Newborn baby
The mums feature in a new short film, discussing the challenges of parenting in lockdown. Photo by Luma Pimentel on Unsplash.

New parents urged to register births

Parents who had children during lockdown are being encouraged to come forward and register their births as soon as possible.

More than 100 new families whose children were born between February and June, under the care of Hull Women and Children’s hospital, have not yet obtained a birth certificate.

Not registering a child could cause problems in the future when opening a bank account, applying for a passport or registering with a school.

Jillian Fill, registration and coroners manager said: “There is a legal requirement for births to be registered within 42 days of birth, however due to lockdown, registration services were temporarily put on hold.

“To ensure new parents did not miss out on any funding they were entitled to, the government put a temporary process in place that allowed access to child benefit without the need to register the birth first.

“Unfortunately this seems to have given the impression that registrations are not needed, however this is not the case and I would urge any parents who have not yet registered their baby’s birth since February to do so now.

“Our teams are working extremely hard to make contact with these families, but with limited contact details from hospital records this is proving a difficult task.

“If you have had a baby under Hull Women and Children’s care, regardless of whether you live in Hull, you must register their birth with Hull Register Office as soon as you can.”

Registration appointments can be made here and are available at various children centres and customer service centres across the city.

Locations vary from week to week in order to offer a variety of locations to meet demand and prevent the need to travel into the city centre.

Parents are asked not bring babies or other children, unless they have to do so. If parents are married, only one parent needs to attend, however, if not, both parents must attend to allow father’s name to be recorded on the birth certificate.

Bike wheel
Hull Fair