15,000 Kids And Counting - On Channel 4, starting on 3rd April

[OneOfOurLilkasIsMissing]

Heads up folks, Channel 4 are doing a new adoption documentary "15,000 Kids and Counting"

Series Description - Child protection levels in Britain are at a record high. Over 15,000 children were waiting to be adopted in 2013 - twice as many as five years earlier

With unparalleled access to the entire adoption process, this series follows social workers, foster carers, birth parents and adopters as heart-wrenchingly difficult decisions are made about the future of some of Britain's most vulnerable children

Episode 1 is on 3rd April at 9.00PM, is called The Decision

The adoption process begins with the most difficult decision of all: the decision to remove a child from their birth family

The first episode in the series follows the social workers whose job it is to take children away from their parents and recommend whether they should ever return; and meets parents who are desperately fighting to keep their children

Episode 2 a week later - The Search

This episode follows the search for adoptive parents for a two-year-old boy and a three and seven-year-old brother and sister

With the added challenges of having slightly older children, siblings and a child with possible health issues to place, the task for social workers Annette and Jackie is a massive one

With the future of these children in their hands and recently set government targets to meet, they struggle not to become emotionally involved as they strive to find adopters before time runs out

I'll certainly be watching, looks interesting

< snort> at name changes
< envy> at cake

MyFeet that was episode 1 of "Protecting our Children", 3 episodes in all

That was a well done series overall.

Other adoption TV:

"Panorama: The Truth About Adoption" - Filmed children in Coventry who were either waiting for adoption, or were in foster care following adopion breakdown. Also filmed most of their birth families. Can be found here

"A Home for Maisie" - Maisie is 7, and has already been through 2 adoption disruptions on top of her moves in care and traumatic and violent early years. There is one last chance at an adoption - with Jim and Sue, who have already adopted 8 older children with emotional difficulties. But Maisie needs therapy and this film follows the family at home and through their therapy at Family Futures. This one is seriously worth watching, really probably the best adoption documentary I've seen, and can be found here

"Finding Mum and Dad" was on this year
"Find Me a Family" isn't available online, but it only filmed prospective adopters

That's 5 programs, I know there are others, I'll try think of them

Lilka

"A Home for Maisie" [what the fuck!!]

I am just such a mix of feelings, huge admiration for the parents and brothers and sisters and Maisie herself for the progress (spoiler alert!). BUT a massive angry knot in my throat that a secure unit, at a cost of a about £300K per year) might be the destination for troubled children because local councils (is it local councils who make these decisions?) will not fund £15-50K of therapy that has a 95% success rate. What the fuck are they thinking of!

Excuse me, I rarely swear, I just feel so very angry that lives of children are blighted in this way, then the help and healing they need is denied them and the money that could provide that help is diverted to more costly accommodation. I wonder if NSPCC has any kind of campaign about this, surely this is a child cruelty issue if ever there was one.

Thanks for the link.

Lilka, you are like an adoption curator - you know everything, remember everything, read everything. I am in awe

How lovely to hear Italian swear

Y'see, because I only post when I DO remember/know something, it gives a bit of a false impression

My memory is pretty good, but as to knowing things, I'm afraid the reality is more like - I watch far too much TV for my own good!!

Italian - Couldn't agree more. It's an absolute focus on money saving in the short term, the long term just doesn't figure on the radar when you're trying to cut your spending this year

The more time goes by, the more I know that I don't know

If that makes sense

Well that's old age innit ?

Yep. I used to have opinions on EVERYTHING. The older I get, the less certain. The youngsters I work with think they know everything, too. I find myself deferring to the strength of their opinions and then thinking, wtf, they're just stupid with attitude

Tee hee. Remember I know who one of those youngsters is......

And that makes me feel REALLY old...

Kristina Part of my old age means I get to make flowery statements to younger people/my kids like the one above, which do just boil down to "I'm old" in the end. But if I'm going to be old, then damn it I'm going to try and sound all wise

Doesn't work with other oldies though

Just watched the Panorama one. Am in tears. I am so sorry for Conor, wonder what happened. I am so happy for the two girls, I wonder how it worked out.

I guess if you ever need to think (and I know you guys do not but I mean in general) about the toughness of the decisions made you think about those three kids and whether they will be better off together or apart. A long time ago I would have maybe had some fixed views, but now, I guess I am just glad I don't have to make those decisions.

And I am so sad that these 'risky adults' are around crapping up the lives of these kids.

I really felt they got the balance right. The birth parents came out pretty well and balanced but there was enough information to know the original circumstances etc, the social workers came across as very caring and hard working and the foster carers came across brilliantly.

The adopters were more of a mixed bag, a bit less present. I guess what they wanted to say was there is a gap, just like the adopters had a gap in their lives so their is a gap in the whole system - the lowest adoption rate in a decade, I wonder why? I wonder why social services don't keep records on why adoptions break down, how can they ever hope to fix things in the system if they don't know why! Or is it that they know only too well and there is 'nowt' they can do about it?!

Although this programme was less extreme it's actually made me feel more aware of the extent of the 'problems'. I can see things a bit more through the eyes of the social workers, birth parents and the foster carers.

Now I just feel frustrated because I bet there are heaps of people out there who never have kids or who have birth kids but never adopt who would make great adoptive parents./ I thin all this TV exposure must help to put it on people's agendas but if the support is not there will there just be a lot of broken adoptions down the road?

There was also that (IMO) excellent 3 part documentary series done by BBC3 in 2012 called "Protecting our children" which followed social workers based in Bristol. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to be available - but that was probably the best one I saw.

Wow. I can't believe you remembered all those! I have a memory like a sieve.

I remember watching the documentary about Maisie - her parents were incredible. In fact I suspect it was watching that programme that really made me think about adoption as a serious option for us. Thank you for the links - I will watch it again, and the others too.

I will be watching on Thursday when it's on, and no doubt also ranting on here, so save me a seat on the grumpy boot sofa please? I'll bring cake, oh and tissues obviously.

I wonder if Mr Media Man will be here to counter our rants?!

Still reeling from seeing Italian swear!

We should request that this thread is moved to Classics in honour of Italian's swearing.

I'm sure mr media man will pop in to put all us silly women right . We are so lucky to have a man AND an expert come along to tell us how it really is.