Wearing a chartreuse green suit by Victoria Beckham, The Princess of Wales visited Home-Start at the Rose Hill Community Centre in Oxford.
Home-Start is a national network of 175 local charities who provide free support for families in home and communities throughout the UK. Last year alone, the charity was able to support 60,000 families. The charity offers home visits, group sessions and specialist support to families. Founded in 1973, Home-Start now has over 13,500 trained volunteers across the UK, who collectively provide more than one million hours of support each year to families with young children.
The organisation have been using the Early Centre For Childhood’s animated film series to learn about the importance of social and emotional development. The short films, part of the Shaping Us campaign launched by The Princess in early 2023, aim to help parents, caregivers, and communities understand how relationships in the earliest years form the foundation for lifelong wellbeing.
Prior to the visit, the Princess, in collaboration with Professor Robert Waldinger, published an essay which outlined her vision for supporting the early years and highlighted the importance of creating firm foundations for children’s futures by helping them develop ‘strong social and emotional skills’.
The essay warns of the ‘epidemic of disconnection’ which is being created by smartphones and other electronic gadgets children have. In the essay, society is urged to ‘invest in the relationships you have with each other’.
This essay builds on Catherine’s work through the Royal Foundation Centre for Early Childhood, which was established to raise awareness of the importance of the first five years of a child’s life.
After speaking with staff and volunteers about how moments of love and connection can help secure happiness in the future, Kate joined in with children making imaginary cakes with plasticine and flour, fully relaxed and embracing the mess.
During the visit, Catherine spent some time with a number of families, hearing how Home-Start has been helping them. Two of the people she spoke to were sisters Mariam and Sumayya who said afterwards ‘she [Catherine] was enjoying herself with the kids and said ‘the messier it is, the better the fun’.
‘Kate was saying Charlotte enjoys the outdoors and doing activities, and making things and how her kids are growing up fast. She said George is 12 years old and would soon be starting secondary school’.
The Royal also joined a volunteer training session where participants reflected on the films and how to apply the strategies in their work with families. She spoke with volunteers about the importance of helping parents build the emotional scaffolding children need to form healthy relationships, resolve conflict, and grow into compassionate adults.
During a small table discussion, Catherine learned about the work of the charity, where a single mother shared how her volunteer helps her. The crucial support that Home-Start provides to families was shown when one parent said: ‘This charity is like my village’.
The visit follows a series of engagements by the Princess aimed at championing community-led solutions to family wellbeing, including her recent roundtable with early years experts at Windsor Castle, where she emphasised the need for national investment in early childhood development as ‘not just social policy but economic policy.’
The essay and the Princess’ visit today show her continuous commitment to the research and development in the early years, which she has been campaigning for.
A brilliant visit to Home-Start Oxford, where volunteers are being trained to use the @Earlychildhood animation series in their work supporting families with young children.
Home-Start are one of many organisations already using the explainers, which bring to life the science… pic.twitter.com/0Tfn4cXr9J
— The Prince and Princess of Wales (@KensingtonRoyal) October 9, 2025
Following the visit, a social media post was shared to Kensington Palace socials signed by Catherine saying: ‘Attention is the most basic form of love. In our increasingly distracted world, it has never been more important to hold on to what truly connects us – to ourselves to one another, and to the world around us.
‘Thank you to Home-Start and the Rose Hill Community Centre for today and for all you do to nurture strong connections in the community. C.’
Aides confirmed that today’s visit is part of a wider series of autumn engagements focusing on the Princess’ Early Years campaign, ahead of the publication of new findings from the Royal Foundation’s ‘Understanding the Early Years’ report later this year.
