Kate interacts with babies as part of social development support in action

The Princess of Wales sat down on a play mat with a baby girl and said: “I love her slippers,” as she met with families gaining extra support for their youngsters’ social development at a community hospital in Hampshire.

Kate arrived at Chase Community Hospital in Bordon on Wednesday wearing a suit and a poppy to witness how a project, which is backed by her charitable arm the Royal Foundation Centre for Early Childhood, is expanding to help more families.

During the visit, she saw how health visitors use an observational tool, called the Alarm Distress Baby Scale (ADBB), to help flag up early social withdrawal in youngsters aged zero to 24 months.

Healthcare and childcare professionals use the approach to focus on babies’ eye contact, facial expressions and activity levels during check-ups to help understand their social behaviour and withdrawals that may need more support.

Kate joined Amy Raynsford and her six-month-old baby Enid in her second review, with the princess interacting with the little one on the play mat with big smiles and holding her finger.

Ms Raynsford, from Farnborough, said her baby Enid was referred to the programme after being born premature and it has really helped her reading her cues.

The 45-year-old said it was “really lovely” to meet Kate who was “genuinely interested,” adding: “Enid behaved, so even better.”

Mum Anca, who did not give her surname, also said it would be great if the service could be extended to other areas as being part of the programme.

The 37-year-old from Farnborough said it has been “very helpful” for her with her five-and-a-half month baby Enze after an experience knocked her confidence and she needed some support.

Of Kate, she added: “It’s very good she’s taking interest in this subject.”

Kate first saw the programme in action on a visit to Denmark with The Centre for Early Childhood in February 2022 and later called for the philanthropic unit to look at how it could be introduced in the UK, working with the Institute of Health Visiting.

Since then, two pilot phases have been carried out across 10 NHS sites, and the centre announced this summer a further £250,000 cash boost over three years to expand the approach’s use, including developing guidance and training resources.

One of the health visiting teams from the Chase Community Hospital was among those at the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust to be trained as part of the second pilot.

The NHS trust has trained up more specialist health visitors in ADBB and plans to roll out the training to its remaining 13 health visiting teams across the county.

At the hospital, Kate also joined discussions with NHS and healthcare staff, including trusts interested in using the approach in their regions.

She told staff health visitors provide the “glue” for families and said it is “brilliant” how the programme is being adapted.

Christian Guy, the executive director of the centre for early childhood, said the princess played a “pivotal role” in spotting the approach, which has been proven to be effective in an evaluation by the University of Oxford.

He said getting families support earlier is “so vital” and the support around babies can be done without burdening health visitors as they seek to scale up the programme around the country.