I feel like you're talking from experience rather than consensus among those who lived in foster homes. I do apologize that you had to endure an abusive situation, though.
It's not that uncommon, I can tell you from many discussions with other foster youth.
the fact the focus is on 'keeping families together' and not 'ensuring children are happy, healthy, and well looked-after' is abhorrent
The second criteria would result in draconian measures so the government can mandate what is healthy, happy and well looked over
Keeping families together is a priority because foster parents often would rather rip you from your original family, than to give you back to a mentally ill mother who is normally fine, but could not afford her medication for a few months, and other such issues. Kids love their parents, and they need reassurance that the system is working to rehabilitate their parents and not to rip them away. It seems that you would like to remove that reassurance and have the state raise the family.
The reason is obvious, however: any politician that DARES to insinuate that a parent has no right to a child that they are not properly taking care of would absolutely bomb the next election
Politicians usually ignore the arena of child welfare altogether. The issue isn't that they take the wrong stance, but that they take absolutely no stance.
When it comes to social workers, my experience was very positive. I was able to get a social worker who listened to me and helped me through some of my problems. For what they couldn't do, they connected me to organizations that provided free counselling that could fill those gaps. I'm very grateful for social services for that reason.
Let me guess. Your parents opposed you cutting off your dick, so social services gave you a list of therapists who instead of challenging your delusions, embraced them and thought it was a good ideal for you to remove your dick because you internally and subconsciously hate yourself