Registration of births resumes from tomorrow (Friday) in Cambridgeshire

Cambridgeshire County Council registration services team is set to re start birth registrations from next week, in a way which meets coronavirus restrictions and keeps parents, their young babies and registration staff safe.

Since birth registration services were suspended by the Government on March 23, an estimated 1,600 births have occurred across Cambridgeshire, all needing to be registered.

“Our staff are really pleased to be able to resume birth registration appointments, but we would ask everyone to be patient while we get through the large backlog whilst still registering deaths”, said Cambridgeshire County Council’s registration service manager, Louise Clover.

From tomorrow (Friday), parents will be able to call the council’s contact centre on 0345 045 1363 to arrange a birth registration appointment. Opening hours are 8am – 6pm, Monday to Friday and 9am - 1pm on Saturday. Initially all bookings will have to be made by phone (no on-line option at this stage). All appointments must be booked in advance with dedicated time slots – to ensure social distancing and hygiene measures can be assured for everyone who attends.

Appointments will be available from Monday ( 8) onwards. Once booked you will receive a confirmation email giving you your dedicated time slot and the process to follow on arrival, which will include waiting outside the building. It is advised that everyone attending one of our offices for an appointment wears a facemask or other suitable face covering while on site.

The pre-booked 30 minute slot includes time for the registration service to ensure hygiene measures can be carried out, so that staff remain safe and healthy so other services like death registrations can continue. The service has increased capacity to around 230-300 birth slots per week, and of course more babies are born every day, which means the team expects it to take a few months to bring registrations totally up to date.

Prioritisation for appointments will be given to parents of babies who were born in February, March or April, and the registration service will seek to offer them an appointment as soon as possible – over the next four to six weeks.

Parents whose babies were born in May or June will be booked for mid-July onwards. If you are one of these we'd ask you to wait for at least a fortnight before phoning to book your appointment, as we are expecting a large number of calls from parents with older babies in the first couple of weeks.

During your phone call with our contact centre, you will be asked several questions, including whether you or anyone in your household are displaying COVID-19 symptoms or are in a period of related isolation. If you are, you must call another time to book at a later date.

For safety reasons please do not bring your baby or any other child to the registration offices and if you are married, only one parent should attend – we will be unable to proceed if this guidance is not followed. If you are not married and the mother wants to include the natural father’s details then both parents will need to attend.

If either parent is in the shielded group, or you have no-one to look after the baby and/or other children due to the current Public Health guidance, then you will need to book an appointment for August. At present the normal requirement to register babies within 42 days or face a fine is suspended. This requirement was lifted by government due to the current pandemic, and parents are still able to use the NHS number given when their baby is born to claim child benefit and other government benefits – until the registration can take place.

If you book an appointment and begin to display coronavirus symptoms, or are contacted by the new Test and Trace service and are asked to isolate because you have come into contact with someone who has tested positive for Coronavirus, for your and others safety, you must call and move your appointment – please have your booking reference to hand when you do so.

Our staff will be able to deal only with customers who have a pre-booked appointment and at the time offered, so you will need to be prompt, and not arrive at our offices without an appointment.

Services will start at all four of our locations across Cambridgeshire – Cambridge, Huntingdon, Ely and March. A one way service will be in place throughout the buildings. Staff will not be operating from the Wisbech office at this time.

As a safety precaution, the service will not be handling cash at this time so only card payments for certificates (£11 each) will be accepted (you can get someone else to do this on your behalf if you have no debit / credit card).

“It’s understandable that new parents are keen to get an appointment as early as possible after this period of disruption. However, it is important that we keep those who need to register a birth, and all our staff, safe and healthy so we can continue to offer this service, and fulfil our other duties, like registering deaths, which has continued throughout the lockdown period”, said Cllr Steve Criswell, Chair of the Council’s Communities and Partnerships Committee.

“For that reason we would urge everyone to follow the rules.”

More details can be found on Cambridgeshire County Council’s website