AN Altrincham mum has slammed Trafford's social services for their treatment of her 17 year-old daughter.

The distraught mother has hardly seen her only daughter after social services suggested the teenager move out while claims of child abuse in the family were investigated.

But although the claims, made while the teenager was suffering from depression, have proved to be unfounded, the mum, who does not wish to be named, claims her daughter has still not come home.

She claims social services made the situation worse by encouraging the teenager to turn against her family instead of turning to them for support.

She also claims that social services are continuing to give the girl money, despite numerous offers from her family to provide for her.

The mum says: "Everyone with sense saw the absurdity and inconsistency when the situation was explained to them. Social services did not. They got things out of all proportion.

"Apparently it needs only an unstable youngster like our depressed, mentally ill daughter to make a far-fetched, misguided allegation about an innocent relative to set the full paraphernalia unstoppably in motion."

She believes that her daughter's depression became worse after her brother graduated from university, and the girl thought that, in comparison, she was a failure.

She suffered from stress during her AS level course and fell behind with her work.

The mum says: "After a poor year at school and the inevitable drop in self-esteem, our daughter saw the apparent greater success of her elder brother, and then suddenly remembered some childish misbehaviour between them from years back. She threw all the blame on him, alleging sexual abuse."

And she slammed social services for wasting resources she feels could be better spent elsewhere.

"I have witnessed with anger, social services' waste of time, money and resources, through their interference in stable, relatively comfortably off families like ours, who not only do not need their assistance, but positively do not want it.

"We were told that the intention was for our daughter to eventually return home but that was never the case.

"She has given up a weekend job which she really enjoyed and which gave her a sense of responsibility. She's also given up babysitting for her younger brother, which has been very difficult for him to understand.

"It costs more than £500 per month to keep a child in care like this, which is an enormous amount out of the public purse, particularly when we are prepared to pay for whatever she needs. We feel we are fighting a losing battle against social services because they have undermined our parental wishes."

Chris Brabbs, Interim Director of Social Services, said: "The girl has been taken into foster care at her own request, because of the circumstances, we do not feel that any more can be said. There are still a lot of assessments and enquiries to be completed so it is hard to say at this moment what the future will be."