22/07/2025
Child Services: A Broken Cog in a Broken Machine How a failing system side-lines loving carers and endangers the children it’s meant to protect
At last, the government — along with many others — is beginning to acknowledge the deepening crisis in our children’s social care system: a system that routinely fails the very people it claims to protect — vulnerable children and their families.
Families and carers with deep love and personal knowledge of the children involved are being ignored, dismissed, or treated with suspicion by social workers who show little understanding of individual cases, and even less respect for those who truly know and love these children.
These aren’t just abstract failures — they have real, painful consequences. One grandmother, who had cared for her grandson since infancy, was told her concerns were irrelevant because she wasn’t the ‘legal guardian’ — despite being the child’s primary source of love and stability.
The use of “Parental Responsibility” (PR) is often misapplied by social services, enabling critical decisions to be made by the very people from whom the children were removed, while entirely ignoring the voices of those providing safe, consistent care.
The threshold for removing a child is rightly very high — but once removal occurs, courts and social workers often continue to prioritise parental involvement, even when it may not be in the child’s best interest.
Instead of listening, engaging, and working with connected carers, social services are operating as cold, bureaucratic institutions — focused more on ticking boxes and following rigid procedures than on achieving the best outcomes for children.
According to workforce data from the Department for Education, the average age of children’s social workers in England is just 35. Many frontline workers are even younger — in their early twenties, fresh from university, with no life experience, just a degree and a list of policies they follow to the letter — never questioning whether those policies actually apply in every case.
They are often thrust into high-stakes situations with minimal real-world experience. This inexperience, combined with high turnover and a rigid system, leaves vulnerable children at the mercy of decisions made without sufficient wisdom, empathy, or context.
Social workers are often inexperienced, overworked, understaffed, and managing too many cases. This inevitably leads to corners being cut — and fosters a bureaucratic, “we know best” culture.
Instead of working with families, professionals often fall into the trap of asserting authority, rather than engaging with the lived knowledge and deep commitment that grandparents and other connected carers so often bring.
In Lancashire alone, children’s social care has received over 150 complaints in the last three years — the vast majority of which were not upheld.
Trying to raise concerns is an uphill battle. Carers who attempt to challenge decisions face a system where social workers, the Family Court, and the Local Government & Social Care Ombudsman often close ranks — taking the word of professionals without question, while forcing carers to defend themselves.
Connected carers frequently report being ignored or excluded from meetings and decisions. Some are told they are “not suitable” without any proper assessment. In certain cases, evidence suggests that false or misleading information is written about them in official reports. Carers are often spoken to with disrespect or hostility — and told not to question decisions or face consequences.
Filing a complaint about this treatment is futile. Most are handled by the very local authorities being challenged, offering no real chance of a fair hearing. Too often, carers face the cold resistance of a system that protects itself at all costs — a closed, authoritarian culture where accountability is all but absent.
We cannot continue to allow this broken cog to jam the lives of children and those who love them. Change must begin with listening — truly listening — to the people who know the children best.
Reporter: Dave Beeston
Skem First Gazette Media Relations
