Governance
Better Start Bradford was governed by a Partnership Board – a genuine collaboration between the community and early years partners across the public and voluntary sectors.
From the beginning, the programme team committed to working alongside the community – especially parents. We wanted them to help shape the design, delivery and direction of the programme and not simply be consulted.
Better Start Bradford became one of the few programmes to establish a fully equal partnership between parents, community representatives and system leaders, and it proved to be the right decision. Instead of systems telling communities what they thought was best, communities were able to say: ‘This is what we believe will work for Bradford.’
Our Community Board Members
Our Community Board Members were a vital part of the Partnership Board, providing the authentic voice of parents and the communities in our area, and bringing real community influence to bear on decision making. As at the end of the programme, these members were:
Vipin Joshi
Chair
Gwen Balson
Vice Chair
Samina Begum
Vice Chair
Humera Mahmood
Vice Chair
Gazala Taj
Ishaq Shafiq
Karen Tetley
Ludmila Novosjolova
Salma Nawaz
Aroosa Meherban
Becky McIlvenny
Public and voluntary sector organisations with representation on the board were:
You may also like to look at...
Board Minutes from April 2025 to March 2026
Read the Better Start Bradford Partnership Board minutes from our final year of operation
Impact Stories / 12th October 2018
Meet our Board Members - Vipin Joshi
Meet Vipin Joshi who shares why BD5 is the greatest place to be and why he wanted to be Better Start Bradford’s Chair
Impact Stories / 28th November 2019
Meet our Board Members - Salma Nawaz
Find out why local mum, Salma, wanted to join the Better Start Bradford Partnership Board and give her insight as to what life's really like with young children in the Better Start Bradford area.
Impact Stories / 1st June 2022
The inspiration behind Salma's wellbeing packs
When volunteer Community Board Member, Salma, suggested creating wellbeing packs for parents at one of our Board meetings, we agreed that this would be a brilliant idea, so we made it happen!