Duchess of Cambridge: Early childhood can have "extraordinary impact" on social issues

The Duchess of Cambridge has spoken of the "extraordinary impact" early childhood can have on avoiding future addiction, violence, homelessness, and poor mental health.

Today she is launching The Royal Foundation Centre for Early Childhood which hopes to drive action to transform society for future generations.

"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," said The Duchess of Cambridge.

Parents of young children have continued to feel lonelier during the coronavirus pandemic with those who always/often feel lonely increasing from 9% in October 2020 to 16% in May 2021, according to research commissioned by The Royal Foundation.

For over a decade, The Duchess of Cambridge has seen first-hand how the earliest years of life can so often be the root of social problems. The Duchess spent time listening to the public about their views and asked experts to look at how working together across all areas of society could bring about lasting change.

The launch of The Royal Foundation Centre for Early Childhood has been seen as a landmark step in Her Royal Highness' work and hints at her lifelong commitment to improving life chances. A new report commissioned by the new Centre reveals that the cost of lost opportunity is over £16 billion per year in England alone. This is the money used, for example, to help children in care and people with long term mental and physical health issues, that might have been better spent if action was taken in early childhood.

Last year, The Duchess led a nationwide conversation on the early years through the 5 Big Questions on the Under-Fives survey which received over half a million responses. This also found the COVID-19 pandemic sparked a dramatic increase in parental loneliness and showed that most people don’t understand the specific importance of early childhood.

The launch of The Royal Foundation Centre for Early Childhood comes one week after The Duchess was joined by the First Lady of the United States, Dr Jill Biden, on a visit to Connor Downs Academy in Cornwall.

The Duchess visited the school's Reception Class to hear how its pupils are supported through a bespoke Early Years Foundation Stage curriculum, before hosting a meeting on the importance of early childhood, attended by experts from both sides of the pond.