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 will focus 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.
Since launch, the work of the Centre has taken this vital topic onto the global stage, overseas, through visits to Denmark and Jamaica.
Visit the Centre for Early Childhood
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.
Early Years Steering Group
A steering group was established in May 2018 to look at how we could work collaboratively to bring about positive lasting change. The Princess heard first-hand from this group about the lasting effects of adverse childhood experiences, but also how positive, protective factors in the early years can play a crucial role in long-term outcomes for our children.
The knowledge we now have about the importance of the early years – and the long-term impact of our earliest experiences – provides us with both an obligation and an opportunity.
Tiny Happy People
Her Royal Highness has supported the development of BBC Education’s Tiny Happy People – an initiative providing a range of free digital resources designed to support parents and carers in developing children’s language from pregnancy to the age of four.
Recognising the significance of the project to supporting parents as they guide their children through the earliest years of life, Her Royal Highness supported the launch of the project in July 2020.
Click here to visit the BBC's Tiny Happy People98%
of people believe nurture is essential to lifelong outcomes, but only 1 in 4 recognise the specific importance of the first five years of a child’s life.
500k
people responded to our 5 Big Questions on the under-fives - the largest ever public survey of its kind on the early years
£16.13B
is the estimated social cost of late intervention each year
