FUTURE adoptive parents will be spared the adoption nightmare a Worcester couple have faced if they are successful in their legal bid.

Dr Andrew and Helen Hale are at the crossroads of their legal battle to get Worcestershire County Council's Social Services team to admit their family has been failed.

Independent reports back the couple by saying social services mismatched them with the brothers - whom the Evening News will call Michael and Ben for legal reasons - when they were only five and two.

The report, compiled by an independent social worker, said the council had "spectacularly failed two children who were received into their care in an extremely vulnerable and damaged condition".

It says social services could have anticipated that the placement was likely to produce ongoing difficulties and the Hales should have received counselling in preparation for these predictable problems.

The family now has to decide whether to take this to the Ombudsman or to court.

"The report goes on and on," said Dr Hale, of The Hill Avenue, Battenhall.

"If we'd been told the truth earlier on we could have done things differently. To be forewarned is to be forearmed. This situation has spiralled out of control.

"We could have had anger management, music therapy and even specialist schooling for them."

The couple are seeking to get compensation for the two brothers so they may have a better chance at life.

Michael, now aged 20, is currently serving two years in prison for burglary and Ben, 17, is living in a bed-sit after being kicked out for being violent towards his adoptive mother.

"I want a strategy for the two boys if they get back on track so they can have anger management and job training," said Dr Hale.

"We don't want compensation for ourselves, we want resources so that when they come back on track - off drugs and out of prison - we can be there to support them. We want a trust fund or something similar.

"We're doing this to help other adoptive parents. We know there are other people in a similar position to us suffering a similar fate."

Mrs Hale said the other parents were not considering legal action at this particular time.

They claim social services knew the children would be affected by their adoption later on in life and did little to help them combat this.

Mrs Hale, who is a teacher, says she thinks counselling at an early age would have helped.

But it wasn't offered until they were teenagers.

"There should have been counselling for them when they were younger, not when they were 16 when they're not interested."