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Using data in the early years

In A fairer start
19 Nov 2025
The Great Victoria Hotel, Bradford

We partnered with Born in Bradford for our sixth Using data in the early years event.

Over the past 18 years, Born in Bradford has developed a system of connected data to understand and improve the lives of children and families.

We jointly hosted this day event for everyone working with data in relation to the early years. The event offered an open space to share ideas on how we can use data better and learn from existing initiatives - whether you’re an early years leader seeking to improve local services, a researcher exploring data insights, or a policymaker thinking about how integrated family support systems can work more effectively.

The day featured:

  • a session showcasing how Born in Bradford data has changed a city
  • a Nesta learning session sharing our recent work using data in the early years
  • a lightning round of rapid presentations from our wider community to learn from approaches being taken in other local areas
  • a joint keynote from Professors Jenny Woodman (UCL) and Josie Dickerson (Born in Bradford) on how early years data can shape policy
  • a panel Q&A bringing together local, national and parent perspectives on using data to support children’s outcomes

Speakers

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Professor Jenny Woodman

She/Her

Professor Jenny Woodman is a senior public health researcher in child and family policy, leading a portfolio of studies describing and evaluating public services for vulnerable children and their families, especially multidisciplinary services. In her mixed method cross-disciplinary studies, Jenny brings together large-scale analyses of linked administrative data and in-depth qualitative methods to understand how children and their parents are interacting with health, social care and education services over childhood, why this is and with what impact and implications for child and family health and wellbeing. Much of Jenny’s current work focuses on health visiting, the universal service for early childhood in England.

josie-dickerson

Professor Josie Dickerson

She/Her

Professor Josie Dickerson is a senior applied health researcher specialising in systems-based approaches to improving child health, wellbeing and development, with a particular focus on reducing inequalities. She leads Born in Bradford’s Better Start (BiBBS), the world’s first interventional birth cohort, which generates high-quality, practice-informed evidence to inform early years policy and services. In her cross-sector research, Josie brings together innovative approaches to data capture, large-scale cohort analyses and close collaboration with communities, practitioners and policymakers to understand how early years systems can best support equitable child development.

Event information

19 Nov 2025

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