Study gets £4.5m to examine children's health

Funding has been secured for a study examining the impact of systemic shocks such as the Covid pandemic and cost-of-living crisis on children's health and development.

Born in Bradford - an internationally recognised research programme that originally studied 12,500 babies born in the city between March 2007 and December 2010 - has received £4.5m from the Wellcome Discovery Award.

The cash will fund an eight-year study aimed at addressing childhood health and wellbeing inequalities in inner-city Bradford.

Programme director Dr Josie Dickerson said: "This award is a recognition of over a decade of commitment from families, service providers and researchers in Bradford."

The research will focus on areas of Bradford where investment was made by the National Lottery between 2015 and 2025.

This consists of three inner-city wards - Bowling and Barkerend, Bradford Moor and Little Horton - which were originally identified as having some of the poorest child outcomes in the district.

The study will follow the children of women recruited by Born in Bradford between 2016 and 2024.

Many of these children are now at primary school and the new programme - dubbed BiBBS ACHIEVE - "provides an opportunity to follow up families and understand how the recent systemic shocks have impacted on children's longer-term outcomes".

Dr Dickerson said: "With Wellcome's support, we can take a huge leap forward in understanding how to build a healthier, happier and fairer future for children living in inner-city areas who face the greatest disadvantages."

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