Real change for childhoods
Better Start is a team of early child development experts driven by a shared vision of real and lasting change for childhoods, from pregnancy to starting school. We develop early years systems across the UK using our bespoke approach. Keeping infants’ voices at heart, we transform services, bring people together and put research into action.
We are ready to work with you to make real change for childhoods.
Local Relevance, National Influence
Better Start exists to work together with leaders, professionals and parents to give all children the best possible start to life, from conception to Reception.
The UK Government’s reprioritisation of reforming early years means place-based and evidence-based approaches like Better Start’s are now of critical significance. We want to ensure all babies and young children benefit from the extensive research, evidence and learning we have generated. Over a decade of testing and learning combined with our data, knowledge and expertise of what works, and crucially what doesn’t, mean we are uniquely positioned to rise to this challenge.
Reducing pressures on families equals better outcomes for children
Building the capabilities of parents through social support, encouraging self-efficacy and improving parent, child and couple relationships can drastically cut through added pressures and put the child’s wellbeing front and centre.
In an article featured in Children & Young People Now, Debra Davies, our Early Years Development Manager, shares how partners across Blackpool are working together to make school readiness everybody's responsibility. Getting a child ready for school isn't something parent should feel they have to do alone. It takes a whole system from schools, early
Director, Clare Law was in Parliament in June with Tom Collins MP and Jess Phillips MP discussing the NSPCC's excellent new report, It Takes a Place, written by Alexandra Galvin The report explores the vital role of multi-agency safeguarding through Family Hubs and the unique opportunity they present. What struck Clare most was the honesty
The benefits of preventative action for local authorities and other organisations.
It’s been proven that work from the start can effectively prevent the negative impacts of trauma and other negative pressures from impacting outcomes. Prevention can also save huge amounts of money compared to funding expensive remedial efforts further down the line.
Sharing our learning
Our Knowledge Hub is regularly updated with the latest reports and papers.
Featured reports:
Collective Strategy
School Readiness
The Better Start Partnership has collectively joined up systems and developed a shared and consistent understanding and approach towards school readiness across professionals and parents. Improving outcomes for children at the beginning of their educational journey.
Committed Leadership
Collaborative Codesign
The Blackpool Born into Care project has brought together people with different professional backgrounds and those with lived experience to reduce the high numbers of babies that are taken into care particularly from the same families.
Committed families and community
Community Connectors
The Community Connector programme utilises a paid peer support model to engage Blackpool families in early years services and provide consistent, reliable child development and public health messages.
Impact
Since 2015, Better Start in Blackpool has been innovating, testing and crucially thinking differently about one of the most critical and challenging areas of public service: pregnancy and the early years.
Blackpool Better Start has focused over the last decade to improving outcomes for babies and young children.
