Dr Matt Price: What we've achieved within a year at the 1,001 Critical Days Foundation

A year ago this month, I took on a role unlike any I’d ever had. Not clinical work. Not research or policy. Something harder to describe: building a new organisation from the ground up, one entirely dedicated to the 1,001 critical days of a baby’s life, from pregnancy to age two.

Twelve months in, here are my reflections on what’s happened, what’s surprised me and where I think we’re heading.

Starting from scratch

There’s something disorientating about building a brand that doesn’t exist yet. No inherited reputation to lean on, no legacy structures to navigate. Just a name and the bold mission set out by our Founder, The Rt Hon. Dame Andrea Leadsom.

The early months were about answering questions. Who are we for? How do we speak? What do we stand for when trade-offs come? We rapidly built a small and brilliant team, supported by a truly exceptional Board of Trustees and together, we shaped that identity in real time - often while already delivering against it.

As a clinical psychologist, considering identity and helping people to navigate their sense of selves is familiar ground so there was something unexpectedly familiar about doing that for an organisation. The work of becoming.

£2 million in six months, and the hardest part of the job…..