Removing a child from their family is one of the most consequential forms of state intervention in
private life. In the United Kingdom, child removal is carried out in the name of protection, yet it
is deeply shaped by social inequality. Families living with poverty, racialised communities, and
mothers facing structural disadvantage are far more likely to experience surveillance and
separation. While existing research has examined how such decisions are made, much less attention has been paid to the long-term mental health and relational consequences that unfold over the life course.
This project examines how compulsory separation affects mothers and their children well beyond
childhood, focusing on the emotional, psychological, and relational aftermath more than twenty
years later. Drawing on in-depth life-story interviews with mothers and their now-adult children,
the research explores how people understand trauma, attachment loss, identity, and the possibility
of reconnecting over time.
The study highlights how child removal can generate lasting mental health difficulties, including
chronic grief, depression, anxiety, trauma-related distress, and a profound loss of trust in
institutions. These harms are not confined to individuals but shape relationships, family ties, and
community belonging across generations. Crucially, the research shows how psychological distress is often intensified by the absence of sustained emotional and mental health support once legal proceedings end.
The study brings together insights from sociology, psychology, and social policy to show how
personal experiences of separation are shaped by wider social inequalities and institutional
practices over time. By foregrounding lived experience, this project treats mental health not as an
individual failing but as a social and institutional responsibility. Its findings aim to inform
fairer, more humane child and family welfare policies that recognise the long-term mental health
effects of separation and prioritiserecovery, relational repair, and wellbeing across the life course.