Baby Basics National Conference 2023

We were so excited to have our first ever Baby Basics National Conference! We welcomed our centres from all across the UK to our national conference held at St Mary’s Marylebone to celebrate our collective achievements and to spend time envisaging what is next for Baby Basics UK.

Our CEO, Cat Ross, thanked all the centres for their ongoing commitment, especially over the last 3 years as we faced the Covid-19 pandemic and welcomed families resettling from Afghanistan and Ukraine. She also shared what has been happening nationally.

Our wonderful patron, Rev Kate Bottley, thanked our Baby Basics Centres and shared her heart for Baby Basics and what we do as a charity.

The amazing Sarah McMullen, Associate Director of Research and Policy, from The Royal Foundation Centre for Early Childhood shared the work of the foundation and the Shaping Us campaign and how we are part of creating change.

We were blessed with some brilliant break our sessions. Cat Ross and Louise Ellis hosted a group chat, Jenny Pegg and Rev Kate Bottley facilitated a time of prayer and Marlene Gorman, Breath Work Specialist, led a relaxation session. Thank you so much to the wonderful leaders from these amazing sessions.

Our centres were able to discuss what’s on their heart for Baby Basics and fed this back to the larger group.

We also celebrated 10 years of the incredible Baby Basics Northampton.

It was a wonderful day and we are so thankful for all those that came.

Shaping Us campaign from The Royal Foundation Centre for Early Childhood

Baby Basics is proud to support the #ShapingUs campaign from The Royal Foundation Centre for Early Childhood, spearheaded by HRH The Princess of Wales. We are thankful for them continuing to highlight the importance of the early years in shaping healthy, happy adults and calling for recognition of “The life-changing impact we can have when we create a supportive & nurturing world around children, and those who care for them”. Many of the families referred to Baby Basics find themselves, for many different reasons, needing extra support, whether physically, financially, or emotionally. We appreciate that what we do is a small but essential part of the holistic approach that is crucial if we want to see real change. If you want to help change the experience of a child by supporting your local Baby Basics centre, please find more information here http://www.baby-basics.org.uk/other-locations 

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What an honour!

Our CEO, Cat Ross, has been invited by the South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority to be part of a team of 8 taking part in the Bloomberg/Harvard City Leadership Initiative – focusing on health inequalities in the early years.

This includes an intensive week of teaching, researching & planning in NYC (All cost covered by Bloomberg Philanthropies). We are excited to be working with other key leaders in South Yorkshire from NHS, LA’s & Sheffield Hallam University.

Cat’s hope is that not only will we see plans to improve lives for 0-5yr olds in South Yorkshire but the implementation can be replicated across other areas of the UK.

2022 Statistics

As 2022 comes to a close we want to say a massive thank you to every person who has volunteered, donated, funded and cheered us on this year. Baby Basics wishes everyone a wonderful Christmas and New Year! Baby Basics has supported 43662 children and their families this year.

Last Homes for Ukraine Referral… for now!

Yesterday was emotional as we packed up the last (for now 🤞) referral for #homesforukraine families & shipped them out. We are proud to have supported 2980 Ukrainian children, their families & their hosts since April.
We hope to be able to support more Ukrainian families resettling in the UK next year from our warehouse. Huge thank you to all our volunteers, our funders, our corporate supporters & everyone who has donated through our wish lists.