Care home manager struck off for cruelty

A care home manager who displayed “an element of cruelty” in abusing a service user with learning disabilities has been struck off.

Angela Turner, manager of the Elms Residential Unit in Birmingham, told the male resident “my dogs are cleaner than you” and instructed staff not to help him deal with his incontinence, a General Social Care Council conduct committee found.

Turner, who was employed by Birmingham Council as manager of the Elms Residential Unit in 2007, told staff to let the service user change his own clothes and bedding despite knowing that he was unable to do so.

She also used inappropriate and abusive language towards him, including frequent use of the phrase “you’ve pissed yourself”, and removed a kettle he used to make hot drinks during the night.

Removing the kettle was “unkind, unnecessary and certainly inappropriate”, the committee found. In addition Turner, manager of the unit in 2007, had slapped another service user on the hand without “excuse or justification”.

Turner, who did not attend the hearing, had previously sought to put these incidents into a different, more innocuous context.

However, the committee found her behaviour to have had “an element of cruelty” and noted that the service user had suffered emotional distress as a result.

Several other allegations, including that Turner had not provided regular supervision for staff, were also found to be proved.

These, taken together with her conduct toward the man with learning disabilities, meant she was “comprehensively unfit to be a member of the social care profession,” the committee concluded.

Turner was dismissed by Birmingham Council, who employed her at the Elms Residential Unit, in May 2008. A spokesperson for the council said: “Such poor practice is rare in the council, but when we do find it, we take swift and severe action.”

In a letter to the committee, Turner said she had not renewed her registration and did not intend to practise again as a social worker.

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