has already been embedded thanks to the Better Start Bradford programme as many of the work streams and systems are now embedded across Bradford through the Government’s Start for Life programme.

Conference highlights included:

Keynote sessions from leading voices in early years development and public health.
Insights from the Born in Bradford research team and other local and national experts.
Stories from parents, volunteers, and community champions who have shaped Better Start Bradford’s journey.
Interactive workshops and panel discussions exploring lessons learned, data-driven impact, and the power of partnership in creating lasting change.
An exhibition showcasing the impact of 20 plus projects that Better Start Bradford have delivered over the past 10 years.

A stone ‘family’ sculpture has been unveiled at Bowling Park on Wednesday 11 June 2025 to represent 40,000 plus people that have been supported by Better Start Bradford over the last ten years. It is the last of many beautiful outdoor features of the Better Place project, one of the programme’s 20+ projects.

The family, which has been sculpted by hand from limestone by talented sculptor Dan Jones, features two parents, one holding a baby, while the other cuddles their toddler, together with Little Pickle Prickle hedgehog – a character featured in Better Place nature books.

Dan proudly unveiled his masterpiece accompanied by live music by Omotola and Friends and alongside Better Start Bradford Director, Gill Thornton, Better Place Project Manager, Adele Adams and Gill Hart of The National Lottery Community Fund, who have funded Better Start Bradford, together with four other initiatives from 2015 to 2025 via its A Better Start £215 million National Lottery programme.

Over 140 adults and children came together on Wednesday 5 February at the Life Centre in Bradford to celebrate the completion of their projects as part of our Happy Early Years (HEY!) Fund. The HEY! Fund has awarded over £260,000 to over 170 parent and carer-led groups over the last seven years.

This HEY! Fund event was a celebration of all of those people who have been involved in this innovative funding initiative, where Better Start Bradford has supported parents and carers to run their own activities for expectant parents and families with 0-3s in the Better Start Bradford area since 2017.

Several groups have become constituted and sustainable beyond Better Start Bradford.

From 2015-2025 over 10,500 babies and toddlers have had Better Start Bradford in their lives during their first 1001 days, with 20 plus projects focused on language and communication, health and nutrition and social and emotional development.

As we come to the end of this journey, we wanted to visually celebrate the impact of our projects, campaigns, volunteers, the Better Start Bradford community and how all of these essential elements have worked together to give our Bradford babies the best start in life.

This visual snapshot explores all of our core projects that a Better Start Bradford baby has had access to for the first 1001 days of their life for the past ten years.

To celebrate everyone involved in developing Better Start Bradford, including staff (past and present), Board Members, partners, we hosted our ‘Grand Finale’ celebration event at the White Abbey Ballroom on 4 December 2025.

This will link to relevant content on websote with a bit of info and a photo