A Northern Irish mum has raised concerns over the "dangerous room" she has been assigned to have visitations with her children as she fights to have them returned to her.
The mum says that her children had been removed from her care following the sudden death of their father and since then she has been doing all that she can to "bring them home" and feels she and her kids have been let down by social services throughout the ordeal.
She says that her family have been "torn apart" by her children's removal from her care and that there have been a number of issues since, which include them being late being taken to and collected from school, missed contact appointments and an inability to get updates regarding their care from social workers.
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The mum also said she has repeatedly requested that arranged contact appointments with her children take place in a suitable location, instead of a "dangerous" conference room "filled with sharp edges and other hazards that are not appropriate for young children".
Speaking to Belfast Live, she said: "My children were taken from me shortly after the death of their father and since then our family has been completely torn apart.
"I am doing all that I can to get them back in my care so we can be a family again, but the way everything has been handled by social services has been destroying our lives.
"Firstly, I find it very difficult to get an update on my children and their care from social workers and I have discovered they have been repeatedly late going to and from school which has caused them a lot of upset.
"I have had scheduled contact appointments missed because my children were not collected by the social workers and even then I am forced to meet with them in a room that I could only describe as being dangerous for young children to play in.
"It is essentially a conference room filled with sharp edges and other hazards that are not appropriate for young children, and while I have asked for these to be moved to a soft play area, this has not been allowed.
"This means that when I am able to see my children, we are not able to enjoy our time together in the way that we should.
"The whole ordeal has been very upsetting for us all and I think that my children and I are being let down and driven apart by an uncaring system."
The mum says that she feels like she is being made to "jump through hoops" in order to try and get her children back.
She continued: "After everything that we have been through as a family, not being able to be together is destroying us.
"I feel like I am constantly being told to jump through hoops and everything that I do is never good enough and I am always being asked to do more and more.
"I will never stop fighting until we are all back together."
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