My answer will probably not be popular.
We have a good friend who was a Social Worker for over 30 years until she retired in disgust,no not at her fellow Social Workers,but in disgust at the conditions they were expected to work under!
When she started Socia work, they were (within paramters) allowed to "work" their own cases their own way,and usually this was to the benefit of BOTH the children and the parents.
However,over the last 15 or so years,due to stupid laws,and savage cuts in funding(by both Conservative & Labour) governemnts many Social Services departments are basically under siege.
Her position was meant to have (maximum) 20 cases under her care,this enabled her to give time and attention to them,and to liase with parents who neede her help.When she left she had 84 cases in her keeping!
This was due to people leaving,and not being replaced,due to lack of funding for salaries.
Since she had been a Socila Workers 175 (yes,175) new rules/laws had been brought in,plus some of these rules/laws only stayed in place for a year or so, and then changed.Talk about moving the goalposts!
It's no wonder in these circumstances that children and parents get overlooked.
Our friend ended up(due to extra paperwork) spending 3 days in the office and 2 days out,whereas when she started in was half a day in the office.
Social Workers are dammed if the do(take children away) and dammed if they don't,they cannot win.
If we want Social Services that work,then we need tax money to be diverted back to them.
If we don't,then we will only see a repat of these type of cases.
The people who say "Lessons must be learned from this", are precisely the ones who are starving the service of funds,anf the Social Workers get the flak!