Kate launches new campaign about importance of early childhood?

[AllOutofEverything]

I have been reading about how Kate is launching a new awareness raising campaign about the importance of early childhood.
I had thought she launched this years ago and since then we have had the survey with the 5 big questions, her visits to nurseries, and her meetings with Early Years experts. I can't see how this is any different from what was announced in the past?

*Moss

I got that figure from annual US actor earnings. Sure the top actors make a lot more. No one is denying that Meghan was not an A lister.

Just googled and all the results showed Meghan made $50,000 per episode in suits.

Compare it to Eastenders. The fees can range from £400 to £2,000, depending on their storylines, popularity and time on the soap. Most actors have a guaranteed number of episodes a year and a repeat fee.

People make way less on weekly series because it is regular and guaranteed work.

Although the whole thread is about Kate and her early years work and as usual the Royalists go what about Meghan.

I think someone else nailed it earlier when they said Kate's awareness raising around early years is similar to all those campaigns about share a pink heart on facebook to raise awareness of breast cancer. It is meaningless.

Although you are talking about the topic, started a thread on it and said awareness

So even if you dislike her a lot she seems to have got your attention

I didn’t know about it and due to your thread I now do

Not a royalist AllOutofEverything not even British ,
a poster mentioned the baby comment and as someone who was so forgetful after having my babies, It made me really mad.

What does it matter what she was earning? The fact is (my original point) that she had a career, she was a working actress. She also did plenty of other things, like being a freelance calligrapher, an internship in South America, fashion design, you know, did stuff. Unlike Kate.

Suits is not Friends, most actors on shows don't earn £1m per episode. Doesn't mean they're not successful. And she wanted to continue but couldn't - the writers had to write her out because the Palace was interfering in what they wanted her to do or not do on screen.

Think you’ve pretty much nailed it there, awareness can be raised but ultimately what will be done, probably nothing

'And she wanted to continue but couldn't - the writers had to write her out because the Palace was interfering in what they wanted her to do or not do on screen.'

This is absolutely untrue.

@MarshaBradyo But so what? You now know Kate made some videos saying early years matter.
What early years experts are saying they want is something to actually improve children's lives.

She wants awareness and I had no idea so you’re helping her out in that regard

Admittedly anything she supports there will be a fair easy ride getting people talking due to her role but the people who loathe her and talk / start threads all contribute

What makes you think I loathe her? She seems like a much nicer person that Charles.
But if you genuinely did not know the early years matter you now do. But so what?

Of course I know it matters I meant I had no idea Kate was doing anything on it.

Others might not and then will due to the talk around it. That’s why she gets to do awareness campaigns - people talk

Some seem to dislike her on this thread for whatever reason, haven’t read it fully as not that interested - seems a bit off the scale sometimes

Is it not helpful that she/her centre had quantified the scale of remedial costs and highlighted the evidence around better investment decisions which makes the case for those in the sector to lobby govt in budget/csr rounds to switch to prevention rather than retrospective spend - specifically citing Sure Start as an example of how it worked? That seems to me to be more than awareness raising of the challenge but providing part of the evidence for a positive change in direction?

Sorry! Pressed send too soon

I see it as a continuum - quantify the data and evidence base which can then be used by professional/lobbyists, perception survey shows public understanding and where there are gaps, awareness raising to make public part of the lobby for change. It's not a million miles away in technique from lobbying activity I've led on albeit in a very different field

It's in Tom Bower's book and also Harry wrote about it in Spare.

Good. I'm glad it's getting to a point where it can get more of a spotlight again, and we can see the next steps. I remember the 5 Questions survey and I remember being a bit underwhelmed by the questions themselves. But fair play if lessons learned were documented and new direction has been taken.

One of the more difficult things about establishing long-term greater-good policy, as far as I can tell, is ensuring that the value of that policy is recognised across the political spectrum. For long-term projects where takes over 10 years to realise the benefits, you really need all parties to generally agree that they are worth investing in and sustaining. Otherwise, every greater-good initiative fails as soon as there's an election and a change in political party or manifesto.

I reckon that is where the Princess of Wales could use her clout: getting an otherwise polarised political system to re-align and recognise the value of evidence-based investments and policy regarding the Early Years.

I hope she keeps at it.

I saw this thread earlier and it's been bugging me since (I see its gone a bit off topic now too) but Kate's early years project really is quite patronising.

I worked for Surestart around 15 years ago, the importance of early years is not new, there was a lack of services then and its only got worse since. 'Raising awareness' is helping no one.

