The Duchess of Cambridge The Royal Foundation Centre for Early Childhood launch – Tatler

As a mother of three herself, it’s no surprise that the Duchess of Cambridge has chosen to focus on children as a key cornerstone of her work within the Royal Family. Today, she’s announced the launch of an ambitious new venture in the area, The Royal Foundation Centre for Early Childhood.

An announcement from Kensington Palace explained that the innovative Centre will aim to ‘drive awareness of and action on the extraordinary impact of the early years, in order to transform society for generations to come.’ This mission will be hinged around three main areas: ‘promoting and commissioning high-quality research to increase knowledge and share best practice; working with people from across the private, public and voluntary sectors to collaborate on new solutions; and developing creative campaigns to raise awareness and inspire action, driving real, positive change on the early years.’ The Palace added that the Duchess’s latest project ‘is a landmark step in Her Royal Highness’ work and signals her lifelong commitment to improving outcomes across society.’

Explaining the genesis of the project in a newly-released video, the Duchess stated: ‘My own journey into understanding the importance of early childhood actually started with adults, and not with children. It was about prevention. I wanted to understand what more we could do to help prevent some of today’s toughest social challenges, and what more we could do to help with the rising rates of poor mental health. I’ve spoken to psychiatrists and neuroscientists, to practitioners and academics and parents alike, and what has become clear is that the best investment for our future health and happiness is in the first five years of life.

‘And that is why today I am launching the Royal Foundation Centre for Early Childhood. Working closely with others, the Centre hopes to raise awareness of why the first five years of life are just so important for our future life outcomes, and what we can do as a society to embrace this golden opportunity to create a happier, more mentally healthy, more nurturing society. By working together, my hope is that we can change the way we think about early childhood, and transform lives for generations to come. Because I truly believe big change starts small.’

To kickstart the launch of the new venture, the Centre has also published its first ever report, entitled Big Change Starts Small. Written with the involvement of The Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University and the London School of Economics, it ‘underlines the critical lifelong impact of the early years on individuals, our economy and society at large’, as well as laying out ‘recommendations on how all aspects of society can contribute positively and make a difference on this important issue.’ The report has found that if steps were implemented to address burgeoning problems in early childhood, a staggering £16.13 billion per year could be saved in England alone, which is spent on trying to remedy concerns (like physical and mental health struggles) further down the line.

In the foreword of the new report, Kate writes: ‘Our first five years lay important foundations for our future selves. This period is when we first learn to manage our emotions and impulses, to care and to empathise, and thus ultimately to establish healthy relationships with ourselves and others. It is a time when our experience of the world around us, and the way that moulds our development, can have a lifelong impact on our future mental and physical wellbeing. Indeed, what shapes our childhood shapes the adults and the parents we become.’

The Royal Foundation Centre for Early Childhood has also debuted a dedicated website, centreforearlychildhood.org, which offers an insight into its mission and work, as well as raising awareness and acting as a source of information for those seeking to find out more about the importance of early childhood.

The launch of the new Centre comes as the latest evolution in a string of Kate’s projects in this area. The Royal Foundation previously commissioned the biggest ever UK study on the early years, with the Duchess leading a nationwide survey entitled ‘5 Big Questions on the Under-Fives’ last year. And just last week, Kate was joined by the US First Lady, Dr Jill Biden, for a special visit to Connor Downs Academy in Cornwall, where the pair met students and hosted a roundtable discussion about the importance of children’s early years.

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