Campaign
Taking a Strand
Campaigning for an end to the overreliance on hair strand drug tests in the family courts
For some time now there has been significant reliance on the findings from hair strand testing in the family courts, in relation to drug and alcohol use. However, there is a compelling body of evidence that shows the processes used to interpret these results are vastly oversimplified and misleading. These results are often a critical factor in decisions about whether children remain with their birth families or are taken into local authority care.
In October 2024, Birth Companions, MSB Solicitors and barristers from 4PB launched our Taking a Strand campaign, focussed on engaging with legal, academic and voluntary sector specialists on the need to tackle overreliance on hair strand drug tests in the family courts.
On 5th November 2024, we sent our open letter to the Family Division and the Family Justice Board, calling on them to undertake an urgent review of hair strand drug testing in the family courts. Our open letter was sent with over 90 co-signatories, from more than 20 different organisations, including barristers and King's Counsels from a number of chambers, solicitors, academics and voluntary sector specialists.
“Release, the national centre of expertise on drugs and drug laws, is proud to support this campaign: through our national helpline, advocacy service, and legal clinics, we have seen the devastation caused to parents, particularly Black and Brown mothers, due to over-reliance on drug tests. For as long as this over-reliance on hair strand tests continues, parents who use drugs – whether they use them dependently or occasionally – are in an unjust, losing battle during custody proceedings. We therefore gladly join in this urgent call for the over-reliance on hair strand testing to end.”
Release Legal Emergency & Drugs Service, Co-signatories of our open letter
Taking a Strand campaign launches.
Open letter is sent to the Family Division and Family Justice Board with over 90 signatories.
Taking a Strand receives coverage in the Observer and the Bureau of Investigative Journalism.
As of the end of the year, we have had over 100 signatures added to our open letter.
Prompted by our open letter, Sir Andrew McFarlane, President of the Family Division, has now established a Family Justice Council working group to explore the issues raised.
Led by Dr Sheena Webb, a consultant clinical psychologist and the London Family Drug and Alcohol Court (FDAC) team manager, this working group will be exploring the issues raised, and gathering information, evidence and good practice relating to the ways tests are instructed and interpreted. We are particularly pleased to hear that the working group has recognised the need for a specific focus on pregnancy and the postnatal period.
The establishment of this working group is a significant development. It represents a huge step towards addressing the overreliance on hair strand drug tests in the family courts, and reducing the potential for children to be wrongly removed from their families: a most devastating form of injustice.
On Wednesday 26th March 2025, partners in the Taking a Strand Campaign hosted a free webinar to explore the issues relating to hair strand testing in the family courts.
This event provided an opportunity to learn more about the ongoing campaign to change the way hair strand drug tests are often instructed and interpreted in the family courts; to hear reflections on recent case law; and to gather expert insight into how to instruct and challenge these tests.
The webinar was hosted by Birth Companions, alongside our partners in the Taking a Strand Campaign, 4PB Chambers and MSB Solicitors. We will be joined by Sarah Branson of Coram Chambers, and Paul Hunter of Forensic Testing Service.
You can watch a recording of the webinar here.
A year after launching our campaign, we still regularly receive additional signatures on our open letter. Over 130 people have now signed up in support of tackling overreliance on hair strand drug tests in the family courts.
We await further updates from the Family Justice Council working group exploring the issues raised by our campaign.
