New guidance has been issued to judges to reduce the number of mothers appearing in family court for child care proceedings within hours or days of giving birth. The changes follow concerns raised by a BBC investigation into the traumatic experiences of mothers recovering from labor while attending court.
Under the updated guidance from the Judiciary, same-day hearings should now be granted only if a child's immediate safety is at risk. This aims to ensure that judicial intervention is focused on cases that genuinely require it.
Research from Lancaster and Oxford universities highlighted that the number of children involved in care proceedings before their first birthdays has remained persistently high. In the 2024-25 period, more than half of urgent care hearings in England were for newborns, requiring mothers to attend court shortly after delivery, or even on the same day.
Experts have suggested that some babies may not have needed to enter care if adequate support had been provided. There are also concerns that some infants might have been unnecessarily permanently separated from their birth families, as very young children in care are more likely to be adopted.
Following a consultation, the new guidance instructs courts to rigorously refuse cases that do not meet the urgency criteria. The guidance states that applications for same-day hearings should be extremely rare and only sought when a child's immediate safety would be compromised without court intervention.
Research from the Nuffield Family Justice Observatory indicated that over 70% of care proceedings involving babies in England were emergency hearings within two days of an application. Emma Smale, head of practice and policy at the observatory, described the new guidance as a "welcome focus" on the issue.
Smale noted that the number of newborn babies in care proceedings subject to same-day hearings in England and Wales has doubled over the past decade, from one in 10 in 2012-13 to one in five in 2022-23. She emphasized that separating a mother from their newborn baby is "widely accepted as deeply traumatic" and questioned the fairness of making life-altering decisions when a parent cannot effectively participate.
Applicants seeking emergency or short-notice hearings (within five days) will now be required to provide evidence justifying the urgency. If a judge deems the case not urgent enough, it will be scheduled for a standard hearing between 12 and 18 days later.
The Judiciary stated the guidance aims to give parents and guardians more time to respond effectively to applications and to ensure that urgent judicial intervention is reserved for critical cases. A Newborn Baby Protocol has also been issued to promote greater fairness for children and parents when care proceedings are initiated immediately after birth. This protocol includes ensuring timely preventative help from local authority children's services and offering Family Group Decision Making Meetings to parents before any care order application is made, in line with the Children's Wellbeing and Schools Act 2026.