New series of 15,000 Kids and Counting sees Channel 4 tackle the adoption process

The first of three harrowing hour-long shows airs tonight at 9pm

Channel 4's '15,000 Kids and Counting' follows the adoption process and the heart-wrenching decisions it demands (Channel 4)

Last year, 15,000 children were waiting to be adopted. Hence the title of Channel 4's documentary on the adoption process, 15,000 Kids and Counting, back for a harrowing new series tonight.

Three shows will follow the lives of vulnerable babies who are taken from their birth parents and moved into foster care, a controversial procedure that has sparked a great deal of debate.

Aged just 18, Nicola faces losing her daughter as a result of her relationship with abusive partner Matthew, while Ray and Lorena’s newborn is removed from their arms before she has even left hospital.

Social worker Vicky makes the heart-wrenching decision because of the couple’s past drinking habits. Four older children have already been adopted and a psychologist has ruled that they are unfit to be parents until they have undergone long-term psychotherapy.

The second episode will see Annette and Jackie struggle with the emotional task of finding adoptive parents for a two-year-old boy and a brother and sister aged three and seven.

Both adopters and children find the transition from stranger to family member daunting as both sides wonder whether their union will ever seem natural.

Roughly every 20 minutes in Britain, a child is taken into care, with children protection levels at a record high.

15,000 Kids and Counting airs on Channel 4 tonight at 9pm.