I agree that the ball was dropped by social services. Part of the problem with social services is that case workers have far too many cases to take care of each of them well. I believe that most social workers do the very best that they can but sometimes the caseload is so heavy that mistakes are going to happen, things are going to be inadvertantly overlooked. Children are being hurt, inappropriate homes/people are being approved for foster care (that's a whole other ball of wax...not enough foster homes), families are falling through the cracks and the list goes on. We need more social workers to handle the incredible amount of caseloads that exist. The burnout rate is high and the pay sucks...there simply is no incentive for people to join this profession or to stay with it. It's a system with many weaknesses.   This has been an ongoing problem in the US for YEARS. I don't know what the caseload of a UK worker looks like...anyone know?

LQF