A social worker has been removed from the Social Care Register by an independent panel of the General Social Care Council (GSCC) after being found to have engaged in an inappropriate personal relationship with a person who uses services.

The man, who cannot be named to protect the identity of the service user, was a senior social worker at the time he met the young woman, who was described at the three-day hearing as a vulnerable user of mental health services. The panel heard that he saw her on several occasions out of hours, putting the woman at risk of damage to her mental health and ongoing care.

The Committee decided that the man had breached the Code of Practice for Social Care Workers that all social workers sign up to when they register with the GSCC, citing the section that deals with upholding public trust and confidence in social care services. In deciding to remove him, they said his behaviour called into question his suitability to work in social care services.

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 in complying with this, providing high quality care to the hundreds of thousands of people who use services. It is vital in order to preserve public confidence in those services that we address misconduct and take appropriate action against those who commit it.”

Social workers have a right of appeal to the independent First-tier Tribunal (Care Standards).

Further Information

Concluded Conduct Hearings