2015 Conference Feedback Summary
The First Annual “A Better Start for Blackpool” conference was held on 20th October 2015 in the Hilton
Hotel.
There were 397 attendees with people representing the local community and from organisations including
the NSPCC, Blackpool Council, Blackpool Fylde and Wyre Hospitals/NHS, local schools and GP practices.
Local Authority
Health
22%
31%
Schools
0%
NSPCC
5%
PVIs and Childminders
4%
Better Start Boards/Partnerships
8%
8%
Police
22%
Other
Of the 118 evaluation forms completed, 74% advised they are part of the early years workforce. Of the
respondents, 75 people stated which organisation they are affiliated to:
Council - 36%
Hospital/NHS - 24%
Schools - 11%
NSPCC - 9%
Other - 20%
Keynote Speakers
Below is the number of people who answered they Strongly Agree and Agree that the speakers were a)
well presented, and b) provided information that is relevant and applicable to their workplace:
 Scott Greenhalgh - a) 92% b) 86%
 Dr Alain Gregoire - a) 95% b) 92%
 Professor Vivette Glover - a) 57% b) 69%
 Professor Pasco Fearon - a) 93% b) 94%
 Dr Nat Kendall-Taylor - a) 97%, b) 96%
Workshops
There were two workshop sessions held in the afternoon with the same five topics repeated for second
session allowing attendees the opportunity to attend two different workshops. Below is the total number of
people who booked onto the workshops:
 Dr Alain Gregoire and Chris Cuthbert: Maternal and Infant Mental Health - 214
 Ann Rowe: The Healthy Child Programme: Promoting Positive Child Health and Development -154
 Dr Angela Underdown and Dr Hilary Kennedy: Relationship Based Interventions: Baby Steps and
Video Interaction Guidance - 149
 Dr Arif Rajpura: A Public Health Approach in Early Years -143
 Professor Barry Carpenter: Tackling Parental Alcohol and Drug Misuse in the Perinatal Period -140
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Of those that responded 69% strongly agreed and agreed that the workshops were valuable to them and
67% that their knowledge and understanding of the topics discussed had increased.
The main themes from the conference feedback are summarised below.
Highlight of conference
The main themes were the opportunities to mix with other members of the Early Years Workforce, and the
quality of the speakers, especially, Nat Kendall-Taylor, Alain Gregoire and Professor Barry Carpenter.
Comments received included:
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Networking, underpinning of Better Start, our future for Blackpool. Importance of Children’s
Centres.
Nat Kendall-Taylor - interesting seeing the “real impact” in Blackpool.
Alain Gregoire’s challenge and “Call to arms”.
All relevant and informative, food excellent, venue good, good car parking.
The Brain Builders video intro to the conference, I think it should be shown on national TV.
A truly inspiring and informative event at a great conference venue
Professor Barry Carpenter’s workshop, mind blowing! You should bring him back to lecture on
how we advise parents to handle behaviours of children with FASD.
How the conference could be improved
Attendees said they would have preferred to have workshops between the speakers with more interaction
rather than listening and to include more localism, i.e. what Blackpool is going to do to implement Better
Start. Comments received include:
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More practical choices of workshops - practice alongside theory.
Separation of keynote speakers during the morning session.
A lot of ideas, more workshops.
More interaction.
Break into smaller groups and do more group work.
Copy of the slides used made available as I did not always get a chance to read them.
We really wanted to know how Better Start is going to work and be assessed on how well it is
working.
A little less national data - more real impact and how this will be implemented in Blackpool.
97.9% of respondents would both recommend the conference to a colleague, and would attend other
events held.
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