Both the Children’s Commissioner and the incoming President of the Family Division have sounded the alarm about the crisis in the care system.

However, one Monday in June brought home to me another crisis, that facing some families who have adopted. The alarm is sounding here, too.

That day phone rang red hot. Clive and Anna telephoned. Their daughters are aged 9 and 8. They had been with them for five years. The girls’ background before placement was domestic violence and neglect. As parents, they have done their best in the face of significant acts of violence towards them. They are not giving up easily.

School is not a safe haven for one of the girls. Bethan 13 keeps being excluded. All the professionals agree that she can’t stay in mainstream. But Bethan needs a specialist therapeutic residential school placement. And Clive and Anna desperately need a break. Her placement is at risk of breakdown. If she could be placed in the right setting, perhaps the risk could be averted.

However, this needs the commitment of both Education and Social Services to fund the school placement. Education says there’s no educational need for a residential placement and while they and Social Services argue, the placement is breaking down. It takes an age to go through the appeal and tribunal process, and Clive and Anna don’t have time on their side.

Another caller, Chloe, felt totally isolated and alone. She and her husband had adopted two children. There is a big age gap between the sisters. Alice, the older child, has suffered massive trauma from her birth family. She displays violent and sexualised behaviour. Chloe has been seeking support for three years. Despite support from her GP, CAMHS have refused three times to become involved and the local paediatric department say they can’t help.

Chloe has had to give up work to care for Alice. Her GP says she’s worried about the safety of Chloe and her partner as Alice has just made a false allegation against her parents.

When I spoke to Chloe, she was tearful and exhausted. She desperately needed specialist support for the family and for Alice.

Martha had simply had enough when she rang me. We had been through the same discussion two weeks ago. Her daughter Zoe was subjecting her to unacceptable levels of violence. She had just started some very basic therapy but it was very early days. Martha was frightened of her – and she couldn’t keep her safe.

Zoe was at risk of child sexual exploitation and two weeks previously there had been a major incident where Zoe had to be temporarily accommodated. Social Services begged Martha to have Zoe back. They said that they had nowhere local for a child with Zoe’s complex needs. Martha felt guilty. The social worker said any placement could be hundreds of miles away. Martha gave in. She withdrew the Section 20 accommodation*.

But Zoe is a deeply damaged child and at the weekend there was another incident. The police said that Zoe shouldn’t return home – but Social Services said Martha had parental responsibility and they would report her to the police for child abandonment if she didn’t accept her back.

When Martha spoke to me she was tearful, fearful and exhausted having been threatened with arrest.

The incoming President of the Family Division recently launched the Care Crisis Review, facilitated by Family Rights Group. The review suggests that the Government pumps ring-fenced money to each local authority to help improve services for children.

The headline in Louise Tickle’s article in The Guardian article on the launch said it all – “Care for our children is in crisis. We must give their families more help.” This is a message many adoptive families will agree with. There is another side to the story of children in crisis, but adoptive families are not included in the Care Crisis Review.

Clive and Anna have not given up on Bethan. They asked the social workers, “Just how serious do the assaults have to get before education and social services pay for a specialist therapeutic residential educational placement?” They said they needed respite immediately. Their message to social services was, “Work with us and maybe we can keep Bethan in the family.”

Clive, Anna and Chloe share a common fear. If they don’t get help with the one child, their other child will be even more deeply damaged.

It’s practically unknown for a senior judge to state publicly that there’s a crisis in our care system which is damaging children and families. My June Monday morning phone calls were clear evidence of that the depth of this crisis extends even further into families post adoption too.

* Under Section 20 of the Children Act 1989 the Local Authority have to accommodate a child when they cannot live at home

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Nigel Priestley – Senior Partner and Adoption Specialist Lawyer