Channel 4 announces documentary series The Child Protectors (w/t)

14 March 2014

Child protection levels in Britain are at a record high. On average, a child is taken into care in Britain every 20 minutes.  Over 15,000 children were in need of adoptive families last year -double what it was only five years ago.

With unprecedented access to the entire adoption process, this three part documentary series The Child Protectors (w/t) 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.

The series will begin with the most difficult decision of all – whether or not to permanently remove a child from its birth parents - offering a unique insight into both the challenging role of the social workers whose job it is to recommend whether a child should return home, and to the families fighting to keep their children.

With far more adoptees than there are prospective adopters, the social workers tasked with finding permanent homes for children in the next part of the journey do not have an easy undertaking. With the future of these children in their hands and recently set government targets to meet, we see them struggle not to become emotionally involved with their cases as they strive to find adopters before time runs out.  

Told from the perspective of the children, foster carers and adopters, the final episode charts the transition from familiar foster home to the unknown of new adopted parents. As reality sets in, adopters and the children alike discover that the prospect of learning to love and fit into a family that were once strangers can be a daunting one, and the stakes are huge.

Nick Mirsky, Commissioning Editor at Channel 4 said “This series aims to humanise the very real issues and feelings that the people involved in every part of the adoption process encounter. The channel is hugely indebted to the local authorities, parents, foster carers and adopters concerned for allowing us to tell their stories so candidly. “

The Child Protectors (w/t) will be executive produced by Brian Woods and produced & directed by Chris Eley at True Vision. Brian Woods said “For the last two years, professionals, parents and adopters have allowed us into the strictly confidential world of child protection and adoption. The result is a deeply moving and revealing insight into the most profound and far reaching intervention the State can ever make into an individual’s life – removing them from their birth family and placing them with new parents in perpetuity.”

 

Production Information:

Executive Producer: Brian Woods

Production Company: True Vision        

Commissioning Editor, Factual: Nick Mirsky