Surestart wasn't perfect but it did a lot of good work. Sure parenting classes were often filled by middle class mums cause let's face it Kate with 3 under 3 on the 6th floor of an apartment block and no lift is hardly going to drag her ass and 3 kids down 6 flights of stairs and a 15 minute walk when she has been helping raise younger siblings, nieces and nephews and cousins since she can remember. Equally middle class mums are not immune to PND or DV. The fact that surestart centres welcomed everyone was a bonus.

Kate doesn't need parenting classes, she is in fact a good mum but between 3 kids, the evening cleaning job, money worries, mould in the flat and helping her disabled neighbour she really doesn't have the time or energy to create meaningful play opportunities in her damp, cramped flat.

Kate might come though for the free coffee and biscuits at play group where her kids develop their gross and fine motor skills and interact with early years specialists, trust is built and referrals made. Or maybe for sing and sign where verbal and non verbal communication skills are developed.

For the mobile toy library, live story time where the toddlers dress up and engage with the books by acting out the experiences (One of my all time favourites was 'where the wild things are' story time, where we made crowns and danced like the wild things, we talked to the parents about dealing with tantrums and arguments constructively in a natural non forced way and the parents shared their tips and experiences) Or one of the many other services provided.

A huge part of my work was with those families that just couldn't access services because of fear, mistrust, pnd, life shit etc.. I went to them, I sat on thier sofa. I attended meetings with them, made sure their kids were accessing free early years education, called the housing office to sort out the damp when they had been passed from pillar to post, made sure they were getting the correct support and if I was really lucky, in some cases slowly built up trust that allowed them to feel safe to come to a Surestart centre.

I am not a child development expert but I was surrounded by a team of HVs, midwives, QTs, early years specialists, other community providers (HomeStart were amazing) PCSOs, with a network of contacts at the council, community centres, furniture recycling projects etc..

Every childcare setting is full of child development experts working on the front line and being paid a pittance for the amazing work they do.

Families in need don't need more groups of professional 'experts' they need investment in services, they need better housing, clean and safe parks, family friendly work opportunities, childcare that doesn't cost more than your salary, they need to be able to see a doctor, HV, midwife, Police officer etc.. Once we sort out all this, once parents are not spending their days battling for just basic provisions, when they can afford to eat and heat the house without taking on a third job, then they can devote some head space to their child's development needs.

In the meantime, for those struggling, being told how important these years are and if you are not doing all you can to give your child the best start in life they will never achieve is just going to add to their feelings of failure and stress. As the saying goes talk is cheap and in this particular case can also be very damaging.

@myrtleWilson That appears incredibly patronising. Do those advising Kate think early years experts do not know what is needed or that they do not already lobby and campaign?

@AllOutofEverything well no one else commissioned the LSE to quantify the remedial costs

William was on a programme some months ago. He was talking to footballers about men's mental health and unhealth. I also saw him being interviewed by Amol Rajan in the programme about the Princes and the Press. I didn't watch the first one but I watched the second. He seemed fairly at ease with chatting and being interviewed.

I get the feeling that Kate is less at ease in those sorts of circumstances, but suppose she were to take part in a programme which talked about the early years. What would it need to mention and what would it need to avoid, in order for her not to be accused of being a patronising cow or interfering in British politics?

I think the mention of the fact that talking to a child when he/she is 5 hours old and 5 days old and 5 months old will do a load of good spade-work for the child and the school when he/she starts school, might just about be a safe thing to say.

If you think that she makes vague statements, what specific things can she say and do, given that you accept that as a member of the RF she should not say anything which can be construed as party political? I am not talking about 'more money'. I am talking about simple things, that not-well-off parents can do as well as the pots-of-money parents can, like a pp mentioned earlier, counting the stairs as you go up them.

It was not commissioned by Kate. The results of the research was featured in her report.

@upinaballoon People have already suggested she could do a kind of Princes Trust for early years.

And if Kate can not do anything useful because of her position, then what is the point?

@AllOutofEverything Cut and paste from the report - Chapter 2 The economics of the Early Years.

The Royal Foundation of The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge commissioned the London School of Economics (LSE) to look at the most recent data on public expenditure. The LSE’s study has produced an estimate for 2018/19 of lost opportunities in the early years i.e. expenditure that might reasonably be avoided or replaced if preventative action were taken in early childhood. The estimate includes long-term expenditure associated with adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), taking into account population attributable fractions (PAFs), i.e. the fraction of expenditure related to the problem in question that might be causally linked to ACEs [38]. It calculated that the costs associated with lost opportunity in 2018/19, in England alone, were in the region of £16.13 billion [39].

@myrtleWilson The Royal Foundation for the Cambridge's not specifically Kate. I appreciate that William and Kate are involved, but it is not the same as Kate doing it.