The Princess of Wales met with Home-Start Oxford’s volunteers during the royal engagement

Princess Kate has visited the Home-Start Oxford to discuss how everyday moments of love and connection between parents and their young children lay the foundation for lifelong social and emotional skills.

The Princess of Wales’s visit comes as Home-Start UK prepares to roll out training based on The Royal Foundation Centre for Early Childhood Explainer Series to their 9000-strong network of volunteers across all local Home-Starts.

The Explainer Series films are a key part of Kate and the Centre’s work to demonstrate how building social and emotional skills in the earliest years is crucial for healthier, happier outcomes in adulthood and for nurturing a more compassionate, loving society.

Just hours before the engagement, the Princess of Wales released an essay warning that people’s growing reliance on technology is “toxic to health” as she outlined the dangers of humans losing connections to each other.

Home-Start is a national network of 175 local charities providing free, trusted, relational support for families in homes and communities across the UK.

Princess Kate has visited the Home-Start Oxford to discuss how everyday moments of love and connection between parents and their young children lay the foundation for lifelong social and emotional skills

Last year, Home-Start supported 60,000 families and over 76,000 children, helping parents and carers to feel connected and better able to navigate life challenges, while improving their wellbeing and capacity to provide nurturing care.

Founded in 1988, Home-Start Oxford works with families in Oxford and west of Oxfordshire, through volunteer home-visiting, one-to-one services, and group sessions.

They connect their trained, compassionate and friendly volunteers with families going through difficult times to work towards increasing parents’ confidence, independence and resilience.

Home-Start UK is one of over 27 organisations working closely with the Centre to use the animated film series and collect evaluation data, with far more organisations using the films in their practice.

Together, these organisations will reach 400,000 practitioners in the next six months.

The Princess of Wales’s visit comes as Home-Start UK prepares to roll out training based on The Royal Foundation Centre for Early Childhood Explainer Series to their 9000-strong network of volunteers across all local Home-Starts.

The training will be based around the seven animated films and resources released by the Centre for Early Childhood in August, which bring to life the science behind early social and emotional development.

The films are designed to be used by people who work with babies, children and families, so that they are better equipped to have meaningful and consistent conversations with parents and carers about social and emotional development.

They show how experiences from pregnancy to age five shape wellbeing, and how loving, responsive relationships lay the foundation for the social and emotional skills that not only benefit us in adulthood—but help build a healthier, happier society.

They are backed by a series of science briefings and professional resources, which Home-Start has used to inform its online training.

The Princess of Wales met with Home-Start Oxford’s volunteers during the royal engagement.

During the visit, Kate met with Home-Start Oxford’s volunteers and joined a training session where the volunteers viewed the films.

The Princess of Wales then joined a ‘Stay and Play’ session, where families connected with one another and accessed the support of skilled volunteers and staff, who are a key part of the Home-Start service.

These sessions offer a relaxed environment for families to build a network and engage with their children in a variety of activities, from dressing up and tea parties to making playdough and crafting.

Kate then had the opportunity to speak to parents who are being supported by Home-Start Oxford and hear about the challenges they are facing.