Kate Middleton has shown “a clear commitment” to her public duties despite her recent cancer diagnosis, but a Royal aide has stressed she “needs the space and privacy to recover right now”.
The Princess of Wales is “excited” to be at the centre of the launch of a project that could potentially boost the UK economy by £45.5billion annually.
Her Royal Foundation Centre for Early Childhood will today release a report from eight leading British firms. It will pinpoint five areas where businesses of all sizes can support children under five and their surrounding adults.
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Kate last year assembled the Business Taskforce to contribute to her “vision for the future” in early years child development.
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The report, put together by consultants Deloitte, outlines how investing in early childhood could bring massive benefits. The £45.5billion-a-year total includes £12.2billion from equipping individuals with enhanced social and emotional skills during early childhood, reports the Mirror.
A high-ranking Royal aide told MailOnline: “The Princess of Wales was the driving force behind the business task force. She has been kept informed since the task force’s inception and she has read the report and been briefed on it.
“This is a clear commitment she has made throughout her life of public service that this will be focus. That will continue when she returns to work. But we have been really clear that she needs the space and the privacy to recover right now. She will return to work when she has had the green light from doctors.”
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A whopping £16.1billion could be saved by reducing the need to spend public funds on remedial steps for adverse childhood experiences, while a further £17.2billion could be generated by supporting parents and caregivers of under-fives who work. Christian Guy, the executive director of the centre, expressed: “[Kate] is excited about it.
“Setting people up with these skills for life is a key priority for the princess. She feels passionately about the transformational impact of getting this right together with business, both for the current generation and many more to come.”
The Centre for Early Childhood, dubbed as Kate’s “life’s work”, was established in 2021.
However, Kensington Palace emphasised that despite being aware of the report’s conclusions, the princess has not resumed her duties as she continues to undergo preventative chemotherapy for cancer.
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