Show Notes
The 1001 Critical Days Foundation is one year old. In that time it has allocated £1.5 million in grant funding, published screen time guidance that has been cited internationally, supported the nationwide rollout of Dad Matters and begun advocacy work in Norway and South Africa. For Will Quince, its first ever Chief Executive, it is only the beginning. Will spent nine years as MP for Colchester and served as Minister for Early Education, holding further ministerial roles across health and welfare. He joins George Looker for this episode of Best Beginnings to talk about what the Foundation is building, why it matters and what it will take to make the case for the earliest years stick, not just in Westminster but globally. In this episode they talk about the research the Foundation has commissioned and what it reveals about the state of perinatal support in the UK, why 80% of the human brain is developed by the age of two and what that demands of policymakers, and why the birth rate data of 2026 should be a turning point for how this country invests in families. Best Beginnings is a podcast from Babyzone, the UK's fastest growing early years charity. Every week we speak to the researchers, practitioners and policymakers working to improve outcomes for babies and their families. Subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts and if you found this useful share it with someone who needs to hear it.
More from Best Beginnings
Dr Dan Wuori, founder of Early Childhood Policy Solutions and author of the Grawemeyer Award-nominated book The Daycare Myth, joins Best Beginnings to make the case that separating childcare from education is a century-old myth that has cost children, families, and taxpayers an extraordinary amount. The conversation covers the neuroscience of when learning begins, what the UK's childcare expansion risks getting wrong, how to assess a childcare setting, and why we are already paying for the system children need, just in all the wrong ways.
Dr. Stephanie Culler, co-founder and CEO of Persephone Bioscience, joins George to share the findings from the My Baby Biome study, one of the largest examinations of the infant gut microbiome ever conducted in the United States. They discuss how antibiotics, C-section births and modern diet have disrupted the bacterial ecosystems babies need to develop healthy immune systems, and why even breastfed babies can be affected. Stephanie also explains what the science says parents and practitioners can actually do during the first thousand days of a child's life. Chapters:
Christian Guy, Executive Director of the Royal Foundation Centre for Early Childhood, joins Best Beginnings to talk about what it actually takes to shift a society around the earliest years of life. The conversation covers the Shaping Us framework, the ADB infant observation scale, what a visit to Reggio Emilia revealed about genuine long-term investment, why early childhood needs the urgency of climate change, and what parents most need to hear.
Professor Linda Mayes, Director of the Yale Child Study Center, joins George to explore what it really takes to change a child's story. They discuss the neuroscience of parenting, why stress overwhelms the reward of caring for a baby, how addiction co-opts the brain's reward system, and what the Minding the Baby intervention has shown about the limits and possibilities of early support. Linda also shares what decades of longitudinal research have taught her about the one thing she would bet a fortune on for every child.
Anxiety disorders are more common than depression in the perinatal period, but most parents and most clinicians still don't know it. In this episode, George speaks with Dr. Fiona Challacombe, Associate Professor of Clinical Psychology at the University of Oxford, on perinatal OCD, the misdiagnosis crisis, what attachment research shows about the parent-infant bond, and what effective treatment looks like.