Capacitive proximity sensor with user

A sensing system for sensing the proximity of a part of a user to a control input, such as a control panel, for a vehicle subsystem, includes a transmitter for transmitting a signal, a primary receivers for receiving the signal via the user as a primary signal and a reference receiver for receiving the signal via the user as a reference signal. One of the transmitter and primary receiver is associated with the user and the other with the control input. The reference receiver is associated with the user and a controller is provided to receive and process the primary and reference signals to provide a measure of the proximity between the part of the user and the control input.