The Duchess of Cambridge Visits Stockwell Gardens Nursery and Pre-school

The Duchess of Cambridge took her landmark survey to London during a breakfast at LEYF (London Early Years Foundation) Stockwell Gardens Nursery and Pre-school this week.

Her Royal Highness discussed the Royal Foundation’s landmark survey ‘5 Big Questions on the Under Fives’, which was launched last week and aims to spark a UK-wide conversation on raising the next generation.

During the visit The Duchess heard about the importance of nutritious food for a child’s development from apprentices at the LEYF Early Years Chef Academy, before helping nursery teachers to serve breakfast to the children.

LEYF Early Years Chef Academy offers a specialist qualification for chefs either working or keen to work with children up to the age of eight and was designed to strengthen the important roles chefs play in educating staff and parents, and influencing children’s healthy food choices. LEYF is a social enterprise that aims to add value to the life of the community and future generations by strengthening local networks, demonstrating the role that everyone has in ensuring strong, healthy foundations for the youngest in our society that will positively affect their lifelong outcomes.

Last week The Duchess launched the survey during visits to MiniBrum at ThinkTank, Birmingham Science Museum; Ely and Careau Children’s Centre in Cardiff and HMP Send near Woking.

Conducted by Ipsos MORI on behalf of The Royal Foundation, the survey ‘5 Big Questions on the Under-Fives’ aims to spark the biggest ever conversation on early childhood that will ultimately help bring about positive, lasting change for generations to come.

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.

The launch of the survey follows eight years of work by The Duchess of Cambridge in which she has explored how experiences in early childhood often lie at the root of the hardest social challenges the country faces today. What we experience in the earliest years – from in the womb to the age of five – is instrumental in shaping our future lives. Her Royal Highness has spent time meeting with families across the country and hearing about the issues they deal with day-to-day, in addition to speaking with academics, experts, organisations and practitioners. In May 2018, The Duchess convened a steering group of experts to focus on how to bring about positive, lasting change in this area.