Baby Care Proceedings Surge by 64% in Two Decades, Prompting Fears of Unnecessary Adoptions

The number of infants caught up in care proceedings before their first birthday remains stubbornly high across England, according to newly published research that has reignited concerns about the pace and permanence of adoption for the country's youngest children. Data compiled by experts at the universities of Lancaster and Oxford shows that care proceedings involving babies have climbed by 64 per cent over the past twenty years, with one in every 118 infants now affected. The figures, which run up to the 2024-25 period, reveal that cases peaked during the Covid pandemic before falling back slightly and then settling at a plateau that shows little sign of receding.

The research, shared with BBC File on 4 Investigates, suggests that a significant proportion of these cases involve children who might have remained with their birth families had adequate support been available. While experts acknowledge that some parents pose a genuine and serious risk to their children, they argue that many babies enter the care system not because of clear-cut abuse but because of neglect linked to complex family circumstances, including drug and alcohol dependency and insecure housing. Professor Karen Broadhurst of Lancaster University, whose analysis underpins much of the concern, estimates that only between a fifth and a quarter of care proceedings could be described as "clear-cut," involving serious harm or abuse. The majority, she says, fall into a grey area where the right help might have changed the outcome.

The stakes involved in these decisions are exceptionally high, as the cases of Baby P in north London and Sara Sharif in Woking, Surrey, have grimly demonstrated in recent years. Social workers occupy the centre of the decision-making process, weighing the need to give families time to recover from a crisis against the risk of failing to intervene when a child is in danger. One social worker, who asked to be identified only as Tracy, described the daily dilemmas she and her colleagues face. She explained that they conduct wide-ranging assessments of parents, including judging whether past and present evidence points to a future risk of harm. In some instances, she said, they encounter families "riddled with abuse and neglect" in which no one is capable of safely raising a child. The British Association of Social Workers told the BBC that its members are doing their utmost against a backdrop of rising caseloads and shrinking resources.

Because very young children who enter care are far more likely to be adopted than older children, the concentration of proceedings among infants raises particular alarm. According to the latest government figures, 72 per cent of adopted children in England were taken into care before their first birthday. Adoption is intended to be a last resort, as both the government and adoption organisations acknowledge, because while it can offer stability, it also permanently severs the legal relationship between a child and their birth family. Yet evidence from CoramBAAF, which represents professionals working in adoption and care, indicates that more than 90 per cent of adoptions proceed without the written consent of parents. In just under half of those cases, the courts overruled the parents' wishes. The remainder were classified as "unopposed," with many parents reportedly advised not to contest the adoption because their chances of success were considered slim.

These figures have led campaigners and some specialists to characterise the current system as a form of modern-day "forced adoption." Professor Broadhurst concedes that the phrase is politically loaded and that the contemporary care system bears little resemblance to the coercive practices that took place mainly between 1949 and 1976, for which the government recently issued an apology in England. Nevertheless, she maintains that the description captures something real about the present situation. "It is actually what's happening because parents do not agree," she said, adding that mothers and fathers want to remain in contact with their children. Even parents who recognise they could not look after a child at a given moment find it especially brutal to face the prospect of little or no contact until the child turns eighteen.

The human cost of these decisions is illustrated by the experience of one birth mother, Jean, who told File on 4 Investigates that she never wanted to give up her daughter, Tye, for adoption and describes what happened as forced. Her local council has stated that it followed a lawful process. Jean's account forms part of a wider conversation about whether the system strikes the right balance between protecting children and preserving families where that is possible. The government and adoption organisations have consistently maintained that adoption should be pursued only when no other option can provide a child with a safe and permanent home.

However, children's charity Coram, part of the same wider network of specialist children's organisations as CoramBAAF, offers a counterpoint to the concerns about unnecessary adoptions. It warns that if infants in care are not adopted, they would likely remain in the care system for longer periods. Research cited by the charity shows that many children raised in care experience significantly poorer outcomes in life than those raised outside it, including in education, employment and mental health. For Coram, the stability that adoption can provide is not a minor consideration but a decisive one, particularly for babies who cannot safely return to their birth families.

The BBC understands that new guidance for Family Court judges is expected to be announced before the end of the year, with the aim of substantially reducing the number of short-notice care hearings held within hours or days of a baby's birth. Such hearings have drawn criticism because they can leave parents with almost no time to prepare, seek legal advice, or demonstrate that they can address the concerns raised about their parenting. The planned guidance signals that policymakers are alive to the criticisms, even if the underlying tensions between child protection and family preservation remain unresolved.

For now, the data points to a system under sustained pressure. The 64 per cent rise in baby care proceedings over two decades has not been matched by a corresponding expansion in the support services that might prevent families from reaching crisis point. Experts who spoke to the BBC argue that many of the cases now flooding the courts involve the kind of chronic neglect that poverty, addiction and inadequate housing can produce, rather than deliberate cruelty. Until those underlying issues are tackled, they warn, the courts will continue to make life-altering decisions about infants at a volume that many find troubling, and the debate over whether Britain has drifted into a quiet form of forced adoption will only intensify.