Research project
My First 1000 Days
- Start date: 1 November 2022
- End date: 1 April 2026
- Funder: Private Donor
- Primary investigator: Professors Jason Halford and Angela Graves
- Co-investigators: Professor Catherine Davies
- External co-investigators: Dr Marlies Rijnders; Dr Symone Detmar
Value
£5M
Partners and collaborators
TNO; Leeds City Council; Leeds Community Healthcare NHS Trust; Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust
Description
Project overview
The My First 1000 Days project focuses on giving children in the Leeds area the best possible start in life. This ambition aligns with both national guidance and the local priorities of the Leeds Health and Wellbeing Strategy and the Leeds Children and Young People’s Plan.
The My First 1000 days project brings together a range of experts across several disciplines and research groups from the University of Leeds, with expertise in children’s health and development, to improve the lives of families in a region of profound inequality. This dedicated project team are currently working in collaboration with TNO, and a range of regional partners, including Leeds City Council, Leeds Community Healthcare NHS Trust, Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, and representatives from the voluntary, community, and social enterprise (VCSE) sector. Together with TNO, the My First 1000 Days project team are developing a centering-based group care programme targeting families during the first 1000 days, to be implemented and evaluated in Leeds.
The centering-based group care approach was developed by our project partner TNO (Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research) and has been successfully implemented in healthcare systems in the Netherlands; it is innovative in that it seeks to integrate medical and social care systems by centering care within a group.
The My First 1000 Days centering-based group care programme is underpinned by the centering-based group care model and will build upon this model by including content focusing on four workstreams: Language and Cognitive Development, Physical Activity, Food and Nutrition. These are underpinned by the fourth workstream ‘Co-producing a Disability-Inclusive Model of Group Care’, which is a golden thread running throughout all aspects of the programme to ensure it is disability-inclusive.
Project update
The My First 1000 Days research programme is entering an exciting new phase, building on what we’ve learned to create more flexible and inclusive support for families. While the original intervention model could not be implemented as planned, this experience has provided valuable insights into the real-world challenges families face. These lessons are now shaping our next steps and supporting the design of solutions that better meet community needs.
Strategic Repositioning
The Steering Group has endorsed a transition to a pretotyping approach, widely recognised in innovation and implementation science. This methodology prioritises rapid, iterative testing of programme components with smaller participant groups and shorter timeframes.
As part of this next phase, the project will run four standalone, topic-based sessions for parents and caregivers. Families can attend one or more sessions depending on their interests and circumstances, rather than committing to a full programme. This flexible format makes participation easier and ensures we gather meaningful feedback to refine future support models.
The objectives of this phase are to:
• Identify and address barriers encountered during recruitment.
• Engage stakeholders to determine preferred forms of support, delivery mechanisms, and responsible actors.
• Generate qualitative insights to refine the intervention model and strengthen its evidence base.
This repositioning ensures that prior work remains integral to the project’s trajectory and positions the team to deliver meaningful social impact, robust academic outputs, and demonstrable value to the funder.
Why This Matters
The first 1,000 days of life are critical for a child’s development. This new approach gives families flexible, accessible opportunities to engage with support that fit their needs and preferences. By listening and adapting, we aim to co-create practical solutions that work for real lives.
Research Governance and Ethics
We are preparing an application for NHS ethics review, which would enable recruitment through NHS pathways if approved.
Collaboration and Timeline
The current collaboration agreement with TNO will conclude on its scheduled end date in February 2026, with continued liaison on obligations and future opportunities until that point. The pretotyping phase has now started and will run through August 2026, encompassing standalone events, stakeholder interviews, and focus groups with third-sector organisations. Subsequent analysis will inform academic publications and policy outputs.
Project Timeline
Below is a high-level visual representation of the revised delivery plan.
Impact
The overall aim of this project is to develop, implement and evaluate a centering-based group care programme, targeting families with children during the first 1000 days in Leeds. The project specifically aims to:
- Identify, and map, current service provisions and policies across Leeds.
- Identify area(s) of Leeds as appropriate settings for future implementation of the My First 1000 Days programme.
- Conduct a scoping review to identify, and map the breadth and depth of literature, implementing group-based programmes targeting primary caregivers and children during the first 1000 days.
- Establish key stakeholder groups to engage throughout the development, implementation and evaluation of the My First 1000 Days project.
- Explore the context-specific factors that will enhance or impede centering-based group care, considering the needs of primary caregivers and families (especially from vulnerable populations), the issues facing care providers and the facilitators and barriers of health care systems.
- Conduct interviews with key stakeholders, such as primary caregivers and key informants, to inform the content, and context, of a centering-based group care intervention (a feasibility study).
- Monitor and evaluate implementation of centering-based group care in Children’s Centres, assessing fidelity, sustainability, costs, effect and perceptions of benefit.
- Assess the acceptability of families receiving centering-based group care.
- Assess the acceptability of healthcare practitioners implementing centering-based group care.
Develop and disseminate an implementation strategy toolbox for the adaptation, implementation and scale up of the core components of centering-based group care during the first 1000 days.