A Better Start

A Better Start is a ten-year (2015-2025), £215 million programme set-up by The National Lottery Community Fund, the largest funder of community activity in the UK.

Five A Better Start partnerships, based in Blackpool, Bradford, Lambeth, Nottingham and Southend, are supporting families to give their babies and very young children the best possible start in life.

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Working with local parents, the A Better Start partnerships are developing and testing ways to improve their children’s diet and nutrition, social and emotional development, and speech, language and communication.

To support this work, NCB is designing and delivering an ambitious programme of shared learning and development support for A Better Start, working within, across and beyond these five partnership areas.

Our aim is to amplify the impact of these programmes by:

• Embedding a culture of learning within and between the partnerships.

• Harnessing the best available evidence about what works in improving outcomes for children.

• Sharing the partnerships’ experiences in creating innovative services far and wide, so that others working in early childhood development or place-based systems change can benefit.

Over the remaining seven years of A Better Start, NCB is coordinating several strands of work to share learning and pave the way for better services, and ultimately better outcomes, for young children.

This work is co-designed with our stakeholders, and includes drawing on the first-hand experiences of children and families themselves. It includes:

• Coordinating ‘Communities of Practice’ to bring together practitioners within the partnerships to share learning on what works and develop practitioner focuses solutions to improve service delivery.

• Organising a programme of events including masterclasses and an annual conference.

• Developing an exciting schedule of content based around the A Better Start website, including webinars, blogs, reports, articles, stakeholder newsletters and case studies.

Latest reports by NCB on behalf of A Better Start

Our latest programme ‘insight’ report Responding to COVID-19 highlights how the pandemic is affecting young children and their families and shares insights from A Better Start partnerships as they work to understand the impact of the pandemic, and respond to emerging needs.

Our previous programme report, A Better Start through Better Systems, highlights contemporary approaches to effective systems change and includes case studies from across the five A Better Start partnerships.

Written in February 2020, A Better Start: Five Years of Learning celebrates the achievements of the A Better Start partnerships as they completed their first five years, drawing on the voices of practitioners and members of local communities to highlight their impact.

For further information about NCB’s A Better Start – Shared Learning and Development Programme, email: owhitford@ncb.org.uk

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