Social worker threw fan at vulnerable child

A social worker who received a police caution after throwing a fan at a vulnerable child has been struck off the social care register.

Robert Clarke was arrested in July 2009 for assaulting the child, who was not a service user at the time.

The child had been badly bruised and was later made the subject of a child protection plan.

Clarke accepted a formal police caution but did not inform the General Social Care Council, a conduct committee was told.

It also emerged that Clarke had supplied his employer with a reference in 2007 that had been written by his partner, who did not work in social care.

The misleading employment reference and his failure to tell the GSCC about the police caution for assault were dishonest actions, the committee found.

“The dishonesty was planned [and] the untruths told by the registrant were significant in nature,” it added.

In relation to the assault, the committee noted that the victim had been a vulnerable child, albeit not a service user.

“The degree of violence cannot be regarded as minimal, given the throwing out of the fan and the bruising caused as a result,” the committee said.

Clarke did not attend the hearing, but the committee took into account the fact that this had been a single act of violence, that there was no relevant history of similar behaviour and that Clarke had shown “a degree of insight”.

But it concluded: “The registrant’s behaviour marks a serious departure form the relevant standards in the code [of practice] and it is the committee’s clear view that confidence in social care services would be undermined if the person was not removed.”

Mental health worker copied essay from internet

A social worker who lifted 90% of an essay from the internet to gain a mental health qualification has been struck off the social care register.

Gary Carey was studying for a postgraduate certificate in specialist mental health social work at the University of Brighton, the General Social Care Council’s conduct committee was told.

Julia Stroud, a lecturer at the university, described it as the worst case of plagiarism that she had encountered in 16 years of social work education.

Carey also committed misconduct when he was employed as a senior social worker in the Bognor Community Mental Health Team, West Sussex, between August 2007 and May 2009.

The level of recording on his case files was “minimal”, the committee was told, and he failed to complete care plans in respect of 14 case files allocated to him.

In one case, Carey did not maintain proper records for a service user with a violent and aggressive history, and the lack of information “had an impact on a number of services trying to manage him”.

“Service users and colleagues were put at risk,” the committee found.

“The registrant showed no insight, as evidenced by his failure to engage in any of the disciplinary processes to which he has been subjected.”

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