A social worker has been removed from the Social Care Register by an independent committee of the General Social Care Council (GSCC) after being found to have put children at risk by failing to allocate 90 cases.
Joy Amelia Coles, 55, was employed between November 2001 – November 2005 as the team manager in the Duty and Assessment Service within the Children and Young People’s Services at Leicester City Council. During this time Coles failed to allocate 90 cases, including child protection cases which the Committee said should have been dealt with urgently.
In one instance, Coles took no action into allegations of physical abuse towards children in a family. The children were eventually put on the child protection register, but the Committee said the delay could have put the children at risk of harm.
The Committee heard that Coles had knowingly misled her managers about the number of unallocated cases, and backdated closing dates of other cases to cover her tracks.
Taking into account that even Coles herself had identified the serious nature of her failures, the Committee said she clearly called into question her suitability to remain on the register and also harmed the reputation and standing of the Social Care Profession.
They said by her persistent inaction and failures she placed children at risk of harm. She failed to safeguard vulnerable children. She was a team manager responsible for allocating cases and fundamentally failed in this regard.
The Committee was concerned that failure to remove Coles from the register in these circumstances would not protect the public and would seriously undermine public confidence in the provision of social care services.
They said she had breached the Code of Practice for Social Care Workers that all social workers sign up to when they register with the GSCC, citing a list of points including that she put service users at risk, was dishonest, failed to communicate with managers about these issues, and was unreliable and lacked dependability.
Rosie Varley, Chair of the GSCC, said: “All social workers sign up to a code of practice when they register with us and the majority of the 95,000 people on the Social Care Register find no difficulty with being honest and upholding public confidence in the profession. It is vital that social workers do all they can to protect vulnerable people. Any concerns raised about a child’s welfare should be taken seriously by a social worker, and we will take the appropriate action if we think children have been let down and put at further risk.”
Social workers have a right of appeal to the independent First-tier Tribunal (Care Standards).
Further details about this and previous hearings can be found on the GSCC’s website –http://www.gscc.org.uk/Conduct/Conduct_hearings/recently_concluded_hearings/
ENDS
Notes to editors
1. Media contacts:
Liz Hutchinson 020 7397 5832 (07876 440838 – out of office hours)
Lorna Harris 020 7397 5829
Saskia Konynenburg 020 7397 5862
2. The Social Care Register is public and accessible at www.gscc.org.uk
3. Conduct committees are independent of the GSCC and are made up of three to five members. They have a majority of lay members who do not have a background in the delivery of social care services.
4. Cases come to the conduct committee only after evidence has been investigated and there is an allegation which calls into question the registrant’s suitability to be on the Social Care Register. Options open to the committee include admonishment, no action, suspension or removal of the registrant from the Social Care Register.
5. The General Social Care Council is the regulator of the social care workforce in England set up to promote high standards in social care and to protect the public. All social workers need to be registered with the GSCC, meeting standards of training, suitability and commitment to high standards. They are accountable for maintaining high standards of conduct to the GSCC. Action can be taken against social workers who fall below these standards or who are not suitable to hold the responsibilities of being a social worker. Decisions are taken to protect the public interests and those of the 1.5 million people who use social care services.