CHILD REMOVALS IN PRIVATE FAMILY LAW COURT PROCEEDINGS
In recent years there has been an increase in children being removed from the primary care of their mothers in private law family court proceedings on the basis that the mother is not promoting contact with the other parent, despite the fact that domestic abuse is a feature in over 85% of such proceedings (Domestic Abuse Commissioner, 2025). Allegations of ‘parental alienation’ and the use of PA ‘experts’ have played a significant role in child removals. Children may then be placed, against their wishes, into the primary care of a parent who abused them or their mother, or alternatively moved to live with another relative or placed into care.
Removing children from their primary-safe carer can lead to children experiencing further abuse and lasting harm, particularly if all or nearly all contact is suspended between children and their primary carer (Silberg and Dallam, 2019). Emerging evidence has begun to identify that child removal can have lethal mental health effects on some mothers, including suicidal thoughts and attempts to take their own life (Dalgarno et al., 2024).
A number of Government reports have raised concerns about the practice of child removal in private family law proceedings which involve allegations of abuse (Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel, 2024; Ministry of Justice, 2020). However, there is no systematic data collection in England and Wales to understand the scale of this phenomenon or in what specific circumstances it is occurring.
To address this gap in evidence, Right to Equality and Survivor Family Network undertook a survey of mothers who had a child removed in private law children proceedings in England and Wales since 2014 to gather initial data and insights. The survey was co-designed with academic experts and those with lived experience. The link to the survey was distributed from 27th August to the end of September 2025.
The quantitative survey results were analysed by Dr Linda Cusworth and Dr Jade Hooper, using SPSS. It should be noted that the survey results cannot be generalised as participants were self-selecting and the total parent population is not known.
The main quantitative findings are set out below. While they provide some stark and concerning data about child removals, they cannot convey the experiences reported by survey participants of their family journeys. The full report, including analysis of the qualitative data, will be available in spring 2026.
Right to Equality and Survivor Family Network are immensely grateful to all the mothers who completed the survey and to those who co-designed it. We hope that the insights gained by the survey will provide a first step towards overcoming the untold harm to children and protective parents and restoring justice and integrity to the family justice system.
Main quantitative findings
Responses
● Overall, 463 responses were received, of which 217 were valid
● 246 responses were filtered out, either within the survey itself or later during data cleaning because they were not relevant (for example, the proceedings took place outside England and Wales, prior to 2014, or were duplicates)
Geographical spread
● The mothers responding to the survey were situated in all areas of England and Wales with the highest proportion (33.8%) in the South East
Ethnicity of mothers
● The majority of mothers (86.6%) reported that they were white
● Four mothers (1.9%) reported that they were Black, Black British, Black Welsh, Caribbean or African
● Five mothers (2.3%) reported that they were Asian, Asian British or Asian Welsh
● Twelve mothers (5.6%) reported that they were of mixed or multiple ethnic groups
When were the children removed?
● Two-thirds (66.3%) of child removals took place between 2021-2025
● 11.0% of child removals took place 8-11 years ago
Children’s living arrangements prior to removal
● At the start of proceedings, the vast majority of children (81.6%) were living with their mother
● The remainder of the children were living with their father (2.3%) or in a shared care arrangement (14.3%)
Numbers and ages of children removed from the care of their mothers
● In total, the 217 mothers had 342 children removed from their care
● Mothers had between 1 and 6 children removed from their care, with an average (mean) of 1.6 (standard deviation: 0.8)
● Children ranged in age from under 1 to 16 years, with a mean of 8 years.
Health conditions or disability of mothers
● Over a third (34.6%) of mothers reported having health conditions or disabilities and multiple conditions were common
● 15.7% of mothers reported having mental health difficulties and/or trauma including PTSD, C-PTSD, complex mental health
● 13.4% of mothers reported having physical, autoimmune, pain and/or other medical conditions such as fibromyalgia, ME, neurological disease, physical disability, Coeliac, and Crohns
Legal representation
● A majority (86.6%) of mothers reported that they were represented, either throughout the proceedings (40.3%) or for part of the proceedings (43.3%)
● 13.4% of mothers were not represented at all throughout the proceedings
Allegations of abuse
● The vast majority of mothers (96.8%) had raised allegations of abuse during the proceedings, including multiple forms of abuse
● The most common allegations raised were domestic abuse (88.5%) and 30.4% of mothers had raised sexual violence
● Almost two-thirds of mothers (61.8%) raised emotional abuse of the child/children by the father, over a quarter (27.6%) raised child sexual abuse and 37.8% raised child physical abuse
Findings of abuse
● In nearly half (45.6%) of cases no fact-finding hearing was held on the mother’s allegations of abuse
● Where fact-finding hearings were held, findings were made in 6.5% of cases and some findings were made in 11.7% of cases, with no findings were made in 36% of cases
Allegations of parental alienation/alienating behaviours
● Over four-fifths (81.1%) of mothers reported being accused of not facilitating or supporting the relationship between the father and child/children
● Allegations of failure to support the father/child relationship were most frequently made by fathers (72.6%)
● Other people or agencies who made allegations of ‘parental alienation’ were Cafcass (43.4% of cases), social workers (40.6% of cases) and experts (22.6% of cases)
Findings of parental alienation/alienating behaviours
● Just over a third of mothers reported all (27.6%) or some (6%) findings made on allegations of parental alienation/alienating behaviours against them
● Almost a third (31.8%) of mothers reported no findings made against them
● A further third (34.6%) of mothers reported that there was no fact-finding hearing on
the allegations of parental alienation/alienating behaviours
Court-appointed experts
● Two thirds of mothers (66.4%) reported that (at least one) expert was appointed in their case
● The types of experts appointed were psychologists (44.2%), independent social workers (30.4%) and psychiatrists (10.1%)
Who recommended the removal of children from their mothers?
● Just over half (50.2%) of mothers reported that the removal of their child was based wholly or partly on the recommendations of the court-appointed expert, with the largest proportion being independent social workers (28.8%), followed by psychologists (25.1%)
● Nearly three-fifths (59.4%) of mothers reported that their child/children were removed based on the recommendation of Cafcass
● Child removals were also based on recommendations of local authority social workers (53%) and the judge (48.8%)
Barring orders
● 37% of mothers reported that an order had been made against them under Section 91(14) Children Act 1989 (which prevents them from applying to the court for a specified period without the permission of the court)
Children’s living arrangements following removal
● Two-thirds (65.0%) of mothers reported that their child/children were living with their father
● Nearly a fifth of children were either living with their mother (13.4%) or in a shared care arrangement between the mother and father (6.9%)
● Other living arrangements for the children included foster care or adoption (8.3%)
Post-removal contact between mothers and children
● Nearly four-fifths (79.4%) of mothers reported that the court had made an order defining their contact with their children
● For 15% of mothers, the court had not defined the contact they should have with their children and 5.6% of mothers did not know if such an order had been made