Registering your baby with a GP in the UK

Your baby is registered separately from you

A newborn is not added to your registration. Children under 16 are registered by a parent or guardian, using a separate form for each child. Nothing happens automatically because you gave birth, and nothing happens automatically because you registered the birth at the register office. Until someone fills the form in, your baby has no GP.

Everyone in England can register with a GP surgery, or change surgery, for free. Most surgeries now accept online registration through the NHS website: you enter a postcode or use your location, pick a surgery that offers online registration, and fill in the form. It takes about 15 minutes for each person you are registering. You should be told when the registration has gone through, usually within 5 days of the surgery receiving your details, sometimes longer.

If your surgery is not set up for online registration, you can go in and fill in a paper form, download the register-with-a-GP paper form and take it in, or use a form on the surgery's own website where one exists.

What to take with you

Surgeries can ask for proof, and for a baby that usually means the birth certificate as proof of identity and address. You may also be asked for your own identification to show you are the parent or guardian, and you may need to be registered at the same surgery as the child. Taking the personal child health record — the red book — helps, because it carries the newborn checks already done.

A surgery cannot refuse you because you have no fixed address, no identification or no immigration status; those documents are requested, not legally required, and NHS guidance is explicit that lacking them is not a ground for refusal. If a surgery turns you away, ask for the reason in writing.

The NHS number

Your baby is given an NHS number shortly after birth, usually when the birth is registered with NHS services. It is a 10-digit number, and it is how every part of the NHS links your baby's records together. You will find it on the red book, on hospital letters and on the newborn screening paperwork. If you cannot find it, the NHS runs a find-your-NHS-number service, and your GP surgery can look it up once your baby is registered.

Registering the birth is a different job

Registering the birth at a register office and registering with a GP are two separate things with confusingly similar names. The first is a legal registration with the state that produces the birth certificate. The second is a health service registration that gives your baby a named GP practice. Doing one does not do the other, and the register office will not tell your GP.

The red book and the reviews it unlocks

Shortly before or after the birth you are given the personal child health record. It is where your child's weight, height, vaccinations and other key information are recorded, and you can add to it yourself — illnesses, accidents, medicines, and the developmental milestones section. Take it to every baby clinic visit and GP appointment.

Health and development reviews are led by a health visitor or a member of their team, at home, at a GP surgery, at a baby clinic or at a children's centre. Both parents are welcome and it is worth both going, because it is a natural moment to raise something you have been sitting on. Before the 9 to 12-month and 2-year reviews the health visiting team sends you an Ages and Stages Questionnaire (ASQ-3) to complete at home, where your child is relaxed and behaves normally.

If your baby was born prematurely, developmental age is calculated from your original due date rather than the birth date, until they are 2 years old. That correction matters when you are comparing your child with a chart or with someone else's baby.

Booking the first appointments

Registration is not the same as being booked in. Once the surgery confirms your baby is registered, ring back to book the 8-week immunisation appointment, because it is usually the first thing you need from them and popular slots go quickly. If your baby has a hospital follow-up, a hearing screen recall or an outstanding newborn blood spot result, mention it at registration so the practice has it on file rather than learning about it from a letter three weeks later.

It is also worth registering with a dentist in the first year. NHS dental care is free for children, and dentists advise a first visit when the first tooth appears or by the first birthday. Dental registration works differently from GP registration — there is no catchment area and no formal list — so you simply find a practice taking NHS children and ask.

What being registered actually gets you

Registration is the gate to the routine childhood immunisations, the health visitor reviews, prescriptions, and referral to any specialist service. It is also how you get seen quickly when something goes wrong at 4pm on a Friday. Do it in the first fortnight rather than the first month.

Changing surgery later is straightforward and you do not need to tell your current surgery — they are informed automatically once the new registration completes. If you have the NHS App and are already registered somewhere, you can change surgery through the app. If you move house but want to stay put, tell your existing surgery your new address rather than re-registering.

Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland run their own registration processes through their own health services, so an English online journey will not apply outside England. The principle is the same everywhere: the baby needs their own registration, and it will not happen on its own.