Emergency Protection Order: What It Means and What You Can Do

Part of: Section 20 and Voluntary Accommodation: What Social Services Can and Cannot Do

An emergency protection order (EPO) is a short court order under section 44 of the Children Act 1989. It lets the applicant move a child to safe accommodation, or keep them where they are, such as in hospital, for up to eight days. The local authority’s children’s services can apply for one without telling the parents first. If a court has made an EPO about your child, you still have parental responsibility. You have a right to reasonable contact unless the court directs otherwise. If you were not at the hearing, you can ask the court to end the order straight away, unless it has been extended. This guide covers the law in England and Wales.

Is your child subject to an EPO right now? The order lasts days, not months, so what you do this week counts. Check in three questions whether you can apply to discharge it, or book a free initial consultation.

What is an emergency protection order, and who applies for one?

Section 44 of the Children Act 1989 lets “any person” apply for one, but its grounds name two applicants specifically: the local authority’s children’s services and the NSPCC, which the Act lists as an “authorised person” (s.31(9)). If the police have already taken a child into police protection, the designated officer can apply for an EPO on the local authority’s behalf, whether or not the authority agrees. Our police protection guide covers that separate power.

When is an emergency protection order applied for? The three grounds

An emergency protection order is applied for on one of three grounds, and the court may make the order “if, but only if” one of them is met:

1. Likely significant harm (any applicant). There is reasonable cause to believe the child is likely to suffer significant harm unless the applicant moves them to accommodation it provides, or unless they stay where they are now living (s.44(1)(a)).
2. Enquiries blocked (local authority). Social workers are making section 47 enquiries, someone is frustrating those enquiries by unreasonably refusing access to the child, and the local authority has reasonable cause to believe it needs access urgently (s.44(1)(b)).
3. Enquiries blocked (NSPCC). The same test for an authorised person, who must also have reasonable cause to suspect the child is suffering, or is likely to suffer, significant harm (s.44(1)(c)).

“Harm” includes impairment suffered from seeing or hearing the ill-treatment of another person (s.31(9)), so a child who witnesses domestic abuse can fall within the first ground.

What does an emergency protection order allow social services to do?

While it is in force, the order does three things (s.44(4)). First, it directs anyone who can to produce the child to the applicant. Second, it authorises the applicant to remove the child to accommodation it provides, or to stop anyone taking the child away from a hospital or other place where they were staying. Third, it gives the applicant parental responsibility.

That parental responsibility is deliberately narrow. The applicant may only use the power to remove or keep the child to safeguard the child’s welfare. It may take only the action reasonably required to safeguard or promote that welfare, bearing in mind how short the order is (s.44(5)). Your own parental responsibility continues alongside it, because a parent does not lose it just because someone else acquires it (s.2(6)).

• The child must go home once it is safe. If it appears to the applicant that it is safe to return the child, it must do so, normally to the person it removed them from (s.44(10) and (11)). It can act again while the order lasts if a change in circumstances makes that necessary (s.44(12)).
• Obstruction is an offence. Intentionally obstructing a removal authorised by the order is a criminal offence (s.44(15)). However strongly you disagree, make the challenge in court, not on the doorstep.

How long does an emergency protection order last?

An EPO lasts for the period the court specifies, which cannot be more than eight days (s.45(1)). Only one extension is possible.

Only an applicant who holds parental responsibility under the EPO, and who could also apply for a care order, can ask for an extension. The court may grant it only if it has reasonable cause to believe the child is likely to suffer significant harm without it. An extension also closes the discharge route described below (s.45(11)(b)).

Can you challenge an emergency protection order?

Yes, by applying to the court to discharge it. You cannot appeal: the Act rules out any appeal against making, refusing, extending or discharging an EPO (s.45(10)). The discharge application is therefore the route that matters, and the Act sets no waiting period before you can make it.

At a discharge hearing the court may take account of any relevant statement in a report and any evidence given, even where the normal rules of evidence would exclude it (s.45(7)).

