As part of her Early Years project that has been in the atmosphere for a year now, the Duchess of Cambridge has launched a survey called 5 Big Questions, which is being conducted by Ipsos MORI on behalf of The Royal Foundation.
5 Big Questions, which will run for a month from January 21 to February 21, is designed to gather as many opinions on early childhood as possible in order to start a national conversation (ugh) and bring about lasting change to the sector. More from Ipsos MORI:
The survey contains five short questions and aims to spark a national conversation on the early years that will ultimately help bring about positive, lasting change for generations to come. It is designed to bring together the thoughts of as many people as possible – recognising that everyone has a role in ensuring strong, healthy foundations for the youngest in our society that will positively affect their lifelong outcomes.
The findings should provide a vital source of information for the early years sector, helping it to better understand public perceptions of the importance of the early years, and the first-hand experiences of parents, families and carers. This public feedback will also help to focus Her Royal Highness’ work through The Royal Foundation as she endeavours to provide children across the UK with the best foundations to lead healthy and fulfilling lives.
Ipsos MORI
The survey consists of five questions. If you are in the UK and are over the age of 16, whether you have children or not, you can take the survey here.
To launch the survey, Kate made a few visits across the UK. The first, on January 21, was to Think Tank, Birmingham Science Museum, in Birmingham where Kate played in the child-sized mini-city with a bunch of kids (fun), before speaking to parents and carers about the survey.
KP released a statement from Kate on the survey:
Parents, carers and families are at the heart of caring for children in the formative years, so that is why I want to listen to them. As a parent I know how much we cherish the future health and happiness of our children. I want to hear the key issues affecting our families and communities so I can focus my work on where it is needed most. My ambition is to provide a lasting change for generations to come.
Kensington Royal
In this video, you can also hear Kate say:
I thought a lot about it through some of the work that all of us have done, particularly meeting families up and down the country. I think the early years of life are the fundamental most important years for lifelong health and happiness, and I think it helps avoid adversity or certainly builds resilience to adversity later in life. [I can’t make this part out] it’s mental health, later down the line we’ll get faced with challenges and actually the best way of building resilience to those issues is to really start building those foundations early with supportive families and carers in the early years. And also as a mother, I suppose we’re very [can’t make out this word], um, perspective, I know how much we all care for future health and happiness, and the opportunities that our children have.
Transcription of video below, 2:53-3:46
The next two visits took place today, January 22. Kate visited Cardiff to take part in a baby sensory class at the Ely and Caerau Children’s Centre, after which she spoke with parents and staff about the survey.
During the visit, Kate spoke about how she felt isolated when George was a newborn and William was doing is search and rescue thing.
After talking to young mothers at the centre, she recalled how she was living in Anglesey when Prince George was a “tiny baby” and William was working night shifts as an RAF search and rescue pilot.
“It’s nice to be back in Wales! I was chatting to some of the mums earlier,” she said. “It was the first year and I’d just had George — William was still working with search and rescue and we came up here and I had a tiny, tiny baby in the middle of Anglesey. It was so isolated, so cut off. I didn’t have any family around and he was doing night shifts.”
She told staff at the Ely and Caerau Children’s Centre: “If only I had a centre like this.”
The Times
This isn’t the first time Kate has mentioned that William wasn’t around as much during the first few months of George’s life. She mentioned it before several years ago. I also remember that back in the day, people were commenting on how William seemed to dip when it came to George’s first six months or so; William was off doing his air rescue stuff and complained about George a bunch.
Here is a video from the children’s center.
Kate’s last stop was HMP Send in Surrey, which Kate previously visited back in September 2015. Kate spoke with some of the women she met during the 2015 visit who have been successfully rehabilitated and released and who are now rebuilding their families.
In addition, Kate heard about the work of The Forward Trust, which supports clients to improve relationships with friends and family. During her discussion with The Forward Trust, Kate made some comments which are on brand for this launch.
I’m hugely passionate about really trying to help it getting to this sort of crisis point, trying to help provide that prevention mechanism and support system in our communities, and particularly support in the early years of life which so often some of today’s toughest social challenges can be traced right back to.
Transcription of the video below, 3:00-3:20
I think this is certainly an interesting step for Kate and her early years stuff. I will be very interested to see the results of this survey, and how the information will be used moving forward.
Let’s round out this article with Kate’s fashion. Because these were two different days, we have two outfits to discuss. For the first day’s event, Kate wore a Tabitha Webb “Pansy Pussybow Blouse” (wow, that’s the worst name ever), which retails for £295, paired with trousers which look nice on her.
Kate also wore her Monica Vinader Green Onyx earrings she’s had since 2016, and a new Halcyon Days “Maya Torque Aquamarine & Gold Bangle” ($150.00).
For Day 2, Kate chose a Massimo Dutti coat over a black turtleneck and a Zara “Animal Print Skirt” (£29.99) and black boots. Kate went with her Accessorize “Simple Filigree Short Drop Earrings” (£5.00) and a new necklace: Daniella Draper “Personalised Gold Midnight Moon Necklace” (£1,070.00) with the initials G, C, and L engraved. You can see a close up image of the necklace here. It looks like Kate’s is even more personalized with two extra stars.
I don’t have strong opinions on either outfit, other than Kate looks nice in proper trousers. Also, I love the “black turtleneck with a high pony” look, so a high pony with the second outfit would have looked great.
Embed from Getty ImagesSome more photos from the events. Two things I noticed: this mini city playroom thing looks like so much fun; and Kate talks with her hands a lot.
Embed from Getty Images Embed from Getty Images Embed from Getty Images Embed from Getty Images
