children at risk of abuse while in the care of social services

yesterday (14th March) we were at the family courts to see if we could be parents, once again for our children. we were going to show that the local authority had failed the children as much as we had in the beginning but that we had done what was asked of us and felt now was the time to ask the courts the question; are we good enough?

the short answer is no, in detail we were not allowed to show that the children had been put in a position were severe physical, emotional and sexual abuse was possible, we not allowed to use evidence from our direct contact with the children that showed a pattern of neglect by the social services over a six to twelve month period and in summing up the judge said that the local authority were not to blame for anything because they rectified their mistakes when they had discovered evidence of potential mistreatment (they knew something was wrong for the six to twelve months prior to their 'discovery' ).

i ask this question; since the local authority were aware of something not been right, they had reports from me and my girlfriend of bruises and cuts on at least one of the children nearly every contact and there was a report were the youngest claimed dad had hit him in the chest were the local authority to blame? or because the children survived that carer and were eventually moved they were not at fault in any way?

me personally i would rather have had the local authority take the blame for moving the children from that carer unnecessarily than be blamed for their death. we are fortunate that the children were moved but they suffered six to twelve months of emotional abuse, maybe physical abuse and i will not go were this is leading...

i will finish with this, the local authority only discovered the deciept of the carer when they had encouraged her to adopt these children. they found out that she was not a single mother but was in a relationship with a man the local authority knew nothing of. he had not been assessed as a suitable foster carer, he had spent many hours alone with the children (one girl and two boys all under 10 at the time) and he was living with the carer yet their was no evidence of his existance!