About Nesta

Nesta is an innovation foundation. For us, innovation means turning bold ideas into reality and changing lives for the better. We use our expertise, skills and funding in areas where there are big challenges facing society.

Our mission is to narrow the outcome gap between children growing up in disadvantage and the national average.

The challenge

All babies and children need stable, caring relationships and stimulating experiences to thrive. The environment and experiences of early childhood shape our brains and bodies, creating the building blocks of our physical, emotional and cognitive skills.

Not every child gets what they need to develop during the early years. Children growing up in poverty are less likely to live a long, fulfilling and happy life than their peers. It’s not right that some people are disadvantaged throughout their lives because of the family circumstances at birth. With the right support during the earliest years, we can change that.

Together, we can make sure that every baby and young child has the same opportunity to develop and to thrive.

Our goal

By 2030, the UK will have eliminated the school readiness gap between babies and young children born into deprivation and their peers. We will do this by:

  • looking at ways to support parents by gathering evidence on the most impactful parenting programmes and figuring out how they might be scaled.
  • understanding the potential impact of income support and trialling cash transfers in the UK context
  • improving data across early years services and investigating how to tailor support to make it quicker and more personal
  • influencing government with clear and costed options for policies that would reduce educational inequalities

Work

Read the latest work and thinking from our mission

Projects

The latest on our research, challenges and practical programmes

People

Speak to us about partnerships or find out more about the people behind our mission

Sarah Cattan

Sarah Cattan

Mission Director, fairer start mission

Sarah Cattan

Mission Director, fairer start mission

Sarah leads Nesta's a fairer start mission.

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Louise Bazalgette

Louise Bazalgette

Deputy Director, fairer start mission

Louise Bazalgette

Deputy Director, fairer start mission

Louise works as part of a multi-disciplinary innovation team focused on narrowing the outcome gap for disadvantaged children.

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Tom Symons

Tom Symons

Deputy Director, fairer start mission

Tom Symons

Deputy Director, fairer start mission

Tom is the deputy mission director for the fairer start mission at Nesta.

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