调查人员获悉，如果有更好的支持，许多婴儿可能不需要接受护理。
With better support, many babies may not have needed to go into care, File on 4 Investigates is told.
作者：克莱尔·肯德尔（Claire Kendall）、朱迪思·莫里茨（Judith Moritz）根据发布新数据的专家称，英格兰各地在一岁生日之前参与护理程序的儿童数量一直处于较高水平。
By Claire Kendall, Judith Moritz The number of children involved in care proceedings before they reach their first birthdays is at a persistently high level across England, according to experts who have published new figures.
兰开斯特大学和牛津大学的数据显示，过去二十年来，婴儿的护理程序增加了64%，每118名婴儿中就有一名受到影响。截至2024-25年，这一数字在新冠疫情期间达到顶峰，随后略有下降并趋于平稳。
Data from the universities of Lancaster and Oxford indicates care proceedings for babies have risen by 64% over the past two decades, with one in 118 infants affected. The figures - up to 2024-25 - peaked during Covid, before dropping slightly and plateauing.
虽然在有些情况下，父母继续与孩子接触是不安全的，但专家告诉《4调查文件》，如果有支持，许多婴儿可能不需要接受护理。
While there are cases where it is unsafe for parents to continue contact with their children, experts have told File on 4 Investigates that many babies may not have needed to go into care if support had been in place.
而且，由于进入护理的非常年幼的儿童比年龄较大的儿童更有可能被收养，专家们也担心，有些儿童可能已经不必要地与他们的亲生家庭永久分离。
And, since very young children who go into care are more likely to be adopted than older children, there are also concerns from experts that some may have been permanently separated from their birth families unnecessarily.
英国广播公司了解到，家庭法院法官的新指导，以显着减少短期通知护理听证会的数量-在婴儿出生后的几小时或几天内-将在今年年底前宣布。
The BBC understands that new guidance for Family Court judges, to significantly reduce the number of short-notice care hearings - within hours or days of a baby being born - will be announced before the end of the year.
根据最新的政府数据，英格兰72%的被收养儿童在一岁之前就被送进了孤儿院。
According to latest government figures, 72% of adopted children in England went into care before turning one.
代表收养和护理工作者的CoramBAAF表示，大多数收养（超过90%）是在未经父母书面同意的情况下进行的。
Most of the adoptions, more than 90%, went ahead without parents' written consent - according to CoramBAAF, which represents those working in adoption and care.
法院在其中不到一半的案件中驳回了父母的意愿。其余的被归类为“不反对”，许多家长建议不要对收养提出异议，因为他们不太可能成功。
Courts overruled parents' wishes in just under half of those cases. The rest were classed as "unopposed", with many parents advised not to contest the adoptions, because they would be unlikely to succeed.
政府和收养组织告诉我们，收养应该作为最后的手段，因为它虽然提供了稳定性，但也永远切断了孩子与其亲生家庭之间的法律关系。
Adoption should be pursued as a last resort, the government and adoption organisations have told us, because, while it offers stability, it also severs the legal relationship between the child and its birth family forever.
当孩子被安置在护理机构时，通常允许亲生父母联系--但并非总是如此。
When a child is placed in care, birth parents are often allowed contact - but not always.
兰开斯特大学的凯伦·布罗德赫斯特教授表示，对护理程序的分析表明，五分之一到四分之一的护理程序是“明确的”，即儿童遭受了严重伤害或虐待。
Analysis of care proceedings suggests between a fifth and a quarter were "clear-cut", where a child had suffered serious harm or abuse, says Prof Karen Broadhurst from Lancaster University.
但她说，大多数是有复杂需求的家庭忽视的“灰色地带”案件，包括吸毒和酗酒以及住房问题，如果支持，这些情况可能会得到改善。
But the majority were "grey area" cases of neglect by families with complex needs, she says, including drug and alcohol abuse, and housing issues, which might have improved with support.
