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Here's a article about some of the stuff Barnardo's does.
They helped me a lot when I was first on my own, I just went and knocked on their door, I got on lots of courses, they organised lots of family relate things, they ran a morning crèche a couple of days a week too so I could have a bit of spare time to do all the shopping without a toddler and a pram in tow, they were great.
That's so good, isn't it?
I'd love to think I would be able to help in someway like that in the not too distant future.
It mentioned in the article about social services being tied up in paperwork, my experience with them is that they are too busy worrying about comebacks on anything that they do, too busy trying to be fair that they end up doing not much.
There is also an assessment process that categorises situations/families/children as at different "stages", with 1 and 2 being largely preventative and 5 being crisis. Of course, if funding and resources are scarce, they will need to address stage 5 first...whereas if stage 1 and 2 had been tackled in the first place, there would be very few stage 5 families.
I had a support worker from Tai Hafan, and she held my hand for as long as I needed her to.
Just knowing there's someone on your side helps enormously.
I've met wonderful individuals in various agencies over the last six years too sparklinglime, two incredible police officers too, Mold police Family protection woman help us so much, I kept wanting to give her a hug and say thanx : )
I wonder if they know how much they give?
I would like to bet that they do. That will be a lot of the attraction of the job: the ability to make a difference to people.
I'd have thought that too Louise but it must be depressing at times seeing the situations some families find them selves in.
Yes, I have a Barnardos support worker for my disabled 11 year old daughter. It is actually the ONLY help I get for her (a few hours once a fortnight) and it took me a year to get that! Hopefully it will work out - she has only just started.
I really hope that helps, ficurnow 
Thanks, Bubblegum, a lot of people think of Barnardos in terms of childrens' homes but they do a lot of valuable work with families. The local branch up here provides a great deal of support for parents with disabled children. The family in the article you have linked to, should really have had all that support and more from Social Services in my opinion, but funding is such that it would not have been forthcoming