Over the past 30 years, I had, unfortunately, had lots of interaction with SS. Some have been extremely helpful, others have been utter bastards.
One was immediately take off my case when she berated me wrongfully at child protection meeting. She had only skimmed the case and told me that she would ensure I would lose my children, that I was a nasty mother who didn't deserve them, etc. That I was lying about my child and everything was my fault - there were lots of statements from an array of professionals who had witnessed first hand what my child was capable of. The only reason we were at CP stage was to get fast-tracked to other services, before that we were on children in need with a minimum of 2 years waiting lists. It's something we all discussed to get around waiting lists quicker. It was emphasized on the case this was the reason.
I personally experienced the systematic coverup of abuse by SS in a London borough. Even after media attention they still denied and tried covering up. They also fired whistleblowers before and after media attention and discredited their names. The same borough sent me home to an abusive house, who ignored another time that I was homeless with physical marks, and less than 3 months later police had to kick in the door. Finally made it into care and until that SS manager left everything was being done to return me home to known abusers and criminals.
Then there was the one that had split with his partner and she had custody of the children he told me this. Some of his complaints in the file - included cooking dinner late (6 pm when I finished work), my children were inadequately housed because my dd's shared a room (not years apart in age either, less than 2 years). Dc still in pj's - surprise visit in school holidays at 8 am and they seemed tired. I could on, and I raised a lot of complaints.
Accused of abuse and neglect after an electrical house fire that destroyed everything. Police and firefighters were fantastic and put in an emergency housing request to SS. They also mentioned that clothes etc would be needed as we lost everything. SW took this to mean I had none of these things and I was threatened with losing my dc. After I read the emergency services request, they had mentioned lose as a result of fire, and when I contacted them they contacted SS to explain that we needed things because of the fire, they could see from damage children had everything. Same SW also laid into me verbally because I didn't have jars of baby food, seemed outside their own beliefs that I gave 10-month-old food I cooked. 3 months later case dropped, no help offered to replace stuff. Instead, I thankfully had good friends and contacts who gave me loads of stuff.
I could go on and one about the bad. From my experience, I found that once you have been under them even as a minor, once your name pops back up they pounce. You know because being in care absolutely means you will abuse your children and be an addict and various other generalisations.
Nice ones have realised that reports were malicious and came from either my first ex or one of my childhood abusers. Did their quick report, and quickly closed the case. When needed because I have gone myself as an adult the good ones have helped.
But even with the good ones, I am shit scared that if involved again I will lose my youngest. Not because I deserve it but because I don't know if I have enough left at the moment to fight the nasty ones. When I was going through it with my eldest, the strain nearly made me quit and hand him over. The goals constantly being raised with ridiculous deadlines to sort things and someone skip long waiting lists in the space of weeks.
When I was in care one or two couldn't understand why they were there. Another one was dragged kicking and screaming from the home back to the abusers. That is something that will haunt me forever. Never mind some of the abuse that happened with children's homes.
The system needs an overall. Has done for the past 30 years. The good ones are amazing, but more attention needs to be on the bad ones. Conflicting reports are very dangerous and once someone makes a complaint the whole case should be scrutinised, not just the reports from SW. Although this could have changed not had personal involvement in recent years. When I have read reports it was staggering the number of contradictions I found from the bad ones.
I get that its a stressful job. The emotional strain involved in seeing the worst of the worst. I have huge respect for the good ones. But like any other work enivironment, there are ones that do give it a bad name. To think that these bad ones don't exist is dangerous.
I am not saying that there isn't a need for a system in place because some parents are also nasty cruel bastards. And this will deny everything and at times will lay blame on the children.