Cuckoos on the Mersey

Cuckoos on the Mersey follows the child protection teams in social services and the PVPU (protecting vulnerable people unit- Merseyside Police) on Merseyside. They are in a constant battle to protect the most vulnerable in society. Leo is a sixteen-year-old in the grip of a violent OCG, struggling to kick his addiction to ketamine. When his neighbour Angela is visited by social services, the social workers can't get an answer. They persuade her children to open the door for them and Angela is found unconscious on her settee.

The Child Protection Team are called when a twelve-year-old girl is injured on the way to school and rushed to hospital. The use of a firearm is suspected and a race against the clock begins. Jo Lilly and her team are thrown into the middle of an ongoing drug war and their safety and the lives of their families are threatened.

Jo Lilly and the Child Protection Team are working with several families in the same area, where their teenage children are being groomed by the local drug dealing network. The police unit working with them, (Protecting Vulnerable Persons Unit) are seriously concerned about the trend of recruiting younger victims, some as young as ten. When two schoolboys are stabbed on the way to school, a double murder investigation begins. Knife crime is a growing concern across the UK and the press focus on the investigation.