The Princess of Wales looked radiant as she attended The Future Workforce Summit, hosted by The Royal Foundation Business Taskforce for Early Childhood on Tuesday. The event, which was hosted in London, has been coined the "first of its kind" and will bring together the UK’s most influential business leaders to drive further action and investment in the early years. The special summit will be hosted by the future Queen and journalist and broadcaster Mishal Husain, and will include an onstage discussion from former England Football Manager Sir Gareth Southgate and research psychologist Professor Marc Brackett, as well as sessions from Professor Robert Waldinger from Harvard University, and psychotherapist and author Philippa Perry, among others.
Former England football manager Sir Gareth Southgate is due to take to the stage and join a discussion with early years experts and Kate will make opening remarks. For the occasion, Kate wore a light grey suit jacket. Today, five new initiatives from major UK businesses to help families with babies and young children will be launched, with the aim of reaching one million children in 2026. During her appearance, Kate made a speech highlighting love as the number one thing that "fundamentally shapes who we become and how we thrive as adults."
"My passion and the work of The Centre for Early Childhood stems from one essential truth; that the love we feel in our earliest years fundamentally shapes who we become and how we thrive as adults. Love is the first and most essential bond. But it is also the invisible thread, woven with time, attention and tenderness, through consistent, nurturing relationships which creates the grounded and meaningful environments around a child," she said. Kate continued: "It is this texture, the weave of love, which forms a child’s emotional world and becomes the foundation, the very fabric of resilience and belonging. The home should be the space where love, safety and rhythm enable a child to thrive. A loving home ultimately teaches us how to love and how to care, but every environment has the potential to shape our hearts. Every one of you interacts with your own environment; a home, a family, a business, a workforce, a community. These are the ecosystems that you yourselves help to weave. Imagine a world where each of these environments were built on valuing time and tenderness just as much as productivity and success."
The royal added: " As business leaders you will face the daily challenge of finding the balance between profitability and having a positive impact. But the two are not, and should not be incompatible. At The Centre for Early Childhood, we believe that we must do all we can to create the conditions for love to flourish. That is how we invest in our future. Every child deserves respect and safety, and everyone who cares deserves recognition and appreciation. Every act of care creates community because we are all essentially weavers of the same fabric. I believe in restoring the dignity to the quiet, often invisible work of caring, of loving well, as we look to build a happier, healthier society. You are here because you care, so thank you."
Kate's special mission
Convened by the Royal Foundation Centre for Early Childhood, the Summit is an important milestone for Kate's work to inspire societal-wide action to create a healthier, happier society transformed by our approach to early childhood. Kate set up the Business Taskforce in March 2023 to galvanise business action for early childhood. Since then, taskforce members Aviva, the Co-operative Group, Deloitte, Iceland Foods, IKEA UK and Ireland, the LEGO Group, NatWest Group and Unilever UK have worked together to identify the scale of the opportunity and the role that business can play. To date, the work their organisations have delivered as part of the Taskforce has reached more than half a million babies and young children.
The amount could be achieved by equipping youngsters with social and emotional skills, supporting parents wanting to return to work, and reducing the need to spend public funds on those who experienced difficult childhoods, which might have been avoided through preventative action in early childhood. The report followed the launch of Kate’s long-term campaign, Shaping Us, in January 2023, was described as the princess’ "life’s work" and aimed at highlighting the crucial first five years of a child’s life.