Talking Together at a two day celebration of Better Start Bradford

In October last year, the people who made it happen gathered to celebrate Better Start Bradford, and how its communities, ethos, projects and practitioners maximised the opportunities made possible by long-term funding from the National Lottery.

Over 2 days, the moving stories of families and the practitioners who coproduced more than 20 local services underlined the ambition and scope of the programme.

The conference brought together:

• community partners
• researchers
• early years practitioners
• local community members
• local and national policymakers

They came to reflect on a decade of innovation, evaluation and collaboration, and to look ahead to the future of early childhood support across Bradford.

There was far too much to encompass in a short blog. A great summary of the conference can be found on the Better Start Bradford website.

At the National Children’s Bureau, we are building on the evidence from Bradford and the other A Better Start partnership areas. Presenting their learning and innovation to the policymakers and practitioners who shape how early years support is delivered across the country. The aim is to showcase how ambitious, coproduced support - properly funded, developed with parents, and delivered by a valued workforce - can make a real difference.

We are currently focused on school readiness.

This is a priority for the government which, through its Best Start in Life Strategy, has set an ambitious goal for improving levels of school readiness. In England, school readiness is assessed using the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) framework, which evaluates children’s development across key learning goals.

The government aims to increase the proportion of children achieving school readiness from 68% to 75% by 2028. The evidence and insights from A Better Start offer valuable means of meeting this target through policy, practice and systems change.

Drawing on more than 90 pieces of evidence from A Better Start partnerships in Blackpool, Bradford, Lambeth, Nottingham and Southend, our initial Insight Report uses the UNICEF model of school readiness to explore three interrelated dimensions:

• children’s readiness for school
• schools’ readiness for children
• families’ and communities’ readiness for school

Of these 3 areas, we often focus on the first 2: what needs to be done for each child to prepare them for school, and how schools are geared up to support children as they adapt to the different expectations involved in transitioning from an early years setting.

I was particularly interested to hear how Better Start Bradford’s Talking Together project had supported the last of these 3 aspects of school readiness. Helping families to prepare children at risk of language development delay by improving the home learning environment.

Talking Together had 3 main elements:

Talking Together screening

A universal language assessment for all 2 year olds, completed during a home visit.

The Talking Together Programme

 A targeted 6 week, home based intervention for those identified as at risk of weak or delayed language development.

Additional support

Follow on help identified after the 6 week intervention, tailored to individual family needs. This has been complemented by Owlets. A friendly group for families with children aged 18 months to 3 years, offering focused support for children’s language through play.

In partnership with families, Talking Together aimed to:

• improve children’s vocabulary and language skills
• support more children to develop age-appropriate language
• improve parental sensitivity, engagement and verbal stimulation within early parent–child interactions
• increase parents’ confidence in interacting with their children
• link parents with further appropriate services

Evaluation of the Talking Together project included a feasibility randomised controlled trial (RCT). Families identified through screening were invited to take part in the feasibility RCT and were randomly allocated into an immediate intervention group or control group. A waiting list design was used, so that the control group was offered the intervention at a later stage, following completion of the trial. Data was collected to see whether the intervention was acceptable to families, whether the data collection tools were feasible to implement and whether Talking Together showed evidence of promise. Outcomes were compared between the intervention and waiting list control groups.

The results suggested that the intervention had a positive impact on:

• the home learning environment
• parent–child relationships
• children’s emotional and behavioural development

Qualitative interviews showed that practitioners consistently took a strengths based approach to developing families’ skills. This involved identifying and building on examples of good practice in the home, ensuring that families felt seen and celebrated. This approach was vital to the project’s success. It fostered trust and dialogue, demonstrating the value of having sensitive and skilled practitioners who work holistically with families.

The feasibility RCT also demonstrated that the intervention was acceptable to families. And, a full randomised controlled trial - powered to detect significant difference between groups, would be feasible to conduct. Especially if larger numbers of participants and funding were available. If taken forward, this could further strengthen the national evidence base concerning Talking Together.

Talking Together is just one of the approaches that show great promise as the early years sector rises to meet the targets set by central government.

In March, we will be sharing this learning - not just from Talking Together but from services across the broad span of the A Better Start programme. Including communities in Lambeth, Southend, Blackpool, Bradford and Nottingham - to ensure that practitioners have easy access to resources that can inspire the development of their own local approaches.

Find out more

Talking Together - Better Start Bradford

Talking Together - Project Impact Report

Better Start Bradford Innovation Hub - Talking Together Evaluation Report

Other resources and toolkits

Baby Week Bradford toolkit

Useful Better Start Bradford tools and resources

About A Better Start

Sign-up to the A Better Start mailing list. 

Read learning updates from across our programme.

A Better Start is a 10-year project set-up by The National Lottery Community Fund, the largest community funder in the UK.

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 are developing and testing ways to improve their children’s diet and nutrition, social and emotional development, and speech, language and communication.  

The NCB is coordinating the ambitious A Better Start's NCB-led learning and evidence programme for ABS, disseminating 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.