There's a similar institution in Switzerland - the KESB - and it has its own horror stories. It's a matter of canton and of persons involved, but you get from their activity the whole range: from perfect and ideal support (which is of course the very reason KESB exists) to mafia-style trafficking (kids are systematically placed away by the same persons, to cash in government payments). Such an institution needs both professional and judiciary supervision in order to not depend on one individual's ethics - and KESB has neither.
