'Hit her with a sledgehammer’: Staffordshire social worker suspended over comments
A Staffordshire social worker has been suspended from his profession after he said one way to manage a woman with learning difficulties was ‘to hit her with a sledgehammer’.
Gawain Minney was working as an agency worker for Staffordshire County Council when he made the comment to the service user’s carer in a meeting.
He added ‘or chuck her in a padded room’, according to the findings of a panel of the Health and Care Professions Tribunal Service, which suspended Mr Minney for 12 months.
The hearing heard how Mr Minney made the comments during a multi-agency meeting discussing the management of the woman, who is in her early 20s.
A second incident was also brought before the panel.
It happened at the county council’s coffee shop, when Mr Minney jabbed his elbow toward a colleague’s face in an aggressive manner.
Both incidents happened in August in 2016.
Giving evidence to the panel, a council worker said Mr Minney’s comments at the meeting came as they discussed what could be done if the person’s behaviour became dangerous.
The witness said she was ‘quite shocked and so was everyone else’.
In conclusion, the panel found Mr Minney did not treat the service user as an individual, respecting her dignity.
Members also judged his comments about the service user as ‘cruel and discriminatory’.
Mr Minney appeared before the panel and invited the panel to impose a suspension, describing the process as ‘helpful’.
The social worker has been in the profession for 17 years ‘without incident’, the panel heard.
Mr Minney said had suffered from a lack of social network and support as an agency worker, and was looking to live closer to his family.
He also said he would take an online psychological course, adding he ‘should not go near social work until [he] has sorted himself out’.
In its report on the hearing, the panel said it first considering taking no action, but given the ‘seriousness’ of Mr Minney’s conduct and lack of professionalism, it said doing nothing would be ‘wholly inappropriate’.
Panel chairman John Walsh said: “Although the panel recognised that the two incidents are isolated events, it concluded that the public confidence would be significantly undermined if a finding of fitness to practice impairment was not made, given the nature and seriousness of Mr Minney’s conduct and behaviour.”
The suspension order will be reviewed shortly after its expiry.
