OnePlusOne welcomes The Shaping Us Framework unveiled by the Royal Foundation Centre for Early Childhood, which shines a spotlight on the importance of social and emotional skills.

Nurturing social and emotional development from a very young age is crucial to supporting the development of lifelong skills that affect how we relate to others and manage our own emotions as we navigate life.

The Shaping Us Framework explains why the early development of social and emotional skills need to take centre stage. By equipping children with these essential skills from a young age, we are setting them up to be able to form and develop good quality relationships, and build empathy and resilience to carry with them throughout their lives.  
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From our own work supporting families, and from working firsthand with services offered by local authorities such as children’s services, family hubs and schools, we know how important it is for mental health and wellbeing to have supportive networks around you. As social beings, we need these throughout our lives. Supporting the development of the social and emotional skills that are critical to building these networks in the informative, early childhood years, is a great place to start.

Key areas described in the framework include:

• Knowing ourselves and understanding who we are as individuals.
• Understanding and managing our emotions.
• Focusing our thoughts, and understanding how we learn, work and manage in life.
• Communicating with others, and understanding how we receive and share feelings, thoughts and information.
• Nurturing relationships and learning how to get along with others.
• Exploring the world and discovering what is around us.

The Royal Foundation Centre for Early Childhood have created this short guide to The Shaping Us Framework and we encourage everyone with an interest in child development and the importance of relational skills to take a look. More information about the Shaping Us campaign is available online.

This framework aligns with OnePlusOne’s mission to equip everyone with good relational capability skills. We are working with organisations, families and professionals to help adults to develop these skills. Providing children with a solid foundation upon which to develop throughout their lives is a good step towards securing better outcomes for individuals, communities and the wider society.

How we can help you to develop your own relational skills
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Learn about our relational capability training for people working in roles supporting others.

Find out about our relational leaders training for current or aspiring leaders looking to build thriving and supportive workplaces.

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