Kate Middleton Steps Up for Preschoolers in Powerful New Move for Kids

Kate Middleton’s mission to help support youngsters has taken a major step.

Amid Infant Mental Health Awareness Week, the Princess of Wales’ foundation announced that it is providing mental health services across an underprivileged part of London. In a groundbreaking new pilot, mental health workers will provide training and consultation to staff and families to support the social and emotional development of babies and young children in two early education settings in Tower Hamlets and Hackney. It will see around 150 babies, young children and their families supported over the year-long pilot.

“Happy Little Minds” is being spearheaded by two leading children’s charities in Britain, Barnardo’s and Place2Be (of which Kate is the patron). The non-profits will provide bespoke training and consultation about social and emotional development to around 50 early education practitioners at two nursery schools, classrooms that typically cater to children aged 3 and 4, in the two boroughs. They will also provide help for parents and carers, working directly with some children and families.

It is Princess Kate’s lasting and ongoing mission to underscore the importance of social and emotional development for enabling babies and young children to be mentally healthy, both in the short term and in order to provide long-lasting impact for their lives. The royal mom of three is helping spread the message that the span from infancy to 5 years old is the most crucial in terms of brain development and the foundations are laid for all that is to follow.

Often, mental health problems in later life have their roots in early childhood and early intervention with babies, and Princess Kate set up the Centre for Early Childhood to funnel this work.

Christian Guy, Executive Director of The Royal Foundation Centre for Early Childhood, said in a statement, “Early education and childcare settings can play such an important and influential role in supporting children and their families at such a vital time, in all sorts of ways.”

“If settings are well-supported to promote social and emotional development in babies and young children, there is huge potential to positively impact all children, and for early intervention and prevention of future mental health conditions in those most at risk, which could be truly transformational both for individuals and society,” he said.

“Place2Be and Barnardo’s have such a wealth of experience to offer, and this pilot is an important step forward in understanding more about how this can be delivered to best effect,” Guy added.

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The idea for the new initiative started at the Shaping Us National Symposium in November 2023, when an infant mental health expert from Barnardo’s had a discussion with Catherine Roche, Chief Executive of Place2Be. The pair then developed the idea and approached the Foundation for funding.

Part of the package given to staff will be The Centre for Early Childhood’s The Shaping Us Framework, which she launched in February, which is aimed at improving awareness of and knowledge about social and emotional skills to inspire action across society. 

In 2023, it funded a trial of an observation tool for health visitors, known internationally as the Alarm Distress Baby Scale (ADBB).

In May, Princess Kate’s bid to extend the initiative into the business world also bore fruit. A collection of major companies, from NatWest Bank to IKEA and the Co-op, showed how they are rolling out programs designed to better support parents and help children thrive, such as increasing paternity leave.