Kate Middleton Visits Prison to Highlight Importance of Mom-Child Relationships in Challenging Settings

The Princess of Wales highlighted how crucial it is to help the youngest children, whatever the circumstances they’re in

Kate Middleton is taking her campaign for children to an unexpected place.

The Princess of Wales, 43, visited a prison on Feb. 11 to see a mother and baby unit, highlighting the critical need to maintain strong and loving relationships for a child even in the most difficult and challenging situations.

One of Princess Kate’s charities, Action for Children, runs units inside three different prisons in the U.K., and the royal mom-of-three visited one at HMP Styal in Wilmslow, Cheshire, about 200 miles northwest of London.

Action for Children’s mother and baby units provide a dedicated place for new and expectant mothers serving a prison sentence or on remand, Kate’s office at Kensington Palace said. Prisoners live in a separate area of the jail and are supported to care for their babies by trained prison staff as well as early years and family support practitioners.

On Tuesday, the royal met staff and former residents to hear about the support provided, including high-quality kindergarten provision, targeted interventions and parenting support for the on-site mothers. 

She was also taken to the on-site kindergarten to see where babies and children living there can learn and play.

Her final call was to a group of current prisoners who use the mother and baby unit. There, Kate was told about how the charity is supporting the women and their babies.

The prison, which has a capacity of 454, currently has about 400 female prisoners, both on remand and those already completing their sentences, including those for life.

The visit to HMP Styal is part of Princess Kate’s ongoing work to showcase the importance of the early years in peoples’ development, irrespective of background or circumstance.

As well as employing early years practitioners at each site, whose job it is to make sure babies have the best possible care and are exposed to everyday experiences like going on a walk, going shopping or traveling on a bus, the Action for Children-backed units also organize overnight stays with other family members to create a positive bond and a wider support network for the child.

Kate has been patron of Action for Children since 2016 and a senior member of the charity’s team has been involved in a key advisory capacity in the Princess’s early years mission. Kate’s commitment to raising awareness of, and working to ensure the best practice in, early childhood led her to set up the Royal Foundation’s Centre for Early Childhood in 2021. The charity is one of the

On Feb. 2, she launched a new blueprint for raising awareness of the importance of emotional and social skills to future mental and physical well-being, and how getting it right for those in the 0-5 year age group is crucial. Called The Shaping Us Framework, it was produced her Centre for Early Childhood and authored by a coalition of academics, clinicians and practitioners in human development from around the U.K. and the world.

On Feb. 4, as she continued her gradual return to public-facing duties following the welcome news she is in “remission” from cancer, Kate joined a school trip that was putting into practice some of the Framework’s initiatives at London’s National Portrait Gallery.

In June 2023, Princess Kate opened Hope Street in Southampton, England where Action for Children run a pioneering new family-friendly residential community that was piloting a new approach to supporting women in the justice system.

She also visited HMP High Down in 2023 and HMP Send in 2020 and 2015.

Five years ago, at the height of the COVID pandemic in April 2020, Kate wrote a supportive message to the charity saying “Your willingness to be there for those that need your help is truly humbling.”

She added, “Whilst you are having to adapt your services during this pandemic, it is heartening to know that you are still able to provide vital support to children and families across the U.K. who need your help now more than ever.”

“Many of you are working on the frontline, in residential and other settings, to directly support children, with many others enabling this all to happen behind the scenes,” she continued.

“You must all have particular concerns at the moment for children who are especially vulnerable and who are spending time in home environments where they are at risk of violence, abuse and neglect. I know you will be doing all you can to look out for them.”