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?

You lot are all ridiculous banging on about your targets and outcomes when they have been stated multiple times.

Initiatives do benefit from the publicity a royal or celeb can bring. Has anything been achieved or changed? Admittedly I don't read the articles about it as obviously a big part is just PR.

By far the biggest issue in the UK in the early years is social inequality. What new insights is this campaign going to produce?

Exactly & how do you tackle or raise awareness re social inequality & not get political?

We know the RF cannot get political, and we know why.

bollocks - they are political. They open parliament and witter on about what their government are going to do for starters. If you mean they're just puppets saying what they're told to say then, what is the point of them? (no point)
We also know that Charles has been trying (and in some cases) succeeding in interfering for years. And the Queen and the rest have all benefitted from quiet lobbying to advantage them.

You lot are all ridiculous banging on about your targets and outcomes when they have been stated multiple times.

they really haven't. If you work in any kind of project related work or research you know that there are targets/KPIs and so on. Metrics that can be measured.

Fluffy "raising awareness" - well everyone could DM each other a heart on social media and tell their friends to post what colour their bra is with no comment and then pass it on? you know how we "raise awareness" of breast cancer=

If she wants to spearhead something useful, what she could be doing is actually talking about the academic research (not her "research" which is probably being briefed by some of those people). Pointing out about how brains develop as shown in blah blah report. how we measure how well children are doing and how it is important to check they are hitting milestones and getting investigated if they don't.

But all of this is moot because the government has pretty much defunded all the agencies who could do this and provide support.

Blimey, if this made an iota of difference it would be great. But fine. We are no aware that early years are important. Thanks, Kate. Now what?

As pp said, the major contributing factor is massive income inequality and an entrenched class system. I'd love the government to spend hours on that instead of which toilet transwomen can use.

I am fully aware of KPis outcomes etc. Thanks for the lecture.
Many organisations raise awareness. This is measured through surveys. It's standard.

@Roussette am not over keen on the animation/Layla morph - I can appreciate the point they're trying to make - echoing the idea of plasticity of brain development in those early years and how the brain develops/connections made by repeated experiences but whether it comes off am not sure

Yes, I suppose I saw the interaction between father and baby on the TED talk and then did a comparison. Not fair perhaps, I don't know.

It's interesting that it will be in cinemas from Friday.

I am fully aware of KPis outcomes etc. Thanks for the lecture.

bully for you. Plenty of posters here didn't seem to know why, and not everyone needs to.

It is still bonkers to want to "raise awareness" and then not tell anyone how you're going to measure that. If i go to my boss and say "i'm going to raise awareness of the service i offer and you can give me a pay rise after 6 months" and after 6 months i go back and ask for my money - am i going to get it if i can't show how and where I've raised that awareness?

It's been said multiple times. You measure awareness through surveys. It seems it's only a handful of you that obtusely refuse to understand.

Posters below make excellent points re how this all useless 'royal' PR
Similar to Willy Windsor's approach - keep the real experts in the literal shadows - all eyes on the 'royal ' please! Got to pretend the people are getting something for the 350 000 000 the 'royals ' pocket yearly

Early childhood is a government responsibility. And they did a good job with Sure Start .
Unfortunately the Tories stopped that .

This is just the latest 'royal ' attempt to stem criticism from an increasingly uninterested/ hostile public .

If the 'royals ' were really interested in helping the public they would abolish themselves and pay their tax like everyone else
FIFY

What fucking nonsense.

What qualifications does she have to speak on this subject? A former accessories buyer...

Once you go down the let's measure their performance route the whole magic mystery of monarchy is lost. We've let the daylight in and gone ...nah. They were always an anachronism a throwback to a previous era and following the death of the Queen its all a whole load more ridiculous.

maybe I’m looking at it from a different angle,

•child hunger is a big issue in the U.K.,
•the number of children who are victims or have witnessed physical and emotional abuse is very high,
•social inequality,
•poverty ,
• underfunded schools ,
• late intervention in diagnosing developmental delay .

these are the the issues that negatively impact a child’s early years.

I can’t believe a whole team of scientists
thought that none of that should be addressed

and instead roll out a soppy 90 second video,

She's been reading up on it supposedly for ten years. If the subject is her life's passion - she could have done a Masters in Early Development by now. That would put her on different boards/committees as both an expert and a royal with all the relevant connections and gravitas.

If she wants to be just a face of the campaign, which is fair enough, then it should be made clear that she is not the mastermind behind it - otherwise, it is unfair on her.

Agreed, she's had plenty of time to study and add some substance to her involvement.

What do they actually do all day I wonder.

I find it hard to respect a woman who never had a real job or led their own life. She's quite an alien create from another time.

She's bright enough. She's done her research.

What research? It's completely pathetic.

Because that's all it takes, is it? We've had enough of experts and all that. Look where that's got us...

? It's widely reported.

@DewinDwl an expert in nothing I presume.

Except this was the very purpose of the Children's Centres, which have all (or pretty much all) been closed down...

It's utterly pointless unless the government put money into supporting early years. Fund sure starts , full play based education until year 2 and give SAHM their partners full tax allowance and a separate benefit for single mothers to stay at home with their dc until school age.

The education select committee is running an inquiry into early years care and I know those who gave evidence this week were asked about funding/benefits so the select committee are definitely looking at this angle, what they'll end up as recommendations to government will emerge during next few months. The chair of the inquiry said yesterday in first oral evidence session that they'd received 1700 submissions of evidence so suggests a key topic and one that the govt will have to respond to. Here's a link to their inquiry page if anyone is interested in following progress committees.parliament.uk/work/7164/support-for-childcare-and-the-early-years/

That was a reply to @NewNovember but I forgot to actually reply to you!

A graduate who has had 3 children and has spent 10 years taking an interest in this subject and learning from people working in this field.

What else can she do? Evening classes?