The group, Children failed by Sefton MBC - The voice of the families group, now with over 400 members, have been nominated for a BBC Merseyside Make a Difference award.

The awards recognise individuals and groups who make life better for people in our communities.

A shortlist of finalists will be chosen in the summer and a ceremony in September.

The group have protesting at council meetings demanding a say at their Scrutiny Committee for children’s services.

In September last year we covered one such protest.

Voice of the Families chair Dave Moorhead addressed councillors in the meeting.

Mr Moorhead said the Voice of the Families group represents over 250 families who have been failed by Sefton and the protest was the result of Sefton breaking us.

He spoke of parents being “burnt out, destroyed and exhausted” by their dealings with Sefton Council adding that council officials “need to walk in someone’s shoes to really understand and that’s what lived experience is.”

Mr Moorhead said that if families were represented on the committee, which scrutinises decisions made around and improvements to the borough’s children’s services parents would “scrutinise documents in a different way and be ready to challenge the answers” adding “if only we were listened to and included at the table.”

Acknowledging the request for representation on the committee itself would mean a change in constitution for the make up of committees in the Council.

The stories from parents of vulnerable, looked after or adopted children, and those with special needs are "harrowing and heartbreaking" - children not being in school for years, parents having to leave work to plug the gaps left by the local authority, other children being removed from courses without parents being consulted, issues around home to school transport provision and court orders ignored, problems with the ongoing churn of social workers, serious safeguarding issues and the council's reliance on out of borough provision.

The only other North West local authority to have had a Department for Education appointed commissioner due to the poor state of children's services, Blackpool, "turned things around through working with the parents."

The group has met with the director of children's services, the commissioner, local MPs and councillors and “anyone who will listen” in a bid to make their views known. Mr Moorhead, a retired teacher and the group's chairman said Voice of the Families was calling on the council to install three people on the scrutiny committee who have "lived experiences" that would "greatly benefit" the level of accountability around decisions being made about the services.

He said the council have been "told time and time again, by the commissioner and by Ofsted that they have to work with the families, respect the parents, that the parents have to be part of the solution."