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The Shaping Us Framework

Understanding the social and emotional skills that matter most.

“The Shaping Us Framework is designed to provide an accessible way of focusing on social and emotional skills. It can be used by organisations of all shapes and sizes to design and deliver interventions that raise awareness across society, and to support the development of these critically important skills for people at all stages of life.”

The Princess of Wales

The Shaping Us Framework describes social and emotional skills in a clear way which can inform and inspire action across society.

The framework has been designed to help give social and emotional skills the greater priority they deserve and to encourage organisations across the UK to use it in their work, to support The Princess of Wales’ mission of creating a happier, healthier society.

The framework aims to provide an accessible approach to talking about social and emotional skills that cuts across disciplines and engages a broad audience. The framework was created through a global listening exercise involving academic, clinical and practitioner experts. The aim was to develop consensus on the universally relevant skills and capabilities that matter most throughout our lives and across diverse socioeconomic and cultural contexts. The final framework comprises thirty social and emotional skills grouped into six clusters. You can download the framework below.

The Shaping Us Framework – Full report

The Full Report describes the framework in detail and outlines how skills develop in early childhood.

The Shaping Us Framework –  Technical report

The Technical Report explains how the framework was created and the research that underpins it.

The Shaping Us Framework – Short guide

The Short Guide gives a quick description of each cluster of skills and why they matter.

The Shaping Us Framework comprises thirty social and emotional skills grouped into six clusters.  Click on the cluster name below to find out more.

Know ourselves

Know ourselves

Who we are as individuals

Manage our emotions

Manage our emotions

How we understand, process and manage our emotions

Focus our thoughts

Focus our thoughts

How we effectively learn, work and manage life

Communicate with others

Communicate with others

How we recieve and share feelings, thoughts and information

Nuture our relationships

Nuture our relationships

How we get along and build relationships with others

Explore the world

Explore the world

How we explore and discover the world around us

Watch our film where we share why developing social and emotional skills is important