Cruel to be kind. Cathy Glass. 2017.

Fostering six-year-old Max got off to a bad start when his mother telephoned me with complaints even before he’d moved in. She was in hospital recovering from an operation and I had been asked to take care of her son.

Although I’d heard plenty from Max’s mother and his social worker, I had very few details about Max himself and I struggled to hide my shock when he arrived. Looking after Max was clearly going to be a completely new challenge.