Princess Catherine and The Early Years

The Princess' vital work in the Early Years Space is not given enough credit

In late January of this year, the Princess of Wales began her #ShapingUs initiative in the U.K., an awareness campaign aimed at efforts to raise the profile of the early years of children's development. And her detractors were out in full force.

The same critics who showered much praise on the 40x40 campaign’s ability to create a “ripple effect” of service in the world were taking it upon themselves to poo-poo all over Princess Catherine’s initiative because derision runs deep. The refrain was predictable:

“I’m tired of hearing about this. What has she done?”

“Can anyone point to what she has even did aside from talking?”

You want to know how the Princess's work in this space has had a vital impact in the Early Years space? Not just with awareness but a tangible influencing of policies too? —Flexes Fingers— Here you go:

• In 2020, as part of her advocacy for Early Years, the Princess used her influence to lobby 19 British brands to donate more than 10,000 new items to more than 40 baby banks across the U.K. Diapers, formula, clothes, blankets — items that could make or break a baby’s well-being were donated to organizations that helped families in need on the ground. The CEO of the charity went on the record to laud Catherine for her advocacy.

Cat Ross, CEO of Baby Basics UK, says that the impact of Kate's initiative has been"amazing" and while the charity had some small donations from some brands before the royal's visit, it has "absolutely snowballed since the Duchess got involved".

Donations skyrocketed after the event and to this day, those same 19 brands continue to donate to these baby banks. This drive happened in the middle of COVID, a time of uncertainty for many families unsure of how they were going to put food on the table. Baby Banks are a vital resource for struggling families and this provided tangible relief for those in need. The point: Don’t listen to people in the comments section, listen to those being helped and what they say.

• In 2018, when pregnant with her third child, the Princess jointly launched Mentally Healthy Schools. MHS is a website platform that provides primary school teachers and staff access to mental health resources to help kids struggling with anxiety, stress, eating disorders and other ailments. It was such a popular platform for parents and students, that since its creation, the support network has since expanded! Six years after going live, it now services not just England, but Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales thanks in part to funding from Prince William and Princess Catherine’s Royal Foundation.

• Her affiliation with the BBC’s Tiny Happy People was exemplary. The Princess helped with creating video resources and social media content, endorsed and launched the program with an event where she met families which helped raise the profile of the program! Tiny Happy People is a government-funded BBC education project which provides a digital library of resources designed for those developing children’s language skills from the womb up to the age of four. THP get 120,000 social media views per day and the website engages 53,000 parents each week. Millions of parents and primary caregivers have taken advantage of these resources as they teach bread-and-butter parenting techniques like how to begin learning the difference between your babies cry and activities you can do to help them learn.

• The detractors want action? How about this: In 2019, After having multiple meetings with then Chancellor Javid to discuss the importance of #EarlyYears investment, an extra £66 million in funding was allocated, and Javid credited the Princess’ advocacy.

• Members of the Royal Family have to be careful about interfering in politics, but ultimately, the Princess wants to influence public policy, as well as attitudes of employers and others, just as conversations about mental Health with Heads Together years ago. You think we need investment? So does Princess Kate! She and the First Lady of the United States Dr. Jill Biden co-wrote and published an opinion piece stressing the importance of investing in the Early Years for children. She has been lending her voice to this issue for years.

  

• In the Summer of 2022, the Princess held a round table with press and U.K. MPs, including chancellor Javid. Those at the table were the ones holding the Government purse strings, and who had the power to allocate more money and resources to caregivers and parents of young children. Data mined from the Princess’s Centre for Early Childhood was used to drive this point home.

• As patron of the Maternal Mental Health Leadership Alliance: MMHLA, the Princess of Wales told members that: “No mother is immune to anxiety and depression”. She gave the stat that 20% of mothers experience perinatal mental illness and called for improvements in maternal mental health services. The MMHLA is made up of over 100 organizations, dedicated to ensuring women and families affected by perinatal mental health problems have access to high quality, comprehensive perinatal mental health care. And they have the future Queen of England as their advocate. MMHLA's “Everyone's Business” awareness campaign, was also socialized by the Princess publicly.

• Importantly, millions of dollars has been donated by the Royal Foundation to help children and families, most notably during the pandemic.

All of the above is not a comprehensive list but it goes to show there is action behind her campaigns. And we’ve seen the fruits of that labor.

1. Millions donated by the Royal Foundation to help children & families

2. Op-Eds in U.S. and UK publications calling for more government investment into helping children

3. Resources created to help new parents and caregivers

4. Endorsements of government run programs

Much of what the Princes is advocating for is improving professional support for parents and caregivers. Like the Sure Start Children’s Centers in the U.K. created by Britain’s Labour Government in 1998. Since 2010, more than 1000 of these centers have been shut down due to budget cuts.

The Princess is telling us and using her influence to advocate for these types of programs and support. And it looks like people are listening:

Prince Minister Rishi Sunak announced a £300 million pound investment that will fund family hubs in the region. Sunak and Dame Andrea Leadsom wrote an Op-Ed together extolling the importance of supporting parents and caregivers and doing what we can to help them raise healthy, happy, thriving children:

“All data shows that kids with a safe and secure home environment do better at school. Strong Supportive families also make for more stable communities& happier individuals.”

As Neil Leitch, chief executive of the Early Years Alliance:

"I wholeheartedly welcome the Princess’ engagement with this issue. For far too long, the early years has been deprioritised, disregarded and ignored when it comes to sector funding, despite a wealth of research showing that the first five years of a child's life are absolutely critical in shaping their long-term learning and development.”

"We hope that the princess's dedication to highlighting the importance of early childhood will prompt the government to sit up, take action and realise that education doesn't just begin when a child reaches the school gates," said Mr Leitch.

The Commons Education Select Committee also launched an inquiry into Early Years and affordable childcare. And an MP even name-checked her advocacy with helping push this forward. What was it I said? Don’t listen to people in the comments section, listen to with boots on the ground and those being helped. Listen to what they have to say.

Early Childhood Care and Early Childhood Education is too often misunderstood and under-appreciated. Teachers and pre-school care-givers are raising our future. And every opportunity that powerful people like the Princess of Wales have to point it out is worthwhile no matter how small. Every time the Princess visits a daycare, writesan op-ed about how important funding is for these spaces or holds a forum and invites MPs who control funding, it makes front page news everywhere and imbues a sense of value in providing these opportunities for children.

The work of Princess Catherine, The Center for Early Childhood Foundation, Shaping Us campaign also fights back against the misogyny and alt-right conservative concept that women should stay home, raise kids and take care of their men. It’s saying it takes a village. The constant reinforcement of the value of childcare, activity centers and programs in the first five years? Crucial. More work will be done. More works needs to be done. No one's claiming the work is finished. Early Years has been in the news because of this campaign, because of the Princess.

MPs have been tweeting and taking note. It may be common sense to you but over a third of people have no idea how important this support is. And having an advocate like the Princess of Wales will be a net positive on this issue.

So the next time someone wants to pretend like nothing is being done or asks “Where’s the action?”, send them this page. The people in power are responding to the public pressure, the awareness campaign, to the advocacy of people like the Princess of Wales.

I hope you all enjoyed this deep dive into the Early Year goals and actions from Princess Catherine. Anything new you learned?

-L.S.