A GOVERNMENT minister has said a project to improve children’s lives in Bradford could be replicated across the country.

Nadhim Zahawi MP, Minister for Children and Families visited the Keighley and Bradford yesterday to mark one year since Bradford Council was named one of 12 “Opportunity Areas” by the government. It meant the district would get £11 million of funding to improve social mobility of the district’’s children.

During his visits he said how important it was that people with local knowledge worked to tackle health and education issues in Bradford.

Keighley is one of three localities which will benefit from share of a £500k investment in the new ‘Parents as Partners in Learning’ programme. In each locality, a partnership of parents, schools and the local community will design and deliver a local plan to build parents’ confidence and skills in supporting children’s learning. The Keighley project will be facilitated by the National Literacy Trust. The other localities are Eccleshill and Idle, facilitated by the Ravenscliffe Community Organisation, and Tong and Bowling, also facilitated by the Literacy Trust.

In Bradford City Hall he helped launch Evidence Active Schools’, a new campaign which, by summer 2020, will see Bradford schools benefitting from learning and tools generated by investment in research. Different groups across the district, including Born in Bradford and a Research School opened by Dixons Academies last year

Among the projects the campaign will work on is Glasses in Classes, which will see schools across Bradford work with researchers to improve children’s eyesight, and their reading and writing, by making sure they have the right glasses.

Addressing a crowd of young people, and representatives of several groups, Mr Zahawi said: “This is asking local people to come up with plans that they think will work in their areas, rather than someone in Whitehall telling people what to do. If we continue to support this, there is a high chance of it succeeding. Out of the 12 opportunity areas across the country, Bradford has 25 per cent of children in them. That means if you succeed in Bradford, you will likely succeed in all the other areas. If we get it right here we can take it to the rest of the country.”

Anne-Marie Canning, Independent Chair of Bradford’s Opportunity Area, said the research would lead to major long term changes in Bradford’s education. She added: “There are very few quick fixes in education, but some things will make a bit quicker than others. This is about using the best evidence we can collect to remove barriers to young people’s learning. There is a real potential to change the lives of children here.”