Support worker struck off after unsupervised sex offender visit

A child support worker in Scotland has been struck off after allowing a registered sex offender to make an unsupervised visit to a house where a two-year-old child lived.

Paul Maxwell, who worked for Frontline Response Care in Dumfries, was removed from the Scottish Social Services Council register having been dismissed by his employer last year.

A conduct sub-committee of the SSSC found Maxwell had failed to work in a lawful, safe and effective way, and his actions could have put people at risk.

The sub-committee heard that he was the allocated child support worker for “a vulnerable service user” – a registered sex offender who had been released from secure accommodation on licence.

However, the licence conditions prevented the service user from having any contact with a child under 14-years-old without permission from a local authority supervising officer, and without the presence of the child’s parents.

The sub-committee criticised the support worker’s “profound professional naivety” for allowing the incident to occur, and said Maxwell had shown limited insight into the consequences of his actions; therefore removal from the register was the only suitable sanction.

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