Social workers have a very, very difficult job.

That much is obvious.

They deal in issues that are rarely black and white and are frequently emotional and messy.

It is easy to criticise when things go wrong.

Nevertheless as in all fields of work that does not mean social services departments can be protected from questions when things go wrong.

And things appear to have gone wrong in the case of the Brighton baby taken from her father and three elder siblings and placed for adoption.

As reported by The Argus yesterday and today, a High Court judge has now ruled that the child should be handed back to her father two years later.

A family has been torn apart and the child’s adoptive parents devastated for good measure.

It is unusual for a High Court judge to use such strong language as she did in ruling on this case.

Indeed, we have never seen anything quite like it before.

Words like “unprofessional behaviour” are damning indeed and surely worthy of further investigation.

What also concerns is that the judge described one manager’s evidence to the court as “psychobabble”.

We should all be concerned if meaningless jargon and theoretical nonsense had overcome common sense and systematic approaches in the department.

If a manager spoke in such riddles to a High Court judge, what hope for the father in convincing social workers under that manager that the child was in the best place with him.

It is easy to take cheap shots at political correctness and the attitudes that surround it, but in this case Brighton and Hove City Council has a duty to reassure its residents that this department is genuinely fit for purpose.

There is no doubting that it is an incredibly difficult job.

But we have to make sure the highest standards are maintained.

Because when things do go wrong, it is the lives of children that are damaged.

Often irreversibly.