Kate Middleton Returns to Mental Health Charity She’s Supported for 10 Years

Kate Middleton is back at a mental health charity that has been a near-constant in her royal work.

The Princess of Wales, 43, visited Anna Freud to continue pushing the message that what happens in the first years of a young child’s life has a profound influence.

Princess Kate stepped out in North London early on Nov. 27 to support Anna Freud’s new tie-in with her Centre for Early Childhood, which will boost the skills of health visitors, the teams who support women in the days and weeks after childbirth in the U.K. The project will help those professionals center their work around early social and emotional development.

The Princess of Wales began her visit by meeting the charity’s Chief Executive, Professor Eamon McCrory, who talked to her about how Anna Freud is working to improve mental health care for babies, children and young people through science and clinical innovation. And she joined groups of parents and their kindergarten aged children and babies.

“The princess has such a natural down-to-earth manner and very quickly became comfortable in talking to parents about their experiences and parents were very quickly at ease at sharing their experiences with her,” Prof. Eamon McCrory tells PEOPLE.

“She sat down and played with the little toddlers and babies that were visiting. It really demonstrated her genuine interest in people and also in her view of relationships really being absolutely key for future prevention.”

“The Princess was really interested in their experience and really passionate about how we, at Anna Freud, we can act with working in collaboration with parents bringing together science and clinical practice to shape the lives of the next generation of children and young people.”

Kate first visited Anna Freud, which has a mission to help children develop their emotional and mental health, in September 2015. She became its patron a year later. It was the mental health of children and families and intervening to tackle it as early as possible that was the grounding for her next step into championing the early years.

Princess Kate’s visit follows the speech she made at the Future Workforce Summit on Nov. 19, where she talked about the importance of “consistent, nurturing relationships which create the grounded and meaningful environments around a child.”

Kate added last week, “It is this texture, the weave of love, which forms a child’s emotional world and becomes the foundation, the very fabric of resilience and belonging.”

McCrory tells PEOPLE, “At Anna Freud, we’ve been re-imagining mental health care for more than 70 years but the princess is looking forward to the future in a rapidly-changing society. Her recent essay as well as her recent talk emphasize how we need to come together to really strengthen the bonds to help protect wellbeing and prevent mental health problems and additions emerging in the first place.”

The charity is collaborating with Kate’s Centre for Early Childhood on an ambitious development program, in partnership with the U.K.’s Institute of Health Visiting. “We know that strong relationships and connections in childhood are what protect us from future mental health problems but more importantly they act as a springboard for lifelong health and wellbeing,” CEO McCrory adds.

Anna Freud will design a training program to support public health professionals who support new mothers and other early years workers who help parents, their babies and young children.

Can’t get enough of PEOPLE’s Royals coverage? Sign up for our free Royals newsletter to get the latest updates on Kate Middleton, Meghan Markle and more!

In her roundtable talks with experts from Anna Freud, young people, educators and charity supporters, Kate joined the discussion on how to create communities where strong relationships can flourish, as well as how children and young people’s well-being can be better supported.