New draft guidelines published to improve practice when babies are separated from parents at birth

Professor Karen Broadhurst and Claire Mason, in collaboration with researchers at the Rees Centre, University of Oxford, have developed and designed draft guidelines to help improve practice when the state acts to safeguard a baby at birth. The guidelines (available here) been published today, and are being tested for feasibility in sites across England and Wales. Details about the project to develop the guidelines is available here.

The draft guidelines, grounded in systematic research with 8 local authority areas and corresponding health trusts in England and Wales, are published in response to a call for more national guidance for professionals working in children’s social care, health services and the courts to ensure best practice. The full peer reviewed report from the underlying research is also published today (full report and summary available here).

When the state intervenes to safeguard a baby at or close to birth, it is traumatic for birth parents and painful for professionals. When the safeguarding action results in parent and baby separation, this can be a life-changing course of action with many inherent and unresolved ethical and practice dilemmas.

The work is part of the Born into Care series, funded by the Nuffield Foundation and has been led by the Centre for Child & Family Justice Research at Lancaster University working with Rees Centre at Oxford University. The first report in the series documented escalating rates of care proceedings for babies. 

The guidelines, reports and peer reviewed articles associated with this work include:

Mason, C., Broadhurst, K., Ward, H., Barnett, A. and Holmes, L. (2022) Born into Care: Draft best practice guidelines for when the state intervenes at birth. Nuffield Family Justice Observatory. (link)

Mason, C., Broadhurst, K., Ward, H., Barnett, A. and Holmes, L. (2022) Born into Care: Developing best practice guidelines for when the state intervenes at birth. Nuffield Family Justice Observatory. (full report and summary)

Broadhurst, K., Mason, C., Ward, H. (2022) Urgent care proceedings for new-born babies in England and Wales – time for a fundamental review. International Journal of Law, Policy and the Family, (Volume 36, Issue 1)

Ward, H., Broadhurst K., Mason, C. and Ott, E. (2022). Born into Care: Developing best practice guidelines when the state intervenes at birth: Review of current guidance documents. Rees Centre, University of Oxford. (link)

Mc Grath-Lone, L. and Ott, E. (2022.) Perinatal loss: key messages for infant removal at birth: An evidence review. Rees Centre, University of Oxford. (link)

For further details, please contact Claire Mason (claire.mason@lancaster.ac.uk).