A Better Start focuses on improving the life chances of babies and very young children by changing the way services are commissioned and delivered and involving parents as equal partners.
A Better Start is a ten-year (2015-25), £215 million programme, one of five major programmes set up by The National Lottery Community Fund, the largest community funder in the UK, to test and learn from new approaches to designing services that aim to make people’s lives healthier and happier.
A Better Start focuses on improving the life chances of babies and very young children by changing the way services are commissioned and delivered, involving parents as equal partners at every step.
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.
Working with local parents, the A Better Start partnerships develop and test ways to improve local children’s diet and nutrition, social and emotional development, and speech, language and communication.
Four key outcomes
A Better Start is built around four key outcomes:
1. Improving children’s diet and nutrition to support healthy physical development and protect against illness in later life.
2. Supporting children to develop social and emotional skills so they can develop positive relationships and cope with difficult situations.
3. Helping children develop their language and communication skills, so that they can engage with the world around them.
4. Bringing about ‘systems change’; that is to change, for the better, the way that local health, public services and the voluntary and community sector work together with parents to improve outcomes for children.
NCB's role
To underpin these outcomes, the National Children’s Bureau (NCB) designed and delivered an ambitious programme of shared learning and development support for A Better Start, working within, across and beyond the five partnership areas. Our focus has been to:
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Embed a culture of learning within and between the partnerships.
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Harness the best available evidence about what works in improving outcomes for children.
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Share 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.
An evidence-informed approach
Grounded in scientific evidence and research, NCB’s work is co-designed with our stakeholders, and includes drawing on the first-hand experiences of 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 knowledge-sharing events and an annual conference.
- Developing an exciting schedule of content based around the A Better Start website, including webinars, blogs, reports, articles, and a stakeholder newsletter and case studies.
NCB is also the accountable body for the funding of the Lambeth Early Action Partnership (LEAP) and has hosted LEAP since 2015.
For further information about NCB’s A Better Start – Shared Learning and Development Programme, email: [email protected]
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