In her keynote, Louise Bazalgette speaks about the scale of the challenge in closing the gap in early years outcomes in the UK. This takes a sector-wide effort drawing on the best evidence about what works, while staying focused on the parents we’re seeking to support, and designing services to be attractive and accessible to reduce barriers to engagement. Louise draws on a range of examples of promising approaches and shares insights from Nesta’s recent work.
Louise is Deputy Director of Nesta’s Fairer Start mission, which aims to eliminate the school readiness gap between disadvantaged children and their peers in the UK. Louise’s work is particularly focused on adapting and scaling evidence-based parenting support. Previously Louise worked in Nesta’s Alliance for Useful Evidence as part of the team establishing What Works for Children’s Social Care, which is now part of Foundations. Before she joined Nesta, Louise worked at the NSPCC and Demos.