The first set of national guidelines to help professionals dealing with rising numbers of babies removed from their parents at birth for safety reasons is to be developed.

The project will be led by Prof Karen Broadhurst and Claire Mason in partnership with the Rees Centre at Oxford University. Parallel work will also take place in Australia led by the Universities of Melbourne and Western Australia.

The study, funded by the Nuffield Family Justice Observatory (FJO) will work in partnership with birth parents and health and social work professionals across six sites in England and two in Wales to develop the new FJO guidelines.