Currently there's a strange juxtaposition happening in the world. With the news that America enters new territory by electing the first ever felon in their history, the sudden change in direction is startling. Pugnacious, bullish (I did spell that right) and hitting the headlines daily. A swathe of new executive orders aimed at crushing the debilitating ‘woke’ revolution and firmly imprinting a ‘no-nonsense’, binary zeitgeist on an unsuspecting world. Inclusion, tolerance and empathy are out, the race to the bottom may have begun in earnest.
You could almost say: ‘Modern society is complex. It can feel like the world is filled with mistrust and misunderstanding, leaving many people feeling isolated and vulnerable during difficult times.’ The words of Kate Windsor, no less. Pushing a different agenda through the Royal Foundation's ‘Shaping Us’ framework, it made for reassuring reading. It aims to prioritise the earliest years of our lives and showcase the connection between personal, social and emotional learning and mental wellbeing, collating well-regarded research and carrying some weighty backing. There is nothing to disagree with here, in fact this is what we have always aspired to in the early years.
We have always prioritised the emotional abilities of the children in our care, and this importance has largely been unrecognised outside of the sector. It's not the experts you need to convince – the formative impact of early childhood must be understood by parents, society and, of course, policy-makers. This will be a useful reference point when the current discussion is centred on working parents rather than the wellbeing of children.
I was worried that it didn't generate more interest. Personally, I feel that the biggest threat to early wellbeing is poor funding and political aspiration, but realise that this piece of work does promote hope and mental wellbeing. We need to view it as an antidote to the increasingly intolerant attitudes that appear to have the media's attention.
So… that leaves it up to us again. As some rejoice in division, it is time to promote an understanding that emotional and mental health is the key to our society's wellbeing. Use this research; send it to parents, refer to it in dialogue with professionals, look to it for the references you need at inspection, and, above all, use it as a tool to combat a dangerous narrowing of the discussions around what a healthy society looks like.
