A social worker who sent condoms and cat food to a colleague from a mail order website has been cautioned by the General Social Care Council.
Elizabeth Bills admitted registering her colleague's personal details on the "Hot Deals UK" website between April and November 2008. Bills subsequently received a police warning for harassment.
However, Bills had a previous good history, was dedicated to her work and was neither a risk to her colleagues or to service users, a conduct committee found.
She received an 18-month admonishment.
"Although [her] behaviour was over a period of time, she had fully accepted her responsibility for what she had done from an early stage and had admitted both the facts and the misconduct in these proceedings," the committee said.
"She has shown regret and apologised for her actions and although the committee did not hear from her directly, it accepted the submission by her representative that she understands the effect it had had on her colleagues."
Other cases:
A child protection social worker who "underestimated the risk to children on her caseload" by failing to carry out visits and maintain accurate records has been struck off the social care register. Yvonne Booth, a former Plymouth Council employee, demonstrated "no evidence of remorse or insight" even after she was given a final written warning, a GSCC conduct committee found.
A children's social worker who falsely led Bolton University to believe that her cousin was undertaking a 70-hour work placement under her supervision has not been sanctioned for her misconduct. There were "exceptional circumstances" in Nighat Janjua's case, a GSCC conduct committee found, including her substantial workload at the time and the fact she had a short, but unblemished record.
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