One suspension and one removal from social care register

Darlington social worker Yvonne Doyle was suspended from the General Social Care Council’s register yesterday for two years, for advertising herself as an escort with an internet agency with links to websites associated with prostitution.

Doyle brought the profession of social work into disrepute and damaged public confidence in social care services, a GSCC conduct committee found.

However, she was not struck off because her activities were neither harmful nor illegal. The decision followed a three-day hearing in April, which was heard in private at Doyle’s request, on health grounds.

Last week a senior social worker became the first person to be struck off the GSCC register.

Anthony Peter Jacks, who had worked at Huntercombe Stafford psychiatric hospital in the West Midlands, was found guilty of misconduct over his relationship with a service user.

At a hearing in Manchester, the GSCC’s conduct committee found that his relationship with a 14-year-old girl, who had been sexually abused and had a history of self-harm, was inappropriate and breached its code of practice.

Witnesses told the committee that between January and October 2004 he had stroked the girl’s hair, held her hand and referred to himself repeatedly as her uncle.

He had also talked about applying for a contact order when the teenager was moved to a residential care home and continued to call her without the knowledge of the home’s staff. Jacks did not attend the three-day hearing or send a legal representative.

Both Jacks and Doyle can now appeal against the decisions to the Care Standards Tribunal.