Parent-child relationships, known as attachments, underpin the emotional health and wellbeing of infants. Difficulties within this relationship can have far-reaching consequences for both parents and children. Health visitors within public health teams have a unique opportunity to support this relationship at an early stage. This paper describes the first stage of a study to develop a parent to infant attachment-screening tool. The aim of this stage was to develop items for inclusion in the tool, using parent focus groups to draw out relevant terminologies for aspects of the attachment relationship. Set in community venues within a primary care trust, a purposive maximum variation sample of 10 parents took part in three separate focus groups. Transcripts rich in parental descriptions of the parent-child relationship were recorded, transcribed and analysed. During the next stage of the study, a further focus group will develop the scaling of the items within the tool, which takes the form of a parent-completed questionnaire. Future stages will focus on piloting and validation of the tool, as well as testing for parental acceptability, internal consistency and reliability.