The previous few weeks have been incredibly busy which is why I’ve not blogged for a while. What follows are some highlights.

Our Small Wonders project has seen a lot of important developments. The robust tendering process to find a unit in which to run Best Beginnings' “Small Wonders Practitioner, Parent, Champions Project” was successful. The opportunity was won by Liverpool Women's Hospital where a full-time band 7 nurse in the role of Practitioner Champion will be implemented in the neonatal unit for up to 3 years. The success of this pilot project in Liverpool will lay the foundations for a rollout to neonatal units across the country.

Rough cuts of the 6 films that make up the Small Wonders DVD have been viewed by over 200 experts. We are very grateful for their invaluable input and feedback. In late June, over 50 stakeholders came together for the second Small Wonders Stakeholder event to suggest ways in which the films could be made more effective. We are very grateful to everyone who gave their time to make this event a success and in particular to Coin Street Neighbourhood Centre who kindly donated the use of their lovely venue for this important meeting. We are soon to receive the final report from the market research that we commissioned to find out what parents of premature and sick babies think about the rough-cuts of our Small Wonders films. Over the summer we will be collating the feedback from parents and professionals to ensure that the finished DVD delivers to the needs of parents, professionals and also to the evidence-base

In governance, Best Beginnings was proud to be nominated for the ICAEW's Charity Online Financial Reporting Awards. Though we didn't win, we are very pleased that our accounts were recognised as being of a high enough standard to be shortlisted for this award.

On the fundraising front, we were one of the selected eBay charities during the week of Monday 4th July. Thank you to everyone who ticked the box when buying on eBay to help us give UK babies a better start in life.

On Sunday 10th July, we once again saw our Best Beginnings team take part in the Asics British 10k London Run. This is the third year we have had a team at this brilliant event. Click here to support our runners. Thanks to the pro-bono support of Jonathan Allen at Bat Fish Media and Rashid Williams at Article10 we already have a number of films about the day featuring lots of our runs. Click through to their fundraising pages to see their personal message!
 
Our last piece of good news is that Best Beginnings is proud to have brought in-house the National Teenage Pregnancy Midwifery Network Newsletter. This excellent newsletter has, historically, been housed within the Department of Education as part of the Teenage Pregnancy Strategy. We are delighted to welcome Jenny McLeish the author of the newsletter to the Best Beginnings’ Team. If you would like to receive the Summer issue, please email Jenny at [email protected].

Thanks for reading and I look forward to updating you next month on the busy month ahead!

Alison