Who we are
Better Start – Better Futures (BSBF) is the organisation that continues the work of Better Start Bradford into its next phase. Between 2015 and 2025, Better Start Bradford worked with over 40,000 parents, carers and their 0–3s across Bowling and Barkerend, Bradford Moor, and Little Horton, building one of the most thoroughly evaluated early years programmes in the country. That delivery phase has now ended. BSBF is what comes next: not a continuation of services, but a continuation of purpose, taking everything that decade of evidence taught us and using it to influence decisions across the whole of Bradford District.
Why we exist
A great deal was learned during the Better Start Bradford years, about what helps babies, children and families thrive, and about how local systems, services and communities need to work together to make that happen. The risk with any time-limited programme is that this learning quietly disappears once funding ends. BSBF exists to make sure that doesn’t happen here.
Following a process led by the Better Start Bradford Partnership Board and community representatives, Activate Bradford District & Craven (ABDC) was chosen to host the next stage of this work. ABDC brings together Community Action Bradford & District (CABAD), the Voluntary and Community Sector Alliance (VCSA) and Community Network (CNET), giving BSBF a strong, established base from which to operate independently and with community firmly at its centre.
Our ambition
Better Start – Better Futures acts as an independent, trusted and well-connected entity with community at its heart, applying insight and evidence to drive early years action so that every baby, child and family in Bradford District can thrive.
What’s different this time
This is the most important thing to understand about BSBF: we don’t deliver services, groups or sessions. That work, valuable as it was, belonged to the learning phase. BSBF’s job now is system and district-wide influence; making sure decision-makers, commissioners and partners across Bradford District act on the evidence rather than start from scratch. We do this by convening the right people, sharing what works, and keeping community voice at the table whenever decisions about the early years are made.
Where we sit in the system
BSBF doesn’t work alone, and it isn’t the only home for early years activity in Bradford District. We sit alongside the Best Start in Life Board and Bradford Trident, feeding insight upwards and helping translate strategy into action on the ground. We also continue to support several projects that began life under Better Start Bradford, including Better Place, Baby Week, BiBBS and Talking Bradford, while taking forward our own development work: establishing our independent organisational status, pursuing funding and consultancy opportunities, and contributing to national early years conversations.
At the heart of all of this is the CoRE Partnership (Conception through Reception Evidence Partnership), a network bringing together parents, carers, frontline practitioners, policymakers, academics, and public sector and VCSE representatives, all with a shared interest in the earliest years of life. The CoRE Partnership meets regularly and connects further through an online platform, with the aim of collating and unifying voice on early years issues, sharing learning, and enabling new partnerships to form.
Our Values
Everything BSBF does is underpinned by a shared set of values: equality; mutual respect and trust; open, straightforward communication; co-operation and constructive challenge; a commitment to being positive and welcoming to everyone; a willingness to learn from others; and a shared determination to make the best use of every resource available, so that Bradford’s babies, children and families get the best possible start.