然而，儿童慈善机构Coram --与CoramBAAF一样，是更广泛的专业儿童组织网络的一部分--警告说，如果被照顾的婴儿不被收养，他们可能会继续受到照顾。研究表明，许多在护理系统中长大的儿童的生活结果比在护理系统之外的儿童要差得多。社会工作者是是否应该照顾儿童的决策过程的核心。
However, children's charity Coram - which, like CoramBAAF, is part of a wider network of specialist children's organisations - warns that if infants in care are not adopted, they would likely remain in care. And research shows that many children brought up in the care system experience much poorer outcomes in life than those outside it. Social workers are at the heart of the decision-making process as to whether a child should be taken into care.
其中一位我们称之为特雷西（Tracy），她描述了她和她的同事每天面临的困境，在给家庭时间度过危机与未能干预的风险之间取得平衡。
One of them, whom we are calling Tracy, describes the dilemmas she and her colleagues face daily, balancing giving families time to get through a crisis, against the risk of failing to intervene.
她说，她和她的同事对父母进行了广泛而详细的评估，包括判断是否有足够的过去和现在的证据表明未来孩子面临伤害的风险。
She says she and her colleagues carry out wide-ranging and detailed assessments of parents - including judging whether there is enough past and present evidence of a future risk of harm to their children.
她说，在某些情况下，他们处理的是“充满虐待和忽视”的家庭，没有人能够安全地抚养孩子。
In some cases, she says, they deal with families "riddled with abuse and neglect" where no-one is able to safely bring up a child.
赌注再高不过了。极端、备受瞩目的案件，例如伦敦北部的Baby P和萨里沃金的Sara Sharif的案件，都提醒了这一点。
The stakes could not be higher. Extreme, high-profile cases, like those of Baby P in north London and Sara Sharif in Woking, Surrey, have served as a reminder of that.
英国社会工作者协会告诉我们，在案件数量增加和资源减少的背景下，他们的成员正在尽最大努力。
The British Association of Social Workers told us their members are doing their best against a backdrop of increasing caseloads and reduction in resources.
CoramBAAF表示，英格兰只有约10%的收养是经过亲生父母书面同意的，这导致活动人士和一些专家将这种情况描述为现代的“强制收养”。
With only about 10% of adoptions in England made with written consent from birth parents, according to CoramBAAF, this has led campaigners and some experts to describe the situation as modern-day "forced adoption".
布罗德赫斯特承认，这一术语“带有政治色彩”，而现代照护体系与主要发生在1949年至1976年期间的强制性做法截然不同——英国政府最近已就这一时期的相关案件正式道歉。
Broadhurst acknowledges that term is "politically loaded" and the modern care system is very different from the coercive practices that took place mainly between 1949 and 1976 - and for which the government recently apologised for cases in England.
但她表示，“这实际上就是正在发生的事情，因为父母们并不同意。”
But she says it "is actually what's happening because parents do not agree".
她说：“他们希望继续与孩子保持联系。即使那些当时觉得自己无法照顾孩子的父母，也会觉得完全或几乎无法与自己的孩子联系，直到孩子年满18岁，这种做法尤其残酷。”一位生母简告诉我们，她从未想过将女儿泰伊送养，并称这一过程是“被迫的”。而她所在的地方议会则表示，整个过程都遵循了合法程序。
"They want to continue to be in contact with a child," she says. "Even parents who feel they couldn't look after a child at that point find it particularly brutal that they're going to have no contact, or very little contact, with that child until they're 18." One birth mother, Jean, tells us she never wanted to give up her daughter, Tye, for adoption - and describes it as "forced". Her local council says it followed a lawful process.
在泰伊出生11周时便被送入照护机构，2岁时又被收养，此后简与女儿分离了16年。
Jean was separated from her daughter for 16 years, after Tye was taken into care at 11 weeks' old and then adopted at the age of two.
如今，泰伊已经成年，母女二人得以重逢。在经历了收养带来的困扰以及对自身身份的困惑后，泰伊年满18岁时，通过社交媒体寻找了自己的母亲。
Now, with Tye an adult, they are reunited. When she turned 18, having struggled with adoption and questions about her identity, Tye looked for her mother on social media.
她说：“我知道自己有个母亲，但她并不是和我一起长大的人。”她形容自己的收养经历让自己“完全孤立无援”，还失去了“一大块文化根源”。
"I knew I had a mum somewhere and it wasn't the people I was growing up with," she says - describing her adoption as something that had left her "completely alone" without a "whole chunk of heritage".
