A report published by Somerset Safeguarding Children Board (SSCB) found Somerset County Council's children's social care department, Avon and Somerset Constabulary, Somerset Partnership NHS Foundation Trust and more than four schools, among other services, missed opportunities to intervene since referrals about the children's welfare were first made to children's services in 2003.
It acknowledged that agencies at times faced difficulties in pursuing measures to support the children because their parents, especially the mother, was "hostile and aggressive towards professionals and did not want any interference in how she chose to raise her children".
However, the review criticised actions such as police and children's social care failing to investigate an allegation of sexual abuse reported by the mother in 2013.
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