It is not often that the BBC can get me cross.  Since Sir Alex Ferguson stopped giving interviews to the BBC, there is rarely anything on there which would incite me to throw things at the screen.

That has changed in the last two weeks with the airing of the programme “Protecting our Children‘.

What a ridiculously one-sided view of Social Services’ work.

The three-part series portrays a cosy little world where the Bristol Social Services Department fights on a daily basis to look after children in dysfunctional and abusive situations.  The Social Workers are portrayed as Knights in shining armour rescuing children from evil parents.

They are shown to be beyond reproach.  One Senior Social Worker last night was seen complaining about the fact that a Head of a Social Services Department was dismissed following the death of a child due to the blatant negligence of that Council.

Get real!  The BBC would have been far better employed looking at the reality of the situation and the innumerable children whose lives are permanently damaged as a result of the negligence of Social Services.

As a child abuse lawyer I spend my working days dealing with horror stories of children who have suffered horrendous physical, sexual, psychological and emotional abuse as a result of Social Services’ failure to protect them.  I see the consequences of Social Worker’s failure to intervene on an almost daily basis.  Last night we saw a situation where a child was immediately removed from a home because a known paedophile was living there.  Trust me – this does not always happen.  In many of the cases I deal with Social Services have ignored the fact that a child has been placed with a paedophile for many years.

In other cases, children are left to grow up in situations of unimaginable squalor and depravity, which will often prevent them ever being able to function normally as adults.

Far from being the ‘knights in shining armour’ as portrayed by the BBC, Social Workers are often the culprits; they have the power to protect these children, yet fail to exercise it properly.  Why on earth should they not be held to account?

Trust me – not everything is as rosy in our local Social Services Departments as portrayed by the BBC.