Kate visits hospital to view project helping shape babies’ development

The Princess of Wales is set to see how babies and their families are gaining extra support for shaping their social and emotional 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 will meet with health visitors who 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 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 will meet families who have been supported after the extra assessment, join discussions with NHS and healthcare staff, and observe a baby health and development review.