Building foundations for life
Over the last decade, The Princess of Wales has spent time looking into how experiences in early childhood are often the root cause of today’s hardest social challenges, such as addiction, family breakdown, poor mental health, suicide and homelessness.
Having met many people who are dealing with a range of issues, Her Royal Highness has seen over and over again how often these problems can be traced back to the earliest years of someone’s life. What we experience in our early years, from conception to the age of five, shapes the developing brain, which is why positive physical, emotional and cognitive development during this period is so crucial. It is a time when the building blocks are established, laying foundations that help provide greater resilience to deal with future adversity.
Her Royal Highness is committed to this crucial cause, but only by working together can we bring about positive, lasting change for generations to come.
THE ROYAL FOUNDATION CENTRE FOR EARLY CHILDHOOD
In June 2021, The Princess of Wales launched The Royal Foundation Centre for Early Childhood, which will drive awareness of and action on the extraordinary impact of the early years, in order to transform society for the future.
The Centre focuses on three key areas of activity:
- Research: promoting and commissioning high-quality research to increase knowledge and share best practice;
- Collaboration: working with people from across the private, public and voluntary sectors to collaborate on new solutions; and
- Creating Change: developing creative campaigns to raise awareness and inspire action, driving real, positive change on the early years.
To coincide with its launch, The Centre published its inaugural report Big Change Starts Small, which is a summary of decades of science and research on why the early years matter.
Visit the Centre for Early Childhood
SHAPING US
The key to a healthy, happy society lies in early childhood. However, in a 2022 survey, only 17% of the UK population identified the period between pregnancy and the age of five as the most important period for shaping a child’s future. In response, we launched ‘Shaping Us,’ a long-term public awareness campaign designed to transform the issue from one of scientific interest to one of the most strategically important topics of our time.
Watch the award-winning claymation launch video
The Business Taskforce
As employers, providers of goods and services, and influencers within modern society, businesses have unique touch points for catalysing and sustaining widespread change. Recognising this, The Princess of Wales established the Business Taskforce for Early Childhood in March 2023 with eight of the UK’s leading businesses. The Business Taskforce plays a critical role in raising awareness and creating and scaling tangible action to change the way early childhood is viewed and prioritised.
In 2024 The Business Taskforce published its report – “Prioritising early childhood for a happier, healthier society: How business can drive, and benefit from, transformative change in the UK.” Here, the Taskforce set out the business case for prioritising early childhood and identified the five areas where businesses can have the biggest impact.
5 BIG QUESTIONS LED TO #5BIGINSIGHTS
In 2020, The Royal Foundation commissioned Ipsos MORI to conduct a major research study – 5 Big Questions – exploring what the UK thinks about the under-fives. Launched by The Princess and open to everyone, it sought society’s views on raising the next generation so that we can all work together on the key issues affecting our communities and provide help where it’s needed most. 500,000 people filled in the survey, making it the largest ever response to a public survey of its kind.
The findings from this landmark work were shared in the #5BigInsights, which provide an unrivalled insight into public attitudes on the topic as well as informing The Princess’s work in this area. It will also be a vital source of information for the early years sector, helping to improve understanding of public perceptions of the importance of the early years, and the first-hand experiences of parents, families and carers. The #5BigInsights were shared and discussed at a Forum in November 2020.
