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Using data in the early years

In A fairer start

19 Nov 2025 10:00 – 16:00

The Great Victoria Hotel, Bradford

Free

We’re delighted to announce that Nesta will be partnering 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’re excited to bring our next data event to the city of Bradford - a city of research and the city of culture for 2025.

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. On Wednesday 19 November, 11:00-16:00 GMT at The Great Victoria Hotel, Bradford, Nesta and Born in Bradford will host this day event for everyone working with data in relation to the early years. The event will offer 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. This will be followed by an optional networking and poster session.

The day will feature:

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

Why you should come

Attendees will have the chance to hear a range of perspectives and approaches to putting data at the heart of improving early years services - from tackling local challenges to developing practical, scalable solutions.

You’ll gain insights into how Born in Bradford has used connected data to understand communities and improve outcomes over time, and how others are tackling similar challenges across the UK. Most importantly, this event is a chance to meet and collaborate with others working across early years systems - from local authorities and health services to policymakers and researchers - and to form new partnerships that support collective action.

Share your work

We’re inviting attendees to contribute their own learning and experiences. If you’re interested in sharing your work, please submit a short 150-word proposal for either a five-minute talk as part of our lightning round or a poster for our poster session.

We welcome examples of both operational and strategic work, whether complete or ongoing. Topics of interest might include:

Integration of data systems across agencies
Multi-agency data sharing and governance
Using data for prevention, targeting or evaluation
Bringing data into strategic decision-making

Who should attend

This event is for anyone passionate about using data to improve children’s outcomes. You might be a strategic early years lead in a local authority, an early years practitioner, a policymaker or researcher working on holistic family support or anyone seeking to use data more effectively to improve outcomes for children and families.

Register today to confirm your attendance and receive the event link, reminders and updates straight to your inbox.

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.

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.

Using data in the early years

About Nesta

Using data in the early years