Evaluating early years support with the Born in Bradford’s Better Start (BiBBS) cohort

Join the ADR England Community Catalyst: Children at Risk of Poor Outcomes group for their next webinar, focusing on evaluation using administrative data. This session will discuss Born in Bradford's Better Start study for the evaluation of early years support.

Register for a place

Inequalities in children’s early outcomes are persistent, and early parenting support and interventions could prevent the onset of these. 

Part of the Born in Bradford family of cohort studies, Born in Bradford’s Better Start (BiBBS) is an ‘interventional’ birth cohort study that recruited from 2015-2025 in inner-city Bradford. BiBBS links to 'Better Start Bradford' intervention data, which was one of five sites funded by The National Lottery Community fund’s A Better Start programme. 

This seminar will provide an overview of the BiBBS data and how it can be utilised effectively for prevention research, including examples of ongoing quantitative evaluations, and next steps for BiBBS as a platform for future prevention research.

About the speakers

Dr Kate Mooney

Kate is a Research Fellow in Epidemiology and Evaluation Methods, and works in the Family Wellbeing team within the Public Health and Society Research Group (Department of Health Sciences, University of York). Kate works closely with the Born in Bradford's Better Start team to evaluate multiple early life interventions, and is interested in investigating and reducing social inequalities in children’s outcomes. More on the Family Wellbeing Team is also available on their LinkedIn page.

Prof Josie Dickerson

Prof Josie Dickerson is a research director in Born in Bradford, leading the FaIR team (Family Inequalities Research for prevention and early intervention). Josie was born and bred in Bradford and is passionate about making Bradford a great place for all children to live and grow, as well as sharing this learning nationally and internationally. Josie’s work focusses on building research evidence that ensures that all children reach their full potential. To do so, she works closely with families, stakeholders and, decision and policy makers to improve services and the wider early years system. Josie leads the world’s first experimental birth cohort: Born in Bradford’s Better Start, which has recently been awarded a Wellcome Discovery award to follow-up children in middle childhood to understand the longer-term impacts of early interventions, and long-term consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic. Josie holds a NIHR Population Health Career Scientist award, an Honorary Professorship at the University of York and is proud to be the Chair of INRICH (International Network for Research on Inequalities in Child Health).

Event details

When: Monday 21 September, 11:00 - 12:00

Where: Online

Cost: Free

How to register: Sign up on Ticketsource. We will email you a Zoom webinar link within three working days of registration. If you experience any problems, please email marie.greaves@swansea.ac.uk.

About the ADR England Research Community Catalyst: Children at risk of poor outcomes 

Co-funded by ADR England and Foundations – What Works Centre for Children and Families, the ADR England Research Community Catalyst: Children at risk of poor outcomes supports a growing community of researchers and analysts, with a focus on children and young people in children’s social care across the UK.

The Community Catalyst supports the use of administrative data, particularly ADR England flagship datasets, to strengthen the evidence base. A key priority is supporting and enabling the use of administrative data for evaluation, helping to understand the impact of services and improve outcomes for children and young people. This work is guided by a Research Agenda, developed through a comprehensive evidence review and national stakeholder consultation.