Mother has 16 children removed and taken into care

A MOTHER had 16 children taken from her by a court, in a case highlighted by a study that found women who lose a child to care will often end up having another removed from them.

In another family, two sisters and one of their daughters had 20 children removed between them. The study es- timated that as many as a quarter of mothers separated from children will find themselves back in court with another baby – often conceived to replace the child taken away.

The study by researchers at Lancaster and Brunel Universities and the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust, found that the more children mothers have had removed, the sooner they will have another. It dis- covered that for those facing care proceedings for the third time, the gap between pregnancies is down to just over a year, compared with almost two years for those on their first.

Karen Broadhurst, professor of social work at Lancaster, who led the study, also found evidence of a rapid increase in the number of children taken into care at birth in recent years.

The study, which drew on family court records, found that 13,248 babies were removed in England between 2007 and 2014.

But within that period the rate has more than doubled, with 2,018 newborns made the subject of care proceedings in 2013, up from 802 in 2008.

The shift coincides with a period in which the number of children taken into care rose rapidly amid the so-called “Baby P effect”, when social work caseloads expanded in the wake of the murder of the toddler Peter Connelly.

“These women got into a pattern,” said Prof Broadhurst. “They often talked about an initial unplanned pregnancy and then how having children removed exacerbated risky behaviour such as alcohol and drugs misuse.”

Sophie Humphreys, chief executive of Pause, which works with mothers with children in care, said: “Some women say they will keep going and eventually get to keep one. They get caught up in this adversarial relationship with the state.

“Sixteen is the highest from one woman we are aware of. What we have also experienced is where two siblings between them have had 17 children removed and in addition, one of their children is on to number three – so in a family you have 20 children removed.”