by Allan Norman
The last time registered social worker Lynda Barnes featured in Community Care, it was her appeal against a decision of the then Avon County Council to sack her following her conviction for Conspiracy to Murder that was being covered.Out of the media spotlight, she returned to statutory social work in 2005 following local government reorganisation in the area, and became a team manager in a child protection team.
This time it is her social work methods that come under particular scrutiny, as the Court of Appeal yesterday rejected her human rights argument against publication of her name in the judgement of the High Court in the case of Bath & North East Somerset Council v A Mother & Ors [2008] EWHC B10 (Fam) (22 December 2008).
Now, while I am sure that media interest will attach to the discovery that a registered social worker has a conviction for conspiracy to murder, I am actually pleased from a social work perspective that it is still possible for this to happen. In a risk-averse age, I fear we will arrive at the point where the principles underpinning the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act will become only ancient memory. Instead of being convinced, as we social workers should be, of the capacity of all people to change, and that a criminal conviction should not be a life sentence, I fear we are moving towards precisely that: a label is the end of a career.
The real problem for the General Social Care Council now is how it responds to media interest in the case. Today, Lynda Barnes is still a registered social worker. As the guardian of the public reputation of the social work profession, it is so easy for the GSCC to say that adverse media coverage is bringing the profession into disrepute. But such an approach runs the risk of allowing the media to dictate our agenda. The inclusion on the register of a social worker with such a conviction is not indefensible, and we should not claim that it is.
The real issue in this case should be that her social work methods bring the profession into disrepute. The judgement reveals staff complaints of her controlling behaviour, excess workload allocation and inadequate supervision, as well as the lies and deception to the court about her team's failings in casework management that were her eventual downfall. This team, like many others, could do with a management culture that better balanced the competing pressures of our duties towards the children in our care, and our own human limits and frailties.
But that, I fear, will not capture the public imagination. And it implicates far too many social work practitioners, making the "rotten apple in the barrel" argument unsustainable.
see also Getting that Care Order - Ends do not justify Means.
The real problem for the General Social Care Council now is how it responds to media interest in the case. Today, Lynda Barnes is still a registered social worker. As the guardian of the public reputation of the social work profession, it is so easy for the GSCC to say that adverse media coverage is bringing the profession into disrepute. But such an approach runs the risk of allowing the media to dictate our agenda. The inclusion on the register of a social worker with such a conviction is not indefensible, and we should not claim that it is.
The real issue in this case should be that her social work methods bring the profession into disrepute. The judgement reveals staff complaints of her controlling behaviour, excess workload allocation and inadequate supervision, as well as the lies and deception to the court about her team's failings in casework management that were her eventual downfall. This team, like many others, could do with a management culture that better balanced the competing pressures of our duties towards the children in our care, and our own human limits and frailties.
But that, I fear, will not capture the public imagination. And it implicates far too many social work practitioners, making the "rotten apple in the barrel" argument unsustainable.
see also Getting that Care Order - Ends do not justify Means.
Allan Norman is Principal Social Worker & Solicitor at Celtic Knot (www.celticknot.org.uk), a niche law practice which successfully represented the newly qualified 'Social Worker C' who gave evidence against Lynda Barnes in this case.
While it seems agencies involved had a part to play in what has happened. My personal and professional view is that the nature of the offence was so serious as not to register and employ Ms Barnes in the field of Social Work which deals with significant vulnerable others in the first place. I believe it is important to weigh up the facts before making a decision, but this is a situation that could have been avoided. I can only imagine the impact this has had on the team Ms Barnes managed and the support they will need in dealing with this situation. One hopes that the clients she managed were not harmed in any way as the relationship with Social Services is an important one and any negativity could impact on their view of the social work profession overall.
Allan,
I don't doubt the ability of people to change. However, there are offences that should be a bar to certain professions, such as social work, that involve close contact with potentially vulnerable people. I think that a conviction in adulthood that demonstrates a prediliction to conspiring murder is but one. It is unfortunate that the GSCC has shown itself to be ineffective in this matter.