Judges in England and Wales will no longer routinely require mothers to attend court for child care proceedings within hours or days of giving birth, under new guidance issued by the Judiciary. The change follows growing concerns about the increasing number of urgent applications brought to family courts for newborn babies where safeguarding issues are raised.
Traumatic Experiences Highlighted
A recent BBC investigation shed light on the traumatic experiences of mothers who had to attend court while still recovering from labour. The investigation found that more than half of urgent care hearings in England in 2024-25 involved newborns, with mothers required to appear within days, or sometimes on the same day, as giving birth.
The new guidance states that same-day hearings should only be granted if a child's immediate safety is at risk, ensuring that intervention is "focused on cases that genuinely require it." The expectation is that it would be extremely rare for an application to be made for a same-day hearing.
Concerns Over Unnecessary Separations
Research from the universities of Lancaster and Oxford revealed that the number of children involved in care proceedings before their first birthdays has remained persistently high across England. Experts told the BBC's File on 4 Investigates that many babies might not have needed to go into care if adequate support had been in place. Since very young children in care are more likely to be adopted than older children, there are fears that some may have been permanently separated from their birth families unnecessarily.
Emma Smale, head of practice and policy at the Nuffield Family Justice Observatory, welcomed the new guidance as a "welcome focus" on the issue. She noted that the proportion of newborn babies in care proceedings in England and Wales subject to a same-day hearing had doubled over a decade, from one in 10 in 2012-13 to one in five in 2022-23. Smale described the process of separating a mother from her baby just after birth as "widely accepted as deeply traumatic for all involved" and questioned the fairness of making "profoundly life-changing decisions" when a parent cannot effectively participate in the proceedings.
New Requirements for Emergency Listings
Under the new guidance, applicants for emergency or short notice listings, which take place within five days, will be required to justify with evidence why a case needs such a listing. If a judge does not agree with the level of urgency, the case will be given a standard listing between days 12 and 18. This is intended to help ensure parents and guardians "have time to respond more effectively to the application" and that urgent judicial intervention is "focused on cases that genuinely require it."
A Newborn Baby Protocol has also been issued, aiming to provide a "greater level of fairness for child and parents" when care proceedings are issued immediately after birth. In England, early referral and assessment by local authority children's services will ensure the "timely provision" of preventative help, including identifying and strengthening family network resources where this is in the child's best interests. The protocol also states that before making any care order application, a Family Group Decision Making Meeting must be offered to parents, in line with the Children's Wellbeing and Schools Act 2026.
The changes are expected to reduce the number of mothers facing court appearances during the critical postpartum period, allowing them time to recover while ensuring that urgent cases are still handled appropriately.
