Leeds is a city with great strengths to support early childhood development, but a number of challenges too. A range of inequalities persist across the city linked with deprivation levels. These are particularly concentrated in specific areas with long-term related challenges such as access to employment, housing, language and literacy, health and care responsibilities. There is a geographical concentration of deprivation in inner east and inner south Leeds, with 24% of neighbourhoods across the city are among the most deprived 10% nationally and 35,000 children in Leeds living in poverty.

The circumstances of our childhood set us on a path that affects the rest of our lives. Children born into disadvantage are more likely to experience poorer health, lower earnings and lower levels of happiness than their peers. But it doesn't have to be that way. If children and their families get the right support, particularly at crucial points in childhood, then it is possible to change lives.

Nesta’s vision is for every child to have the fairest possible start in life, so they can thrive and realise their potential. Our goal is that, by 2030, every child has the same chance of developing to their full potential in the early years. This can’t be achieved by any single organisation in isolation, so we are working with innovation partners to help us realise our vision.

Working together so closely and for such a sustained period of time gave us opportunities to tackle challenging problems - and allowed us to really understand the context, systems and people in Leeds that we worked with and for. Highlights of this work included analysing data on library book borrowing to optimise the Story Bus service, and installing a series of vibrant play installations to support language development through creativity and play.