I think that these Social Workers love to see families destroyed. They usually target the poor or vulnerable in some way. They are probably power hungry too and love controlling other people's lives. In this town at least, they have a terrible leader, and he hires terrible people.
The whole team here is dysfunctional themselves. One of the workers that Anna had and another friend of mine had, is clearly addicted to hard drugs. This "Richard Hardcock" as we dubbed him really appears to be a pedophile himself, and so that's what he accuses other people of. (I have noticed this tendency in people before to accuse others of what they are themselves the most guilty of.)
Often dysfunctional people are drawn into this type of work. These people have no idea what a healthy family is even supposed to look like.
It demonstrates the power of groups of people subscribing to the lowest common denominator for the comfort (I presume) of freedom FROM thought. Evil can also be alluring, I think, and easier to succumb to by weaker minds? I have experienced pure evil from a teacher at my sons school, but my story is a mere annoyance compared to the horrific things I am reading in this thread.