简怀孕时曾满怀期待地憧憬着成为母亲。但她也有自己的担忧：“唯一可以确定的事是，我是个残疾人，连自己都照顾不好，所以我不确定自己如何能照顾一个婴儿，因此我需要帮助。”她说，当时她所在的地方当局——伦敦东部的纽汉姆议会——告诉她，这种帮助并不存在。泰伊被送入了寄养家庭，但简仍能经常见到她。
When Jean became pregnant, she was looking forward to being a mother. But she had concerns too: "The only thing I knew for certain was that I was disabled, I couldn't look after myself properly, so I wasn't sure how I was going to be able to look after a baby, so I needed help." Her local authority at the time, Newham Council in east London, told her such help was not available, she says. Tye was put into foster care, but Jean was able to see her often.
在简努力留住泰伊的过程中，经历了多次评估和安置。但最终，包括医生和社会工作者在内的专业人士向法院建议，泰伊需要一个稳定且长期的家庭，而简无法提供这样的环境。
There had been multiple assessments and residential placements as Jean tried to keep Tye. But professionals, including doctors and social workers, ultimately advised the court that Tye needed a stable, permanent family and that Jean could not provide it.
让说，经过多年的法庭诉讼，她一直在努力抗争，并且“倾尽全力”。她甚至询问过自己是否可以像离婚案件中的父母一样获得探视权。“有人告诉我，这种期望是不切实际的，”她说。
Jean says she fought and "gave it my all" through years of court proceedings. She even asked if she could have visiting rights, in a similar way to a parent in a divorce. "I was told that was an unrealistic expectation," she says.
纽汉姆议会告诉BBC，让已经获得了“全面的支持”，包括在母婴居住中心提供的24小时全天候帮助。
Newham Council told the BBC Jean had been offered "extensive support", including 24-hour-a-day help in a residential mother and baby unit.
议会表示，让曾有机会通过“双向信箱通信”与泰建立联系——即生父母和养父母互相寄送信件或电子邮件——这是“生父母与已被收养的孩子保持联系的标准方式”。
It said Jean had been offered contact with Tye through "two-way letterbox communication" - when birth parents and adoptive parents send letters or emails to each other - which was "a standard way for birth parents to remain in contact with children who have been adopted".
英国收养机构负责人莎拉·乔哈尔表示，她能理解为何一些生父母会使用“强制收养”这一说法。但她指出，今天的这些决定是“对儿童保护问题的回应”，家庭法院会针对每个孩子考虑所有可能的方案。
Sarah Johal - who heads Adoption England, which works with adoption agencies - says she understands why some birth parents might use the term "forced adoption". But today's decisions are "a response to child protection", she says, with the Family Court considering all the options for each child.
尽管收养后生父母将完全失去对孩子的法律责任，但乔哈尔表示，双方仍有交换电子邮件和照片的机会：“我们一直在努力倡导，为帮助生家庭维持联系提供更多支持。”然而，自泰被收养以来，英格兰各地对生家庭的支持已经减少。
Although birth parents lose all legal responsibility for their children post-adoption, Johal says there is a chance for emails and photos to be exchanged: "We've really been trying to advocate for the need for more support for birth families around helping with contact." Since Tye's adoption, support for birth families across England has been reduced.
根据儿童服务资金联盟委托的一份报告，过去十年间，早期干预服务的支出减少了44%，而同期照顾被监护儿童的成本却上升了50%。
Spending on early intervention services has been cut by 44% over a decade, according to a report commissioned by the Children's Services Funding Alliance. The costs of looking after children in care have risen by 50% in the same period.
社会工作者特雷西表示，由于地方政府的资金减少，帮助处境困难的父母应对困境变得十分困难。
With less funding for local authorities, it has been hard to help struggling parents cope, says social worker, Tracy.
她说，如果某个家庭在监护程序一开始就获得了更好的支持，“或许这个孩子就不必被带走……或许也就不必被收养了。”兰开斯特大学的凯伦·布罗德赫斯特则表示，支持力度的下降导致更多处于“灰色地带”的案件出现。
Had a family been given better support at the beginning of care proceedings, she says, "maybe the child wouldn't have needed to be removed… maybe the child wouldn't have needed to be adopted." Lancaster University's Karen Broadhurst says the reduction in support means that more of the "grey area" cases happen.
