BiBBS ACHIEVE: Family Stories
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Addressing Childhood Inequalities through Evidence-Based Early Interventions using Born in Bradford's Better Start birth cohort: Qualitative Longitudinal Research with Family Units.
IRAS ID
369653
Contact name
Sara Ahern
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
Open Access publisher TBC, Protocol publication
Duration of Study in the UK
6 years, 10 months, 28 days
Research summary
Born in Bradford Better Start (BiBBS) birth cohort recruited pregnant women (and later their babies) from the three Bradford wards between 2016 and 2024. The cohort was established as one of the worlds first interventional birth cohorts to allow evaluation of early years interventions set up by Better Start Bradford (BSB). During the recruitment of the cohort, the UK experienced multiple 'systemic shocks' in the form of reductions to government spending as part of austerity, the COVID-19 pandemic, and a cost-of-living crisis. These have contributed to widening inequalities but the longer-term impacts of these shocks for families remains unknown. This project forms part of a wider programme of work (funded by Wellcome Trust) which will follow-up the BiBBS cohort mothers and children when they are age 7-8. This project will work with 30 family units from within the BiBBS cohort over 6 years for qualitative longitudinal research.
Families will be identified from within the cohort on the basis of key characteristics (e.g., social support available) as reported in the BiBBS baseline questionnaire. Each family unit will consist of a BiBBS mother, her children, and any other adults and children within the household. For example, a spouse, partner, or parents living in the household. Families will be contacted with information about the project and will volunteer to take part. Each family unit will be involved in an annual group discussion and annual individual engagements with the researcher. For adult family members, the individual engagements will take the form of semi-structured qualitative interviews. For child family members, individual discussions will involve creative qualitative methods such as creating visual outputs or answering questions through play. Discussion topics across group discussions and individual engagements will include changes in response to 'systemic shocks', family dynamics, child development, and health and wellbeing.
REC name
Yorkshire & The Humber - Sheffield Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
26/YH/0090
Date of REC Opinion
15 May 2026
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion