Rise in baby care proceedings renews questions about family support

University figures reported by the BBC indicate that care proceedings involving babies in England rose by 64% over roughly two decades. By 2024/25, one in 118 infants was affected. The figures peaked during the Covid period, then fell slightly and levelled off, the BBC reported. [1]

The rise has renewed concern that some families do not get help early enough to care for their children safely. Professor Karen Broadhurst of Lancaster University told the BBC that many care cases involve neglect alongside complex needs, and that better support might help some families. But a care application is not a record of a child being removed, still less a decision to adopt. [1]

Official figures show 3,040 children were adopted from care in England in the year to March 2025, 20 more than the previous year. Annual adoptions have remained around 3,000 since a longer decline from their 2015 peak. Among children adopted in 2024/25, 72% had begun their final period of care before turning one; that is not the proportion of babies in proceedings who go on to be adopted. Nor does the national trend settle whether any individual adoption could have been avoided. [3]

There are specific concerns about how early decisions are made. A Nuffield Family Justice Observatory analysis found that, in 2022/23, 18% of newborns in short-notice hearings in England had a hearing on the day the care application was issued. Its authors warned that such speed could hamper parents’ participation and leave too little time to consider family alternatives. [2]

Pressure on family support is also documented. An analysis of council spending found that early-intervention expenditure in 2024/25 was 40% below its inflation-adjusted 2010/11 level, although it had partly recovered from a low in 2020/21. Those spending figures do not establish which, if any, removals or adoptions different support would have prevented. Adoption England’s head, Sarah Johal, told the BBC that courts consider the options for each child as part of a child-protection decision. [Sources 6, 1]