“在预防性服务被削减和等候名单极度漫长的情况下，越来越多的‘灰色案例’和边缘案例儿童被送入了监护体系，”布罗德赫斯特解释道。人们也越来越担心，越来越多的监护决定被草率做出。
"In the face of cutbacks in preventative services and huge waiting lists, what's happening is those grey cases, those borderline cases, more of those children are coming to care," Broadhurst explains. Concern has also grown that an increasing number of care decisions are made too quickly.
2024至2025年，英格兰超过一半的紧急监护听证会涉及新生儿，这些孩子的母亲在分娩后几天内，甚至可能就在当天就必须出庭。
More than half of urgent care hearings in England in 2024-25 were for newborns, where mothers had to attend court within days of giving birth or even potentially on the same day.
据英国广播公司了解，针对法官的新指导方针将允许家庭法院“严格拒绝处理不符合紧急标准案件”。
The new guidance for judges, the BBC understands, will allow family courts to be "rigorous in refusing to deal with cases that do not meet the criteria of urgency".
但布罗德赫斯特曾参与新指导方针的工作组，她表示，法官只是更广泛的家庭危机支持与干预体系中的“一个齿轮”。
But Broadhurst, who sat on the working group for the new guidance, says judges are just one "cog in the chain" of a wider system of support and intervention for families in crisis.
她说：“如果某个案件在周五下午才提交，法官们能做什么？他们手头上有哪些资源可以据此拒绝？”“因此，我认为他们处在一个非常令人难堪的境地。”英国政府正在投资24亿英镑，以改革儿童社会服务体系——包括为儿童及其家庭提供更早、更有效的支持，尽可能帮助他们维持家庭完整，教育部的发言人向我们透露了这一信息。
"If a case comes in on a Friday afternoon, what are they [judges] going to do? What resources do they have at their fingertips to say no?" she says. "So I think they're in a really unenviable position." The government is investing £2.4bn to transform children's social care - including giving children and their families earlier and better support, to help them stay together wherever possible - a Department for Education spokesperson told us.
纳菲尔德家庭正义观察站（NFJO）的研究一致表明，为亲生母亲——尤其是那些面临重复监护程序的母亲——提供早期、密集的支持，对于安全减少进入监护体系的儿童数量至关重要。
Research from the Nuffield Family Justice Observatory (NFJO) consistently shows that providing early, intensive support to birth mothers - especially those facing repeat care proceedings - is critical to safely reducing the number of children entering the care system.
在萨福德，一个项目的工作表明，只要获得适当支持，许多处于“灰色地带”案例中的儿童可以避免进入监护体系。
In Salford, the work of one project suggests that, with the right support, many children in "grey area" cases can stay out of care.
“强化家庭”项目与父母合作，其中大多数人此前曾有孩子被带走。该项目在儿童早期提供专业且密集的支持。项目工作人员告诉我们，约四分之三被转介的家庭得以维持在一起。
Strengthening Families works with parents, most of whom have previously had a child removed, and offers specialised, intensive support during a child's early years. About three-quarters of families referred have been able to stay together, staff told us.
有些父母在生活中经历过“相当糟糕的事情”，团队成员朱德·汉纳姆说，但“这可能会让他们成为更好的父母，因为他们不想像他们那样 bring up 孩子”。
Some parents had "quite awful experiences in their life", team member Jude Hannam says, but "that can lead them to be an even better parent, because they don't want to parent how they were".
仍然有些情况下需要将孩子从出生父母身边带走。这个项目的专职护士阿德尔·马丁——她与孕妇建立起了信任——就是需要介入的人选。
There are still cases where children still need to be removed from birth parents. The project's dedicated midwife, Adele Martin - having built up trust with pregnant mothers - is the one who has to step in.
“我想这可能是我工作中最重要的部分。一位陷入绝境的母亲说：‘好吧，你们可以从我的怀里带走我的宝宝。’这真的是一件很感人的事情，”她情绪激动地说道。
"It's probably the most important bit of my job I think. And a mum who's in utter crisis says, 'yeah, you can take my baby from my arms'. That's really something," she says emotionally.