Better engagement with and support for parents before and after child removal can break cycles of harm and reduce repeat risk. Recommendations from a national child safeguarding review call for urgent action to better protect vulnerable unborn babies and infants.
The Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel has published its recommendations from the national review of the death of baby Victoria Marten. It calls for clearer national guidance to ensure vulnerable unborn babies and infants are consistently considered within child protection frameworks.
Key findings
The review found that agencies are often aware of multiple risks within families, such as domestic abuse or parental disengagement, but do not always assess and manage these risks together. A stronger focus on trauma-responsive engagement with parents, recognising the impact of previous child removal, alongside earlier and more effective multi-agency working and purposeful information sharing, may have made a difference. It warns that without stronger coordination, opportunities to protect vulnerable unborn babies and infants can be missed.
- Earlier and stronger pre‑birth safeguarding, including national guidance that explicitly includes vulnerable unborn babies and infants, and clearer protocols for responding to concealed or late‑disclosed pregnancies.
- Trauma‑informed practice, to help reach families who do not engage with services, recognising that avoidance of services often reflects grief and mistrust rather than deliberate refusal.
- Better engagement with and support for parents before and after child removal, to help break cycles of harm and reduce repeat risk.
- A preventative ‘Think Family’ approach, bringing together adult and children’s services to provide a holistic view and identify issues that affect the whole family unit.
- Stronger links between children’s social care and offender management services, especially when serious sex offenders are parents or carers.
- Clearer arrangements when families move, including formal information transfer, shared chronologies and defined safeguarding responsibility.
What impact will this have on practice
Baby Victoria’s four older siblings had been placed in care, and the review notes the skill and dedication of professionals involved in keeping them safe. But, by the time Victoria was conceived, the rapid recurrence of pregnancies, births and removals ‘had become a repeating pattern with devastating consequences’, underlining the cumulative impact of trauma and repeat child removals on parents.
The review cites a growing body of evidence that ‘long-term, relational support’ which recognises the impact of trauma on parents can disrupt the cycles of harm to children identified in research on recurrent care proceedings . Where available, these dedicated services demonstrate that multi-agency, holistic support to parents can reduce future risk and improve outcomes for both parents and children.
The review explores in more detail what a trauma-informed, relationship-based approach to parental engagement means and why it is vital in the context of child removal (pages 39-54). This is explored further in Reconceptualising parental non-engagement in child protection: Frontline Briefing, which makes the case for understanding parental ‘non-engagement’ as a trauma response and sets out how trauma-informed approaches can support more effective relationships with parents.
However, the requirement for proactive and sustained, multi-agency support to parents who experience recurrent care proceedings cannot be resourced solely or primarily through already stretched local authority children’s social care budgets.
Context of recurrent care proceedings
Research over the past decade has shown that recurrent care proceedings are a significant issue across England and Wales. Landmark studies by researchers found that around one in five mothers who appear in care proceedings are likely to return to court with a new baby within ten years, and that one in eight fathers are also at risk of returning within five years.
More recent research shows that about half of mothers have another baby after a first set of care proceedings and half of these go on to appear in a new set of proceedings within eight years.
The Born into Care research revealed a concerning rise in newborns entering care proceedings, with cases in England and Wales increasing. Also, troubling were statistics showing that in 2019/20, 86.3% of newborn cases in England and 74.8% in Wales involved short-notice hearings.
A significant proportion of these parents were also in care as children. Broadhurst et al. (2017) found that 40% of mothers experiencing recurrent care proceedings had looked after status as children. This gives the state an additional moral and ethical responsibility towards these parents, as corporate parent and grandparent.
These patterns reflect a growing need for holistic, multi-agency, ‘personalised’ support for parents who experience separation from their children to help them make lasting changes and build more positive futures for themselves and their families, whether or not they are able to care for their children themselves.
A number of local authorities, NHS Trusts and voluntary sector organisations have developed specialist local services, alongside the national work in this space by Pause. These services recognise that without sustained, compassionate support, parents can remain trapped in cycles of trauma, loss and repeat removals. A 2021 report provides a national overview of specialist services for parents.
The Giving HOPE boxes – developed from the Born into Care research and co-produced with mothers with lived experience of separation close to birth – are also being introduced by local areas across the country to help practitioners provide compassionate, trauma-informed care when mothers and babies are separated close to birth.
Working in partnership with
Research in Practice has been working in collaboration with those innovating practice with parents across the country, many organisations have been working to improve support for parents experiencing repeat removals. These include the Centre for Child and Family Justice, University of Lancaster, University of Essex, Family Rights Group, Nuffield Family Justice Observatory (NFJO), Birth Companions, Pause, and MBRRACE-UK and Research in Practice.
Supporting practice with parents experiencing repeat removals
Research in Practice has extensive resources to support professionals in this area.
A suite of resources aim to help local services develop and improve their pre-birth work.
The materials – including videos and audio clips featuring parents, practitioners and academics – are grounded in evidence from the Born into Care research, practice guidelines and other research and guidance in this space. This includes this Birth Charter for women with involvement from children’s social care from Birth Companions.
The resources offer practical tools and guidance for service managers, strategic leads, commissioners, and frontline practitioners.
Developed through a Change Project, our resource pack bring together materials from project sessions, alongside reflections, exercises, films, and an evaluation guide to help those establishing or strengthening services for parents affected by recurrent care proceedings.
We are currently working on developing further resources on working with recurrent care-experienced birth mothers.
Pre-birth: Change Project
Interactive resources designed to enhance pre-birth services and improve outcomes for infants and parents by driving policy and practice development. These tools are valuable for senior managers, strategic leads, commissioners, and professionals in social care, health, and midwifery services.
Working with recurrent care-experienced birth mothers: Online Resources
Social workers, lawyers and judges have long been aware that some women return to court as respondents in care proceedings after having already experienced the removal of one or more children in previous proceedings. These resources bring together material from a Change Project with information, reflections and practice examples provided by those participating.
Reconceptualising parental non-engagement in child protection: Frontline Briefing (2020)
This briefing builds on findings from Broadhurst et al’s (2017) research on vulnerable birth mothers in recurrent care proceedings. It makes the case for reconceptualising parental ‘non-engagement’ with services - proposing that an understanding of how some parents’ experiences of adversity and trauma in their own childhood can help to understand why they may find service engagement difficult.