Newborn babies in urgent care proceedings in England and Wales

This is the fifth report in the Born into Care series. It provides updated data and analysis on the number and incidence rate of newborn babies and infants in care proceedings at national and regional level; the share of urgent interim care order (ICO) hearings involving newborn babies that are held at short notice (defined in the report as within seven days), as an emergency (less than three days), and on the same day (zero days’ notice); the number of emergency protection orders (EPOs) made for newborn babies and infants, and the proportion of these cases that progress to s.31 proceedings.

By Rebecca Pattinson, Karen Broadhurst, Bachar Alrouh, Linda Cusworth, Stephanie Doebler, Lucy Griffiths, Rhodri Johnson, Ashley Akbari and David Ford.

Published by the Nuffield Family Justice Observatory.