A social worker who displayed “extremely poor judgement” in her
handling of a case in which a child subsequently died has been
struck off the register.
A Care Council for Wales conduct committee found Eleni
Cordingley had placed Child A at risk by failing to act on two
phonecalls from the same person expressing concerns about the
family.
Cordingley was a social worker at Swansea Council’s social
services department at the time of the case in 2005.
Anonymous phonecalls
The anonymous calls were made to the access and information team
between 27 April and 5 May of that year, but Cordingley failed to
act appropriately, according to the committee. Child A died later
that year.
After admitting
misconduct at a hearing in Cardiff, she was told by committee
chair Ann Teaney: “By exercising extremely poor judgement you
failed to work in a safe and effective way. The misconduct admitted
in this case is considered to be so serious that removal from the
register is the only appropriate sanction.
"Protection of the public"
“This is necessary for the protection of the public and to uphold
the public interest in maintaining confidence in social care
services.”
Teaney also expressed concern about Swansea Council’s delay in
informing the CCW about the result of a disciplinary hearing
involving Cordingley, which concluded in October 2007.
Council's improvement programme
Swansea Council said in a statement that the child’s death “was
a terrible tragedy and [we are] very sorry that it happened”.
It added that a serious case review had found the child was not
known to social services prior to the first phonecall. The council
said it had acted on the report’s recommendations and worked with
the Care and Social Services Inspectorate Wales to strengthen its
services for vulnerable children.
Wendy Fitzgerald, cabinet member for social services, said the
council had already invested £350,000 in recruiting additional
social workers this year.
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