Recently in Conduct Category

Complaints of misconduct by social workers and social care workers in Northern Ireland have increased three fold in the last two years, the BBC reports this morning.

The BBC says that there have been 95 complaints against social workers and social care workers in the last year (the figures from the Northern Ireland Social Care Council actually show 94 but that's an easy mistake to make).

But it also claims the number of complaints have risen three fold from two years ago. This is true, but misleading.

The only figures available combine four years from April 2005 to March 2009. So you have to average out the number of complaints if you want to do a year on year comparison.

But because the register was only introduced in 2005 it has been growing in size over that time so a direct comparison of the number of complaints isn't really possible.

Instead it's more representative to calculate the percentage of complaints based on the total size of the register.

This shows a similar increase in figures but only over the last year for which the average applies, when the register was at its largest. It is reasonable to assume that the complaints were not evenly spread and therefore grew with the size of the register, while there has been a percentage increase over this time it's pretty small, ranging from around 0.4% (the middle figure from the averaged years) to 0.7%. That's less than doubling and hardly a three fold increase.

Add to this the numbers of people found guilty, which is rising by a similar amount (0.03% to 0.08% over the same period) and the percentage of successful case  which has risen only two percentage points in that time (hardly statistically significant) and you end up with a picture of rises which can be explained by other factors.

One, you would expect it to grow as knowledge of the avenues for complaint spread after the register's introduction.

Two, the increasing percentage of people found guilty of misconduct this small is more likely to be a product of bedding in the regulation system than an outbreak of poor practice. People are more likely to bring cases with more merit once advice, based on past cases, is more readily available.

So, while the level of complaints has increased slightly it isn't really something to worry about.

Judyth Kenworthy made a "conscious decision" not to inform police that two-year-old Sanam Navsarka had been locked in a cupboard, the General Social Care Council has found.

A witness, Jacqueline Peel, told the GSCC's conduct committee yesterday that she had reported the incident to Kenworthy on 1 May 2008.

Kenworthy, who was a family placement officer for Kirklees Council at the time, said she had not heard mention of a cupboard, possibly because of confusion in Peel's house on the morning in question. She claims this is why she did not mention the incident when making a statement to police on 23 June 2008. 

But the committee found Kenworthy had sought to play down her knowledge of the incident because was seeking to distance herself from blame.

"Kenworthy was given an opportunity to tell the police anything relevant to the investigation," the committee said. "She knew it (the cupboard incident) was relevant but made a conscious decision not to mention it."

The hearing continues.

Photo of Sanam Navsarka by Mark St George/Rex Features

The BBC has an update from today's hearing into the conduct of Judyth Kenworthy, the family placement officer involved in the Sanam Navsarka abuse case.

Kenworthy has admitted failing to inform her manager, a social worker or Kirklees Council's duty and assessment team that Sanam was being physically abused, the BBC reports. And she agreed that, as a result of her actions, no measures were taken to safeguard the two-year-old.

Kenworthy also admitted withholding information when she gave a statement to police, but denies the allegation that the carer warned her that Sanam had been locked in a cupboard.

The General Social Care Council's hearing continues.

A social worker faces misconduct charges this week following the death in 2008 of two-year-old toddler Sanam Navsarka, who was known to Kirklees Council's look-after children services.

Sanam was found dead at her home in May 2008 after suffering more than 100 injuries. In February 2009, Sanam's mother, Zahbeena Navsarka, was jailed for nine years for her daughter's manslaughter. Navsarka's partner, Subhan Anwar, was jailed for a minimum of 23 years for murder.

A serious case review published in 2009 found Sanam's death may have been prevented if not for the failure of the council's looked-after children staff to refer concerns received four weeks before her death to child protection colleagues.

The General Social Care Council is investigating an allegation that Judyth Kenworthy, who was a family placement officer for Kirklees Council at the time, failed to act upon or pass on important information that she had received.

Kenworthy is also accused of withholding information in a statement to police.

• In another hearing at the GSCC this week, a social worker who was struck off in October for a string of alleged offences, including failing to report an allegation of abuse, has a chance to clear her name.

The First-tier (Care Standards) Tribunal ordered the GSCC to re-hear the case of Rosalind Shaw, after it emerged Shaw's application to adjourn the original hearing because her mother was ill had been rejected.

The new hearing begins today and is expected to conclude on 17 January.

South Lanarkshire employee Charles Devlin has become the latest in a string of social workers to be sanctioned for forwarding "offensive" e-mails, including one about Gary Glitter.

He is the second of the council's employees to be removed from the register in Scotland for taking part in a culture of forwarding e-mails to colleagues and people outside of the office. Another social worker was allowed to continue practising under certain conditions.

 As 2010 draws to a close, the Community Care team has been reminiscing about some of the best (and most bizarre) conduct cases of the year. Here are some lessons we could all learn:

DON'T tell female colleagues you can picture them in Miss Whiplash outfits with high leather boots

DON'T offer to take a service user on a weekend of ecstasy to Paris or skiing in Switzerland

DON'T send condoms and cat food to a colleague from a mail order website

DON'T kick a policewoman during a kerfuffle outside a nightclub, even if you are a student

DON'T forward any emails containing mocked up images of Gary Glitter carrying a child through customs

DON'T drunkenly offer to urinate into a stranger's mouth after telling them you're a social worker 

DON'T slag off colleagues and disclose confidential information about parents and children on your blog 

DON'T turn up to court smelling like you spent the night in a brewery

Pics clockwise from top: Al Ianni on flickr; Rex features; KLMircea on flickr

More social workers are being cleared of misconduct by the General Social Care Council than ever before, according to an investigation by The British Association of Social Workers.

Since January, 125 cases have been heard by the regulator, of which 17 (13%) have ended in a finding of no misconduct or the allegations could not be proved.

In comparison, during the GSCC's first five years of operation just nine out of more than 200 registrants (around 4.5%) were cleared of wrongdoing or had their case thrown out, according to BASW.

Four former social work staff are claiming unfair dismissal after being sacked for distributing a joke e-mail of convicted paedophile Gary Glitter, according to the BBC.

They have raised an action against South Lanarkshire Council alleging their sacking was "disproportionate" to what they did.

Another social worker at the council, William Simpson, was banned from practising by the Scottish Social Services Council for forwarding this and other emails.

Join in the debate on CareSpace  

 

Hot workforce topics for debate this week include whether taking on a second job without informing either employer constitutes misconduct.

It follows two recent, and in some ways very similar, conduct cases: Alice Tagoe and Doccus Nyabunze. Allan Norman, social worker and solicitor at Celtic Knot, an independent law firm and social work practice, argues on The Big Picture blog that neither case should have gone to a full conduct hearing.

In other news, people have been discussing on our forum CareSpace whether students should be registered after the Health Professions Council said it wasn't necessary to protect the public.

Interesting piece on why social work regulation is being transferred to the Health Professions Council on the HPC Watchdog blog. Here's an excerpt:

"...While it is not clear how social workers, psychotherapists and care workers relate to each other as subjects for HPC regulation (let alone how they relate to paramedics, physiotherapists, and biomedical scientists), it is clear that the HPC is keen to pursue its expansion as planned, and to reduce the differences amongst practitioners to maximise economies of scale. The new government has apparently been convinced by the argument, although this cannot be without problems within its ranks."

http://hpcwatchdog.blogspot.com