The Center for Early Chilhood: A Decade of Dedicated Research
The Princess of Wales’s commitment to early childhood is the cornerstone of her royal work. This is not a fleeting patronage but a deeply researched, decade-long professional vocation. Her work focuses on the crucial period from pregnancy to the age of five, recognizing this as the single most important time for brain development. She has methodically built a case that the experiences, relationships, and environment during these first five years lay the foundation for a person’s entire life. By investigating the root causes of major societal challenges—such as addiction, family breakdown, poor mental health, and even homelessness—she found a common thread: adverse early experiences.
This realization led to the establishment of The Royal Foundation Centre for Early Childhood in June 2021. The Centre’s mission is clear: to drive awareness and action on the extraordinary impact of the early years, aiming to transform society for the future. The Princess has moved beyond simply raising awareness; her strategy is rooted in rigorous science and data. She believes that to create a happier, healthier society, we must invest in the ‘human’ infrastructure during these most formative years. This involves translating complex scientific findings about brain development into accessible, actionable insights for everyone in society.
The journey leading to the Centre’s launch was marked by extensive preparation. In 2020, the Princess spearheaded “5 Big Questions on the Under-Fives,” a landmark national survey. This survey sparked the biggest ever public conversation on early childhood, receiving over 500,000 responses from parents and carers across the UK. The overwhelming response provided vital, first-hand data, revealing a significant gap: while most people recognized the importance of the early years, few understood the specific impact on future development. This research confirmed the need for a targeted, long-term campaign.
The Centre for Early Childhood acts as a strategic hub. It is designed to bridge the gap between scientific expertise and public understanding, ensuring that best practices are supported and scaled. The Princess has convened a steering group of world-leading academics, practitioners, and policymakers. Her approach is characterized by collaboration, uniting people from the private, public, and voluntary sectors. This thoughtful, evidence-based focus is a hallmark of her royal service, demonstrating a mature, professional dedication to a cause that she views as key to the nation’s future well-being.
The ‘Shaping Us’ Campaign: Changing the National Conversation
The Princess of Wales launched her landmark ‘Shaping Us’ campaign in January 2023, designed to be a long-term initiative to increase public understanding of early childhood’s crucial importance. The campaign aims to transform the issue from one of scientific interest to one of the most strategically important topics of our time. It is a powerful, creative effort to shift mindsets across society, emphasizing that every individual—not just parents—has a role in supporting the next generation. The campaign’s message is that the social and emotional development of a child is the foundation for a thriving society.
The campaign’s initial launch included a poignant 90-second claymation film, “Layla’s Story,” which vividly demonstrated how a child’s brain develops at an incredible rate before the age of five. It showed how a little girl named Layla is shaped by her positive and negative interactions with the people and environment around her. This accessible, emotionally resonant film was screened in cinemas and on major digital platforms, helping to demystify the science for a mass audience. The goal was to inspire every person to see themselves as a potential ‘shaper’ of a child’s life, acknowledging that a supportive community can make a lifelong difference.
A key development within the campaign is the “Shaping Us Framework,” published in early 2025. This framework, developed with top global experts, provides a universal and flexible way to talk about the 30 social and emotional skills that underpin human development. These skills are grouped into six clusters, such as “knowing ourselves,” “managing our emotions,” and “nurturing our relationships.” The framework’s objective is to provide a common language for everyone—parents, teachers, employers, and communities—to understand and prioritize these vital life skills from early childhood through adulthood.
The Princess is utilizing every possible avenue to embed this understanding, including a new animated film series launched in August 2025. This series unpacks the science of social and emotional development, offering practical guidance for professionals and volunteers working with families. It is already being adopted by over 25 organizations, including universities and charities, as a core part of their training programs. By focusing on creating accessible tools and collaborating with existing infrastructure, Princess Catherine ensures her work has a meaningful, scalable impact on the ground.
