The parents who return their adopted children to care – podcast

In 2013, Victoria adopted two young children, a brother and a sister. At first everything seemed to be going well. But as he grew older, her son’s behaviour became increasingly extreme.

‘I was not in any way, shape or form prepared for the significant level of trauma that the two children that I adopted were dealing with,’ she told Helen Pidd.

After years of begging social services for more support, Victoria made the agonising decision to return her son to the care system. ‘His needs were greater than any parent would have ever been able to manage. I don’t think there’s a parent alive that would have been able to cope.’

Victoria is not alone. Each year, about 200 children are returned to care because their adoptive parents cannot cope. The stigma is immense, says the Guardian’s social affairs correspondent Jessica Murray