Princess Kate’s philanthropic work supporting the development of young children and families has been recognised in Parliament, as she was mentioned in the House of Commons Education Committee’s ‘Support for childcare and early years’ report.
In the report, released last week, the royal was lauded for the work of the Royal Foundation Centre for Early Childhood, which she established in June 2021.
It states: “The Princess of Wales has done important work to raise the profile of the Early Years through her Royal Foundation Centre for Early Childhood.
“Its 2020 report ‘State of the Nation: Understanding Public Attitudes to the Early Years’ stressed the importance of elevating the importance of the early years period in the public consciousness.
“The ECEC sector is independent, multi-faceted and diverse, and does not always benefit from the same structural lines of communication through local authorities as the school sector.
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“More outreach and strong channels of communication between the sector and the Government are needed to ensure that practitioners feel both valued and heard.”
Amongst the committee’s suggestions was that morale of those working the sector could be improved by better conditions, including increasing pay.
Since stepping up as a senior member of the Royal Family Kate has made early years support her principal focus, as she launched her campaign Shaping Us in January this year.
An offshoot of the Royal Foundation Centre for Early Childhood, Shaping Us aims to “increase public understanding of the crucial importance of the first five years of a child’s life”.
Their statement sets out their goal to transform “the issue from one of scientific interest to one of the most strategically important topics of our time”.
Many of the Princess’s recent solo engagements have seen her focusing on children and young people’s experiences and spending time interacting with them, as she did just last month in London while visiting the Foundling Museum and reopening the Young V&A.
Kate herself is a mother of three, to Prince George, who last weekend celebrated his tenth birthday, Princess Charlotte, eight, and Prince Louis, five.
During her speech at the launch of Shaping Us she said: “The campaign is fundamentally about shining a spotlight on the critical importance of early childhood and how it shapes the adults we become.
“This is why it is essential, to not only understand the unique importance of our earliest years, but to know what we can all do to help raise future generations of happy, healthy adults.”
