Aisha Summers knows the care system from both sides. Once a child in care herself, she now works within it, responsible for protecting young people whose lives are documented through assessments, reviews and case files. But Aisha is struggling. Alcohol has become a way of keeping her past at a distance, and getting sober means confronting the things she has spent years avoiding.

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Across London, fifteen-year-old Jaeden is adjusting to life in a residential children's home following the breakdown of his adoptive placement. Around him, other young people carry their own histories, relationships and risks, while the professionals responsible for them attempt to navigate a system under increasing pressure.

 

As Jaeden begins spending time with an older local man offering the attention, money and belonging he isn't finding elsewhere, another young person disappears from care and questions begin to emerge about what was known, what was recorded and what was missed.

Their lives appear separate. Gradually, they begin to collide.

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The Forgotten Files is a story about care, identity, exploitation and belonging, and the distance that can exist between knowing a child's history and truly knowing the child.