I'm coming round to that opinion, fiodyl. There have been too many cases where SS have got away with murder - remember one recently where a judge pointed out SS had broken the law by snatching a newborn baby from his mother with no authority at all?
I know SS argument is that if parents could stop adoptions, children in care would be in limbo, unable to find a new family. But I think there has been too much wrong-doing to allow the present system to remain. It has to be changed.
Even in the appalling days when unmarried mothers were forced to give their babies up for adoption, they still had to sign the papers - no-one could take their children away without their consent. The consent was not given freely in many instances, of course, but it's astonishing that we've managed to make things worse, not better.
And it's a bit much for the care system to criticise parents - children in care have far worse outcomes than those living in families that attract SS disapproval. They are far more likely than anyone else to end up pregnant at a young age, unemployed, in prison or sectioned.
I know good SWs are under a lot of pressure, in many areas dealing with endemic staf shortages and little support. But there is something very wrong with a system that encourages SW depts to act as a law unto themselves.