Baby Care Proceedings Remain at Record Highs as Experts Warn of Unnecessary Adoptions

New research from two leading British universities has revealed that the number of infants caught up in care proceedings before their first birthday remains stubbornly high across England, prompting fresh concerns that some babies are being permanently separated from their birth families when better support might have kept them at home.

According to data compiled by academics at Lancaster and Oxford universities, care proceedings involving babies have increased by 64% over the past two decades. The figures, which run up to the 2024-25 period, indicate that one in every 118 infants in England is now affected by such proceedings. The numbers peaked during the Covid pandemic before falling slightly and then plateauing at what researchers describe as a persistently elevated level.

The findings were shared with BBC File on 4 Investigates, which examined the complex and often painful decisions behind removing very young children from their families. While experts acknowledge that some cases involve clear and serious danger to a child, they argue that a substantial proportion of babies entering the care system may not have needed to be removed at all if timely and appropriate support had been available to their parents.

Professor Karen Broadhurst from Lancaster University explained that only between one-fifth and one-quarter of children's care proceedings could be described as "clear-cut" situations where a child had suffered serious harm or abuse. The majority, she said, fall into a "grey area" category involving neglect by families grappling with complex difficulties such as drug and alcohol abuse or housing problems. In many of these cases, Broadhurst suggested, the situation might have improved had the family received the right kind of help.

The stakes are particularly high for the youngest children because infants who enter care are far more likely to be adopted than older children. Latest government statistics show that 72% of adopted children in England were taken into care before they turned one. This means that decisions made in the first weeks and months of a child's life can have lifelong consequences for both the child and the birth family.

Concerns about the adoption process itself have added to the unease. CoramBAAF, which represents professionals working in adoption and care, reports that more than 90% of adoptions in England proceed without the written consent of the birth parents. In just under half of those cases, courts overruled the parents' wishes. The remaining cases were classified as "unopposed," often because parents had been advised that contesting the adoption would be unlikely to succeed.

Overall, only around 10% of adoptions in England are made with written consent from birth parents, according to CoramBAAF. This statistic has led campaigners and some experts to characterise the current situation as modern-day "forced adoption." The term is controversial and politically charged, but Broadhurst argues it is applicable in practice because parents do not agree to the separation. She noted that even parents who recognise they cannot care for a child at a given moment often find it brutal that they will have little or no contact with that child until they reach adulthood.

Adoption is officially regarded as a last resort by the government and by adoption organisations, since it provides stability but permanently severs the legal relationship between a child and their birth family. Children's charity Coram, part of the same wider network as CoramBAAF, cautions that if infants in care are not adopted, they would likely remain in the care system for years. Research indicates that many children raised in care experience significantly poorer life outcomes than those raised outside it, adding a difficult dimension to an already fraught debate.

Social workers sit at the centre of these life-altering decisions. One social worker, whom the BBC is calling Tracy, described the daily dilemmas she and her colleagues face as they weigh giving families time to overcome a crisis against the risk of failing to intervene in time. She said assessments of parents are wide-ranging and detailed, including judgements about whether past and present evidence points to a future risk of harm. Some families, she noted, are "riddled with abuse and neglect" and no one within them can safely raise a child.

The consequences of getting these decisions wrong have been starkly illustrated by high-profile cases such as Baby P in north London and Sara Sharif in Woking, Surrey. These tragedies serve as reminders of what can happen when authorities fail to act. The British Association of Social Workers told the BBC that its members are doing their best against a backdrop of increasing caseloads and shrinking resources.

The BBC understands that new guidance for Family Court judges will be announced before the end of the year, aimed at significantly reducing the number of short-notice care hearings held within hours or days of a baby being born. Such hearings have been criticised for giving parents little opportunity to prepare or respond.

One birth mother, Jean, told the programme that she never wanted to give up her daughter, Tye, for adoption, and she describes what happened as forced. Her local council maintains that it followed a lawful process. Her story reflects the wider anguish felt by parents who believe the system moved too quickly or without sufficient support.

Taken together, the new figures and the testimony of experts, social workers, and parents point to a system under considerable strain, caught between the imperative to protect vulnerable infants and the risk of severing family ties unnecessarily. As the government prepares to issue fresh guidance, the debate over how to balance those competing priorities is likely to intensify.