Parents threatened and blamed by authorities as 1,000 adopted children returned to care

Verity and Ian were sent on seven parenting courses during Liam's childhood, which Verity says placed the blame on them as a couple. Meanwhile, she says: "The fundamental cause of his behaviour is being totally missed and ignored. The trauma is being totally ignored."

The couple recall good times, too, as they supported Liam's passion for dance, watching him at countless competitions. But they describe his teenage years as a "living hell" and they feared for their safety as he would threaten them with knives.

One morning, Verity left a note for Ian and drove to the coast with the intention of killing herself. A passer-by spoke to her, which she says saved her life.

On another occasion, after one of Liam's meltdowns, his parents called the police as they had been advised to in a situation like this. But it was Verity who was arrested, after Liam accused her of assault.

"It's the worst experience I've ever had. And that was the point at which I knew that we couldn't even phone the police any more," she says.

Verity was released without charge but she and Ian knew they could not continue to live with Liam. Having already been threatened with prosecution, however, Ian said they knew the process of returning Liam to care would be "adversarial" and "laden with threats and misleading bullying tactics".

Similar legislation across the nations of the UK allows children to be taken back into care, but local authorities require each case to reach a "threshold" where they need to intervene, which usually means looking for evidence of abuse or neglect.

Ian and Verity's home was described in one local authority document as "not a place where Liam feels loved and supported". Verity says: "The way it's written is still blaming us as parents for the home situation, but actually that is not the case at all."

Social workers are involved in every adopted child's case and often families continue to need their support for many years. They also play a vital role in identifying and helping children at genuine risk of harm.

Verity and Ian's local authority, North Yorkshire Council, said it couldn't discuss individual cases, but it recognised "how difficult challenges linked to adoption can be for families" and it said it provided "compassionate, practical support when this happens".

Parents who can no longer cope, or no longer feel they can keep their family safe, have to take the "heartbreaking" decision to "legally abandon" their son or daughter, says Damien Dobson, a specialist adoption solicitor.

Over the past five years he has worked with more than 400 families and says the numbers seeking help are rising.

England's Children Act is outdated, Mr Dobson says. He says local authorities should have an option to voluntarily accommodate a child that would be considered beyond the parent's control, without the presumed need for evidence of blame.

One mother, who asked to be identified only as "Rachel" because she was afraid of retaliation by the authorities, said she and her husband had been threatened with police action and wrongly told by the local authority they would have to sign away parental responsibility when they asked for respite care.

Rachel and her husband say they were never told about their two girls' extensive and complex needs when they adopted them 10 years ago.

During a six-year battle to get them support, the couple say social workers lied directly to their children and disinformation about the family was circulated between officials.

"It was clear that they had no intention to support and within that comes the start of sort of unpleasant insinuations, sort of lies. Just, you know, 'Well [the children] seem fine to us, therefore it must be your problem'," says Rachel.

Matt - not his real name - and his family endured years of violence when his son developed serious behavioural issues. After his son eventually returned to care, Matt took his local authority in Scotland to court over its failure to provide support - citing the Human Rights Act and the right to a family life.

"The level of shame and guilt, it is like grieving for someone who's not dead," Matt said. "You just feel like an absolute failure."

Unusually, he won an apology.

The case was settled out of court with his council paying the court costs. It was not about the money, Matt says, he wanted to get the local authority to "admit that they've done something wrong".

His council said their social workers are committed to working with Matt and his family and apologise for "any shortcomings".

Additional reporting by Lucy Dady