The General Social Care Council has sacked its chief executive,
Mike Wardle, in the wake of a damning review of the organisation's
conduct system.
England's social care regulator is recruiting a new senior
management team in an attempt to draw a line under the serious
operational failings highlighted by the
report by the Council for Healthcare Regulatory Excellence,
published last week.
Wardle, who was suspended from his post in July, was dismissed
following an
internal investigation prompted by the discovery of 203 unallocated
conduct cases, including 21 with public protection
concerns.
GSCC chair Rosie Varley (pictured) took the decision after a
disciplinary hearing on 3 November, the day before the CHRE report
was published.
A GSCC spokesperson confirmed the former civil servant's
£147,500-a-year contract had been terminated and he will not
receive a pay-off. 
Varley said the new chief executive and three directors would
come into an organisation with "greater clarity of purpose" which
had public protection at the heart of its work.
She added: "We are also looking at how we can continue to raise
standards in the sector by strengthening social work training, and
holding the profession to account for competence as well as
conduct."
Interim appointments
The CHRE report was ordered by the Department of Health in July
2009, which coincided with the announcement of Wardle's
suspension.
Since then, two interim chief executives have been in place -
Paul Philip, who has returned to his post at the General Medical
Council as acting chief executive, and
Paul Snell (pictured), who remains in temporary charge after
starting on 1 October. 
The CHRE report concluded the GSCC failed to ensure public
safety by deliberately stalling cases of social workers accused of
misconduct in order to save money, having overspent its budget.
The backlog of cases existed since 2007, the investigation
found, and at one time stood at more than 700.
The CHRE found evidence of instructions issued to staff by
senior managers to deliberately delay cases and not to apply for
interim suspension orders "unless they were "extremely serious,
such as cases involving violence or child abuse".
Senior management were also found to have provided inaccurate
information to the council and committees, "which provided an
unjustifiable level of assurance" about the growing backlog of
cases.
The CHRE concluded that the GSCC was "an organisation looking in
another direction" and its overall conduct system was "not
effective, efficient or well-governed".
It added: "The GSCC's focus on public protection was not as
strongly expressed in its conduct function as it should have been,
possibly because it was giving greater attention to its other
statutory duties of developing and improving social work education,
establishing a register and maintaining public confidence in social
care services."
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