Each year since 2021, NCB has organised a national conference to share learnings from the five A Better Start partnerships.
Through a mix of keynote sessions and Q&A panels, attendees have had the opportunity to hear directly from A Better Start practitioners, parents and directors as they shared their expertise.
Celebrating 10 Years of A Better Start
In February 2025, our annual conference celebrated the impact of 10 years of A Better Start on early years practice & policy.
This free event enabled attendees to discover how A Better Start has been at the forefront of pioneering changes, ensuring that babies, children and families can have the best start in life. The event showcased the remarkable achievements and success stories from different communities, illustrating how innovative approaches, co-produced with local parents and carers, have improved outcomes and influenced the wider early years landscape.
The full agenda is available here.

Collective Change
In June 2024, our fourth annual national online learning event highlighted how the five partnerships are galvanising families, communities and the workforce into improving the health and happiness of babies and very young children.
A report summarising the case studies and discussions at the Collective Change conference can be found here.
We also recorded the event so you can watch all of the eight sessions below:
Improving early childhoods in the face of deepening uncertainty
In March 2023, this event showcased how A Better Start partnerships were working to change and integrate systems and influencing policy and practice at a local level and more widely during increasingly uncertain and complex times.
Reducing inequalities in early childhood
In March 2022, an event was held to share expertise on improving systems to reduce inequalities and improve outcomes through empowering communities through co-production, changing systems with a focus on evidence, data and outcomes; and mobilising the workforce and community.
Parent, family and community engagement
In March 2021, NCB hosted its first virtual conference which showcased how A Better Start partnerships are working with local parents to develop, test and embed ways to improve their children’s diet and nutrition, social and emotional development, and speech, language and communication.