Kate Middleton reunited with some of the women she met on a trip to the prison in 2015 at HMP Send near Woking, Surrey on Wednesday afternoon.

Her visit marked the third stop on a tour to launch a landmark survey on early childhood development.

During her stop-off, the mother-of-three spoke to a group who had been released from custody following their successful rehabilitation from The Forward Trust, a social enterprise that empowers people to break the cycle of crime or addiction.

She told them: ‘It really shocked me when I came here last time how early the challenges were that you face. How early you could take it back.’

After one Send inmate described their time with The Forward Trust as ‘one of the best things that had happened to them’, the duchess replied: ‘It’s so often I hear that, why does it have to get to that point before people receive the help and support?’

The event came after her brother-in-law Prince Harry left the UK to start a new life with his wife Meghan Markle in Canada.

Speaking of the impact early years experiences can have on people at HMP Send, Kate said: ‘I’m hugely passionate about trying to really help get into this crisis, trying to help provide that prevention mechanism and that support system in our communities.

‘Particularly that support in the early years of life.’

Benny Refson, trustee at The Forward Trust, said the royal’s support for the charity – and for people who had been labelled as ‘naughty or disruptive’ at school – was ‘huge’.

She said: ‘I’m sitting around today with women who have all had really traumatic early childhood experiences, but no-one was there to help them out of the cycle’.

Ms Refson added that ‘this is the first time that they’ve had any offer of support’, claiming Kate had helped to give ‘value to the work that people do’ by recognising the ‘importance of the work and the complex world that prisons are’.

The duchess kicked off her ‘5 big questions on the under 5s’ initiative in Birmingham on Tuesday at the city’s science museum, where she was shown around the interactive space by children and chatted to parents.

She headed to Cardiff on Wednesday, where she chatted to locals at a sensory class at the Ely and Careau Children’s Centre.

Her five-question online survey aims to ‘spark a national conversation’ to help create ‘lasting change for generations to come’, Kensington Palace said.

The NSPCC said the project would be a ‘vital source of information’.

In the survey, called Five Big Questions, participants are asked for their opinion on what influences development and what period of childhood is most important for children’s happiness.

The online poll, conducted by Ipsos Mori on behalf of the Royal Foundation, is thought to be the biggest survey of its kind.