Today, the Duchess of Cambridge made an embargoed visit to Sunshine House Children and Young People’s Health and Development Centre in London to meet the new mothers being supported by The Family Nurse Partnership. The visit was not announced beforehand so it came as a pleasant surprise to Royal followers.
Duchess was visiting to learn more about a nursing initiative that supports families and children in the early years run by the Family Nurse Partnership and to better understand how the programme has helped them and their children. The Family Nurse Partnership – a voluntary home visiting programme, supports young mothers and first-time parents aged 24 & under to have a healthy pregnancy, improve their child’s health and development and attain their goals for their child and their family.
Sunshine House Children and Young People’s Health and Development Centre provide community health services in a variety of locations across Lambeth and Southwark. The Family Nurse Partnership is one of them. At FNP parents are partnered with a specially trained family nurse, who visits them regularly from early pregnancy until their child is two.
About the visit palace said, “the visit is to further Duchess’ research and engagement with the Early Years sector. FNP in Southwark is delivered by Evelina London, of which Her Royal Highness is Patron. As part of Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, Evelina London is a major children’s hospital and provider of community services. From health visitors and school nurses to specialist treatment for children with long-term health conditions, Evelina London’s community services care for children and families across the boroughs of Lambeth and Southwark“. Catherine has made support to families, carers and children in their early years and mental health her primary focus of public life as a royal.
Since late 2017, Catherine has been doing extensive research and studies in the field. She even set up a steering group of experts and professionals in the field of early years. The Duchess’s longer-term aim is to create a partnership between experts and organisations in order to build strong collaboration and to raise awareness of issues like perinatal, maternal and infant mental health, and the need for parenting support and advice, as well as resources for schools and educators. The steering group will work in the months ahead and report back to The Duchess on options for long-term collaboration.
The Family Nurse Partnership (FNP) in Southwark is run by Evelina London, a children’s hospital and provider of community services. Duchess of Cambridge became the patron of Evelina London in December 2018. Evelina London was also one of the chosen charities for the funds and gifts at the birth of Prince Louis in April 2018. Families from Evelina London were invited at the unveiling of Duchess’s Back to Nature Garden Wisley in Woking, Surrey earlier last week.
By focusing on their strengths, FNP enables young parents to develop good relationships with and understand the needs of their child, make choices that will give their child the best possible start in life, Believe in themselves and their ability to succeed and mirror the positive relationship they have with their family nurse with others.
FNP is structured – the tools it uses and the nature and number of visits are prescribed, based on years of research, evidence, successful implementation and constant evaluation – but it is also flexible. Within this structure, nurses deliver a highly personalised intervention based around the specific strengths and needs of each client. We call this agenda matching, and it is a sophisticated process demanding a high level of skill from our nurses.
Family Nurse Partnership (FNP) is delivered in around 80 areas across England. Each local team is made up of specially trained family nurse supervisors, family nurses, and quality support officers. The supervisors are experienced and highly skilled health professionals who also receive extensive additional training from the FNP National Unit. They lead the local team: providing supervision to their nurses, incorporating formative, restorative and normative elements, ensuring the safeguarding of clients and their children; developing the learning of the nurses in their team; and engage and build positive relationships with a wide range of stakeholders. Importantly, they also carry a small caseload of clients.
A video of the day. From People’s report,
One of those professionals, Kate Stanley, from the children’s charity the NSPCC, told PEOPLE earlier this month that Kate “has identified very shrewdly that if you want to tackle the root causes of all mental health then looking at the early years is a great place to be. It is a critical period of of development, lays the foundations for later life for both our physical health and mental health. It’s a natural progression from that interest.”
Kate has a “really strong interest therefore in how you can support mothers and fathers in the earliest months of life of a child and during pregnancy in order to make sure that brain architecture was well supported. And a real compassion about the challenges of that and desire to understand the experiences of the families that some of the people around the table work with.”
During the visit, Duchess met the team at Sunshine House, whose work helps support young mothers. She talked about how quickly her children grow up and she can’t believe George is already 6.
The Duchess of Cambridge visited @EvelinaLondon Sunshine House to meet the Southwark @FNPNationalUnit, as part of her research and engagement with the Early Years sector.
The Family Nurse Partnership is a voluntary home visiting programme for first time parents aged 24 & under. pic.twitter.com/TwKJQY3RuB
— Kensington Palace (@KensingtonRoyal) September 19, 2019
Coming to what Duchess wore – Catherine debuted another stunning look today.
She was wearing Equipment Slim Signature Polka Dot Silk Shirt. Thanks to Caroline Parr on Twitter for the id.
The $280 shirt is described as, “This button-down features all the classic elements of our signature blouse from the front buttons to the double chest pockets, but we’ve cut it slightly more fitted for a structured work-ready look”.
The silk shirt features Front button closure, Spread collar, Chest flap-patch pockets, Long sleeves with button cuffs, back yoke with box pleat and Shirttail hem. It is currently available on Equipment, Nordstrom and Shopbop.
Catherine paired the look with Zara black Culottes. Thanks to PackhamGown and Cambridge mums on Twitter for the id.
The $49.90 high waist wide-leg trousers have side zip fastening hidden in the seam. It is also available in grey and white.
Catherine was wearing her Gianvito Rossi Piper 85 suede pumps.
The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge will visit Birkenhead on Thursday 26th September to attend the naming ceremony of the UK’s new polar research ship, the RRS Sir David Attenborough. Before the ceremony, Their Royal Highnesses will undertake a short tour of the ship. Owned by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) and operated by the British Antarctic Survey (BAS), the RRS Sir David Attenborough will enable world-leading research to be carried out in Antarctica and the Arctic over the next 25 to 30 years. Studying these remote regions plays a crucial role in allowing us to understand the changes in our planet’s oceans, marine life and climate systems. The ship will be available year-round to the UK’s research community.
