i am after a bit of advice , i work in a team working woth young people some of which have additional needs , these vary from low self estem to ADHD, ODD ect . whilst been at work i witnessed one of the senior staff pointing and shouting in one of the young peoples face . I am a new starter to the organisation and am still trying to find my feet in my role but i am disgusted with what i have seen and feel i have let the young person down by not reporting it . i have spoke to other members of staff who i feel are not taking it seriously . this happened last week and i cant just forget it ? as far as i can see it is abusive behaviour towards the yp , is this a matter i should take further if so which would be the best way to go about it ??
I think you have to report it. However if you're not being taken seriously by the manager there then you may need to go higher up the organisation. This can be problematic though and you may find yourself at the wrong end of a rather nasty 'closing ranks' response. Don't underestimate how hard that can be - it has been known to get very nasty indeed.
There is one other option. You could call the CQC as a member of the public (anonymously if you feel you need to) and express your concerns (call the Care Commission if you're in Scotland).
I realise that this might seem over the top but you must report your suspicions. you don't need to be able to substantiate your concerns - that's the job of the investigator - not the alerter.
As it happens I blogged about this issue just this morning. It's here if you want to have a look.
http://stuartsorensen.wordpress.com/2010/04/08/safeguarding-11-neglect/
Cheers,
Stuart
Visit my blog at http://stuartsorensen.wordpress.com/