How Princess Kate Is Showing 'Real Leadership' in Royal Role

Princess Kate fights for the causes she believes in, and her dedication isn't going unnoticed. For a long time, the Princess of Wales has been focusing on causes related to wellbeing in children's early years — which includes the wellbeing of their parents, too. As part of this work, Kate started the Royal Foundation Centre for Early Childhood, which launched the Shaping Us campaign in January 2023.

Shortly afterwards, the Princess launched the Business Taskforce for Early Childhood, which calls on companies to support their employees who are new parents. The task force has been a resounding success, with one of its most tangible achievements being Deloitte UK's decision to instate 26 weeks of fully-paid paternity leave to match their maternity leave policy. The Dad Shift, a charity which campaigns for equal parenting leave for fathers, is excited about the news as they continue their work to improve the UK's current requirement of just two weeks' paid paternity leave.

"Just last week we were outside Buckingham Palace hanging up baby grows spelling 'Two weeks isn't enough', so we're delighted to learn the Princess of Wales has been championing good paternity leave behind the scenes," The Dad Shift co-founder Alex Lloyd-Hunter has said (via Hello!).

"It's good to see more and more companies realising that better paternity leave is in their interest and stepping up with generous policies. But the vast majority of smaller businesses can't afford to do this, and that means their employees are stuck with the worst paternity leave in Europe — two weeks at less than half the minimum wage. And you get nothing at all if you're self-employed."

Alex continued: "That's why we need urgent government action to significantly improve our statutory offer so every father and non-birthing parent gets a decent amount of properly paid leave, not just those lucky enough to work for the most progressive employers. The Princess has shown real leadership on this issue — now it's time for ministers to follow her example."

The Royal Foundation Centre for Early Childhood, and The Dad Shift, are hoping that other companies will follow this example by pointing out the economic advantages of doing so.