Mobilizing the Private Sector: The Business Taskforce
Recognizing that government and the third sector cannot tackle this challenge alone, The Princess of Wales has strategically engaged the private sector. In March 2023, she established The Royal Foundation Business Taskforce for Early Childhood, bringing together leaders from eight of the UK’s most influential businesses. This initiative is a profound demonstration of her strategic thinking: transforming the issue into an economic imperative rather than just a social one. The Princess understands that businesses, as major employers and societal influencers, have a unique and vital role to play.
The Taskforce’s report, released in May 2024, made a compelling case for prioritizing early childhood, setting out the tangible business benefits. It showed that investing in the early years workforce, supporting parents through flexible working, and building family-friendly communities can lead to significant economic gains. These benefits include reduced staff turnover, increased productivity, and the development of stronger social and emotional skills in future employees. By framing the issue as an “investment in humankind,” the Princess made a powerful pitch to the corporate world, securing their expertise and resources.
The Taskforce has already delivered on several commitments. One major focus is improving parental support within the workplace. Businesses are implementing new policies, such as enhanced parental leave and childcare provisions. They are also utilizing the “Shaping Us Framework” to create a more supportive culture, helping employees understand their own social and emotional needs as they raise young children. This groundbreaking partnership is proof that the royal platform can effectively mobilize corporate responsibility, creating a more nurturing society from the ground up.
Furthermore, the Princess is ensuring that the learning from the Taskforce is not confined to the UK. She is keenly interested in sharing the business case for early childhood internationally. By focusing on global best practices and demonstrating scalable models of collaboration, she is positioning the Centre for Early Childhood as a global thought leader. This global ambition is critical for achieving true systemic change, ensuring that children everywhere have the strongest start in life. The involvement of major businesses gives the initiative financial muscle and a broad reach into the lives of millions of working parents and carers.
Innovative Projects and Measurable Impact
The Centre for Early Childhood is not just an awareness campaign; it is a funding and action-oriented body supporting real-world, innovative pilots. These projects are designed to test new ways of applying the scientific understanding of early childhood development, with a view to scaling successful models nationally. The Princess’s team prioritizes initiatives that focus on early intervention, aiming to prevent problems from escalating into entrenched adult issues.
One notable pilot funded by the Centre is “Happy Little Minds,” a collaboration between two of Catherine’s key patronages, Barnardo’s and Place2Be. Launched in June 2025, this initiative placed mental health practitioners in two early education settings in underprivileged areas of London. The practitioners provide bespoke training for nursery staff and consultation for families, focusing on supporting the social and emotional development of babies and young children. This project directly addresses the fact that many adult mental health problems have their roots in early childhood, showing a commitment to upstream prevention.
Another key pilot funded by the Centre was the trial of the Alarm Distress Baby Scale (ADBB), an international observation tool for Health Visitors. This tool focuses on a baby’s social behaviors—such as eye contact, facial expression, and vocalization—to help practitioners and families better understand how babies express their feelings and distress. Providing health visitors with this training enhances early detection of issues, demonstrating the Princess’s focus on supporting the professionals who are on the frontline of family support.
The long-term impact of the Princess’s work is anticipated to be monumental. By shifting the focus from crisis management to prevention, the Centre for Early Childhood is striving for a fundamental rebalancing of societal priorities. The work provides a natural complement to Prince William’s Homewards initiative. While he works to provide safe, stable homes for those affected by complex challenges, she is working to ensure fewer people face those challenges in the first place, by fortifying the social and emotional well-being of the next generation. This synergy showcases the powerful, cohesive partnership between the Prince and Princess of Wales in tackling the UK’s toughest social issues.
Disclaimer: This post is written by a professional royal historian and journalist based on publicly available information, official press releases from Kensington Palace, The Royal Foundation, and news reports. All content is factually accurate to the best of our knowledge at the time of publication. The opinions and interpretations expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect the official views of the Royal Household. No copyright infringement is intended. All dates for future events are based on current official announcements and are subject to change.