If the court made the order without telling you

An applicant can ask for an EPO without notice, and even by telephone (Family Procedure Rules, r.12.16). When that happens, the applicant must serve a copy of the application on each respondent within 48 hours of the order. Within the same 48 hours it must serve a copy of the order on the parties, unless the court directs otherwise, and on anyone who had care of the child just before the order. Read the application closely. It shows what the applicant put to the court in writing, and it is the case you have to answer.

Can I see my child during an emergency protection order?

Yes, unless the court directs otherwise. The applicant must allow the child reasonable contact with their parents, anyone else with parental responsibility, the person they were living with before the order, and anyone named in a child arrangements order as someone the child spends time with (s.44(13)). That duty is subject to any directions the court gives about contact, which can limit it or attach conditions to it (s.44(6) and (8)).

The court can also direct a medical or psychiatric examination or other assessment of the child, or rule one out. A child of sufficient understanding to make an informed decision may refuse the examination (s.44(7)). The parties, the children’s guardian, the local authority and anyone the directions name can ask the court to vary them while the order lasts (FPR r.12.27).

The exclusion requirement: removing an adult instead of the child

Sometimes the risk comes from one adult in the home. Section 44A lets the court keep the child at home and require that person to leave instead, prohibit them from entering the home, or keep them out of a defined area around it (s.44A). Two conditions apply. First, there must be reasonable cause to believe that, with that person out of the home, the child will not be likely to suffer significant harm, or blocked enquiries will stop being frustrated. Second, another person living in the home must be able and willing to care for the child, and must consent to the requirement.

The court may attach a power of arrest, allowing the police to arrest without warrant anyone they reasonably believe to be in breach. If the applicant then removes the child from the home to other accommodation for more than 24 hours in a row, the exclusion requirement ends. A person the order excludes can apply to vary or discharge that part of the order, even if they have no right to challenge the rest (s.45(8A)).

What happens when an emergency protection order ends?

The applicant’s power to remove your child, or to keep them away from home, lasts only while the order is in force (s.44(4)). If it decides the child is safe at home, the child comes home. If the local authority still has serious concerns, it can apply for a care order and ask the court for an interim care order in the meantime. That starts care proceedings, which run to a different timetable and a different legal test. Our guide to interim and final care orders explains what those orders do.

The Act treats EPO proceedings as “specified proceedings” (s.41(6)(g)). The court must therefore appoint a children’s guardian for the child, from Cafcass in England or Cafcass Cymru in Wales, unless it decides that one is not necessary. The local authority can rely on the same concerns if care proceedings follow, so how you respond in these first days counts.

EPO, police powers or a private-law order: which one is this?

The police can take a child into police protection without going to court, for no more than 72 hours (s.46(6)). The police protection guide explains that route. When the danger comes from the other parent, for example a threat to take a child abroad, the answer is normally a private-law order that a parent applies for, not an EPO. Our guide to emergency child arrangements orders covers that, and what replaced the emergency residence order explains the old terminology.

From our casework. We assisted a parent after the other parent said they intended to take their young child abroad to be brought up by relatives; the court made orders confirming where the child lived and preventing the child’s removal from that parent’s care and from the country. Read how we approached that case. Every case turns on its own evidence.

What should you do first after an emergency protection order?

If your child has just been removed, it is hard to think straight. These five steps keep you focused on what you can still influence.

1. Read the order itself. Note the date and time the court made it, when it ends, and any directions about contact, assessments or an exclusion requirement.
2. Work out whether you can apply to discharge it. That turns on whether you had notice of the hearing and were there, and whether the court has extended the order. The checker below walks you through it.
3. Read the application. If the court made the order without notice, the applicant must serve the application on you within 48 hours. It shows what the court was told in writing.
4. Ask how contact will work. Put your request to the social worker in writing, and keep a note of the reply.
5. Get advice before the next hearing. The order may last only days, so the time to prepare is now. Book a free initial consultation.

Can I apply to discharge the EPO? Check in three questions

Emergency protection orders: frequently asked questions

General information about the law in England and Wales, not advice on your circumstances.