Down with the kids, Kate in the play cafe
The Duchess of Cambridge has launched a landmark survey on early childhood which she hopes will trigger ‘lasting change for generations’.
Kate is spending 24 hours touring the country to publicise the initiative.
The mother-of-three, wearing a green patterned shirt and wide-leg trousers, kicked off her solo tour in Birmingham yesterday.
But there was a minor hiccup in a children’s play cafe when the door of a cupboard under a sink came off in her hands. Kate joked: ‘I think we’ve broken the cafe.’
She was raising awareness of the poll Five Big Questions on the Under Fives – thought to be the largest of its kind in the UK.
Speaking at Birmingham’s science museum, she said: ‘As a parent, I know how much we cherish the future health and happiness of our children. I want to hear the key issues affecting families and communities so I can focus my work on where it is needed most.
‘My ambition is to provide lasting change for generations to come.’ Kate, 38, got a tour of an interactive, child-sized mini-city at the Thinktank museum by ‘mini mayor’ Poppy Jordan, eight.
Schoolchildren showed her their workshop before popping into the launderette, a shop and a mini-museum.
The duchess, who will take in London, Cardiff and Surrey today, said: ‘Parents, carers and families are at the heart of caring for children in the formative years, so that is why I really want to listen to them.
‘The early years are more crucial for future health and happiness than any other moment in our lifetime.’
Meanwhile, at St James’s Palace, her husband William called for help to end the ‘abhorrent’ illegal wildlife trade at a meeting of the United For Wildlife taskforces.
The Duke of Cambridge told the meeting it had been an ‘encouraging’ year of seizures and investigations.
But he warned: ‘There are still too many criminals who know they can find a market and believe they can act with impunity.’