The Princess of Wales will unveil a new resource for early childhood professionals today at the University of East London.
The Royal Foundation Centre for Early Childhood’s Foundations for Life guide represents a significant step in efforts to improve understanding of social and emotional development in young children.
Catherine will mark the launch by meeting families with babies and young children, academic researchers, students studying early years education, and senior figures from universities and further education colleges across the country.
Education leaders attending the event have made formal commitments to incorporate the guide into their teaching programmes and professional training.
The Princess of Wales will unveil a major new resource for early childhood professionals today at the University of East London.
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The evidence-based resource, created in partnership with early childhood specialists and practitioners, emphasises how loving, responsive relationships between children and caregivers fundamentally shape lifelong health and wellbeing.
The guide aims to deepen awareness throughout the early years sector about why emotional and social growth carries such profound importance for children’s futures.
It sets out how these crucial capabilities begin forming from the very first months of life, providing practitioners with a shared foundation of knowledge they can draw upon in their work.
By establishing this common understanding, the resource enables professionals to hold more confident and consistent conversations with the families they support.
The guide will appear on a newly created hub on the Centre’s website, which will bring together all available materials for those working in the sector.
The resource will help parents understand how warm, nurturing relationships built on care, connection and emotional safety can establish the strongest possible foundations for their child’s development.
Catherine will mark the launch by meeting families with babies and young children, academic researchers, students studying early years education, and senior figures from universities and further education colleges across the country.
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In her foreword to the guide, the Princess of Wales writes: “While our society often focuses on academic or physical milestones, research consistently shows that it is our earliest relationships, experiences and environments which lay the foundations for our future health and happiness.”
She continues: “The quality of our connections with ourselves, with others and with the world around us shapes how safe we feel, how we relate, and how we process experiences throughout our lives.”
Catherine also highlights the significance of the early years window, noting: “By age five, our brains have already grown to 90% of their adult size making early childhood a critical window for developing the social and emotional skills that become the bedrock of lifelong wellbeing.”
The Princess of Wales emphasises that in an increasingly distracted and digital world, investing in human connection has never been more vital.
During her visit to UEL, the princess will engage with families who have babies and young children to discuss the research findings and explore the value of having access to trusted professionals who can provide clear, consistent guidance during the earliest stages of a child’s life.
Catherine will tour the University of East London’s Institute for the Science of Early Years and Youth, where researchers employ cutting-edge wearable technology and brain recording methods to investigate how babies’ early living environments and relationships affect stress levels in both children and their parents or caregivers.
The Princess of Wales emphasises that in an increasingly distracted and digital world, investing in human connection has never been more vital.
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This pioneering work examines the diverse circumstances in which infants develop and how these varied experiences influence early stress responses.
The visit will also see the princess meet students enrolled on early years courses to learn how social and emotional development features in their curriculum, including how they utilise resources produced by the Centre for Early Childhood.
Catherine will subsequently meet with Vice Chancellors and Chief Executives of Further Education Colleges from across the United Kingdom who have publicly pledged to integrate this foundational knowledge into early years training programmes.
These senior education leaders have committed to embedding the guide within their institutions’ teaching, training and professional practice, helping to ensure lasting, system-wide change.
The aim is to guarantee that the next generation of early years professionals enters the workforce with a robust understanding of social and emotional development.
This approach presents a genuine opportunity to elevate such knowledge to the same standing as physical and cognitive development in professional training.
Catherine will subsequently meet with Vice Chancellors and Chief Executives of Further Education Colleges from across the United Kingdom who have publicly pledged to integrate this foundational knowledge into early years training programmes.
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Looking ahead, the Centre plans to collaborate closely with leaders throughout the early years system to weave this essential understanding into both entry-level training and continuing professional development, fostering conditions where children can flourish.
The launch coincides with new research from the Centre titled The First Five Years: A Parent Perspective, which reveals that mothers and fathers place high value on opportunities to speak with knowledgeable, trusted practitioners.
Parents express a strong desire for clear, authoritative information from formal sources when navigating their child’s early development.
However, the research shows that when professional support proves limited or brief, parents frequently turn to friends, family members or online advice instead.
Many parents report feeling overwhelmed by the sheer volume of information available to them, which can generate uncertainty and confusion precisely when reassurance and consistency matter most.
The guide addresses this challenge by equipping practitioners with a shared, accessible knowledge base about social and emotional development.
This enables professionals to offer families the confident, consistent guidance they seek, helping parents recognise how nurturing relationships can establish strong foundations for their child’s future.
Today’s launch represents another milestone in a journey spanning more than a decade, during which the Princess of Wales has championed early childhood as a root cause of many societal challenges including mental health difficulties, addiction and family breakdown.
Since establishing the Centre in 2021, the organisation has drawn upon international research and partnerships to strengthen its evidence base, including collaboration with Harvard University’s Centre on the Developing Child.
Key developments include the Shaping Us campaign launched in January 2023, the creation of a Business Taskforce for Early Childhood working with major UK and global organisations, and the Shaping Us Framework unveiled in February 2025.
The framework sets out 30 key social and emotional skills across six clusters, drawing on international academic, clinical and practitioner expertise.
The Princess also visited Denmark in 2022 to study best practice, which subsequently informed UK initiatives, including trials of the Alarm Distress Baby Scale.