Nursery World - Editor’s view

The need for significant change in the way the early years is perceived and supported has gained the royal seal of approval

Transformation is a powerful word, and when it is used by someone as high profile as the Duchess of Cambridge, it has the potential to make an impact.

The launch of the Royal Foundation Centre for Early Childhood (RFCfEC) and its accompanying report was, on the whole, welcomed by the sector. The transformation it speaks of is to shift the stubborn, wider societal perception that the first five years of life are not as important as later educational and developmental stages – and to show that they are, in fact, ‘pivotal’.

According to the findings of the Duchess’s Big Five Questions report in 2020, more than 70 per cent of the 500,000 people polled did not recognise the first five years of life as necessarily being the most important for determining positive outcomes in adulthood. As long as this consensus exists, there is little incentive for the Government to prioritise early years and the sector stays on the back foot. Clearly the science is not being heard, which is something the RFCfEC seeks to address; it likens the crisis in child mental health to climate change.

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