Symposiums
We’re delighted to announce the successful presentations, selected through our Better Start peer review process, that form our two symposiums.
Eight thematic sessions bring together the best of the early years sector, including researchers, practitioners, foundations, health organisations and government, to share learning, connect and collaborate.
Symposium 1
Session 1:
Early Beginnings: Strengthening Parental Support in Pregnancy and the First Months
“There was nobody around me…”- Understanding parents’ experiences of early pregnancy support in Glasgow (Govan)
Embedding Father-Inclusive Practice perinatally: The Impact of Dad Matters, Powered by Home-Start
Prenatal Environmental Effects on Postnatal Outcomes (PEEPO)
Baby’s Best Beginning: A Psychology-Informed, Joint Formulation Model Supporting Babies on the Edge of Care
Session 2:
Local Voices, Local Change: Co‑Production as a Driver of Early Years Integration
Nourishing Our Future: Exploring food and nutrition provision and education in Essex early years settings.
An Early Years and Place-Based Common Practice Framework: integrating practice-based experience and research evidence
Developing Integrated Pathways to Support Children’s Development in Halton: A Partnership Approach
Born into Care to Waves
Session 3:
Tackling Inequalities from the Start: Insights from Communities, Families and Practice
Working with Communities to Tackle Early Years Inequalities: Learning What Works and Why
Too young to count? Why most disadvantaged under-5s miss out on free meals
Embedding Lived Experience in Co-Production: Building Inclusive Systems and Communities in Blackpool
Early Intervention: improving social and emotional development outcomes for adopted children in a parent-toddler group
Session 4:
Growing Social and Emotional Wellbeing: Strengthening Early Relationships and Attuned Practice
Building Early Relationships: Developing a Regional Hub-and-Spoke Parent–Infant Relationship Model Across Blackpool and Blackburn with Darwen
Living Lives Together – The impact on children’s development when learning alongside grandfriends within an intergenerational nursery.
Cardiff Parenting & Play: Embedding Mentalisation to improve outcomes for families
Building Early Attuned Relationships (BEARs) – co-produced awareness raising for the early years’ workforce.
Symposium 2
Session 5:
Foundations for Learning: Speech, Language and Communication Approaches for School Readiness
Talk With Me – Wales’ Speech, Language and Communication Strategy
Enhancing Student’s Confidence and Competence in Supporting the Early Home Learning Environment
Developing a toolbox for early years practitioners who assess toddlers’ speech, language and communication needs
Research Circle: Exploring outdoor nature-based literacy learning with families of under-fives
Session 6:
Transforming Early Years Systems: Scaling What Works Through Community and Evidence
Scaling Systems Change for School Readiness: A Community-Led Approach
Start for Life: Lessons learned from scaling Triple P for Baby across England
Exploring School Readiness – Learning from A Better Start
Community Champions as Trusted Messengers: Sharing Early Brain Science Development with Carers in Everyday Settings. An Action for Children approach.
Session 7:
Voices From the Start: Using Infant Experience to Shape Better Care and Family Support
Better Together: A relational approach to building a National Framework to Strengthen Parent–Infant Relationships
‘Hold our story with us’: helping parents and professionals understand the impact of neonatal care
Giving a Voice to the Voiceless: Embedding the Infant Voice in Whole-Family Domestic Abuse Intervention
How to be ‘Prem Aware’ – Ensuring a Best Start in Life for Children Born Prematurely
Session 8:
Growing Great Practice: Workforce Development for Stronger Early Childhood Outcomes
Feed: supporting public breastfeeding through art, design and culture.
GM REFLECT: A single competency framework designed to recognise and strengthen the skills and knowledge of the Greater Manchester workforce
How health professionals could provide more equitable infant feeding care: findings from a narrative inquiry.
Supporting Parent-Infant Relationships Equitably (SPIRE): A mixed-methods evaluation of the Start for Life prompts for holding relationships in mind.
