Six children were left to suffer years of abuse at the hands of their father, because services that should have been protecting them did not step in soon enough.

Officials should have worked together to protect a large family of children suffering “chronic neglect” and “sexual harm” a serious case review into their treatment found.

While the children’s mother suffered severe mental health issues their father physically and sexually abused them, leaving his 15-year-old daughter pregnant.

Despite several interactions with social workers, they failed to register the significance that children were showing signs of emotional distress, sexually inappropriate behaviour, truanting from school and injuries described as accidental.

The children were reported missing to police 13 times in a year, but despite officers’ concerns about the poor conditions at the family home, social workers took no action.

In 2007 the father removed the six children from school, isolating them further, but the abuse continued for another two years before one of the daughters told her GP her father had abused her and that her sister was pregnant with his baby.

One of the girls told a school teacher about the physical abuse she and her siblings were suffering in 2003, but no action was taken until 2009.

In a report released today (WEDS) Ofsted inspectors said that West Sussex County Council had properly identified a number of failings within social services, which left the family’s children suffering under the reign of terror of their father.

The case review, conducted by the West Sussex Safeguarding Children’s Board found that most of the professionals working with the family had “failed to identify clear evidence of neglectful parenting.”

The review said that services which should have been protecting the children had intervened sooner, worked together and said better monitoring was needed when parents decided to home school children or if children were repeatedly reported missing.

The review found: “Assessment of neglect by all agencies was unsatisfactory.

“Professionals were overwhelmed by the chaotic nature of the family and intimidated by the number of children with their individual competing needs.

“Sharing of information between and within agencies could have been improved.

"On a number of occasions the thresholds for intervention were not appropriate, timely or in the best interests of the children."

The case was one of 67 reviewed by Ofsted inspectors to see what improvements can be made in to protect children. They found overall that in too many cases children’s concerns were not heard.

The council, who said they were unable to comment yesterday, was given a “good” rating for identifying the failing in this case.