Social worker who shouted homophobic abuse at boy struck off

A senior social worker who shouted homophobic abuse at a cross-dressing teenager and threatened to have him put in care has become the fiftieth practitioner in England to be struck off the GSCC register.

Stan Lansdell, 52, who worked for Bradford Council at the time of the incident, also made inappropriate contact with a young female service user and repeatedly failed to follow child protection procedures in his casework. A General Social Care Council conduct committee removed Lansdell from the register after upholding more than 50 allegations of misconduct against him.

Lansdell was the allocated social worker for the boy known as Child F, who was aged between 12 and 13 at the time, in April 2007 when the verbal abuse took place.

On one occasion, Lansdell told him on the phone to “get lost you f*****g little gay b****d”, a reference to the fact that he believed he was confused about his gender and dressed in girls’ clothing.

He also told Child F’s 18-year-old cousin he was sexually attracted to her in a text message and made frequent phonecalls, often at night.

“Fairy tale allegation”

Lansdell did not attend the hearing but wrote to the committee claiming this was a “fairy tale allegation” and he “never made contact with the family outside of working hours”.

However, after hearing from witnesses including services users and former colleagues the committee found these and more than 50 additional counts of misconduct proved.

The conduct committee also heard that Lansdell gave his own, unauthorised, recommendations to the Bradford and Keighley Family Proceedings Court during a residency hearing in April 2007.

He also failed to keep up-to-date records on at least 13 children including Child F, provided false references to a recruitment agency and verbally abused his former manager.

Continual untrustworthiness

The GSCC’s presenting officer said Lansdell had demonstrated continual “untrustworthiness” and that his behaviour was “potentially dangerous” to the individuals in each case.

Committee chair Barry Picken said Lansdell had shown no insight into his actions and the committee believed he had “deep-seated personality and attitudinal problems”, which meant there was a significant risk of him repeating the behaviour.

He also said: “The registrant’s behaviour was a serious departure from the relevant professional standards,” and had “caused serious harm”.

Lansdell is the 50th social worker to be struck off the GSCC register since its conduct system began in 2006.

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