‘Managers tried to ruin me’, claims social worker

A social worker who faces possible removal from the social care register today told a conduct committee that managers had been determined to wreck her career.

Tricia Forbes was dismissed from her post as a deputy team manager at Waltham Forest Council in January 2006 for failing to follow child protection procedures in May 2005. She was reinstated but demoted after winning an appeal in May 2006.

Forbes, who is appearing before the General Social Care Council committee in London, said Waltham Forest Council had lodged a complaint with the GSCC after she had been reinstated.

She told the hearing today: “Senior managers did not want me back and they were determined to ruin my social work career.”

‘Bullying’

Forbes hit out at managers, including deputy children’s services director Jo Olsen, claiming she had been treated to “bullying, victimisation and discrimination” after the case in spring 2005.

She said: “I have been seriously mistreated.” She added: “My request is that I can return to my social work career.”

Forbes has admitted failing to initiate a child protection investigation after a 13-year-old girl, known as A, disclosed physical abuse. She has also admitted departing from instructions and leaving the girl at the side of a road.

But Forbes said she had already acknowledged mistakes in her practice. She has also denied another allegation that she failed to inform a manager, known as CS, of what she had done.

Forbes has maintained that, after leaving the girl, she returned to the office but CS has claimed that was not the case. Under questioning from GSCC counsel Neil Grant, Forbes said CS had lied to protect herself.

The hearing continues.

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