Princess of Wales launches campaign to raise awareness of early childhood

Shaping Us is a long-term campaign from The Royal Foundation Centre for Early Childhood that explores the role our first five years play in making us who we are. Advances in brain understanding have shown that early childhood - pregnancy to five years - has implications for our development that go beyond our physical abilities, with implications for the long-term health, wellbeing and happiness of our society.

The campaign is informed by the insights found within the Big Change Starts Small report and is focused on six priority areas for change:

1. Raising awareness of the extraordinary impact of early childhood
2. Building a mentally healthier and more nurturing society
3. Creating communities of support
4. Strengthening the early years workforce
5. Supporting research and data to work more effectively for the early years
6. Supporting long-term and inter-generational change.

The Princess of Wales says: “The way we develop, through our experiences, relationships, and surroundings during our early childhood, fundamentally shapes our whole lives. It affects everything from our ability to form relationships and thrive at work, to our mental and physical well-being as adults and the way we parent our own children. By focusing our collective time, energy, and resources to build a supportive, nurturing world around the youngest members of our society and those caring for them, we can make a huge difference to the health and happiness of generations to come.

"In these difficult times, it is more important than ever to help support parents and caregivers provide loving, safe and secure homes for their babies and young children to thrive.”

To find out more visit: https://centreforearlychildhood.org/