Mooo
06-08-09
Later this month the GSCC are to hold a Conduct hearing at their London office concerning an Essex social worker. He is accused of various forms of misconduct, this time it seems not involving sex or robbing someone. And of course the GSCC will base it on the employers evidence i.e. not due to their own investigations. You can find the details of the case here:
http://www.gscc.org.uk/Conduct/Conduct_hearings/Upcoming_hearings/
Among the charges against the worker is:
“On 11 January 2005, and on various other unspecified days, you played sound effects of farmyard animals on your office computer which other staff found disruptive.”
And this is in 2005 – you would think that this indiscretion was perhaps now a lesson learned, and does it really need to be part of the misconduct? I suppose the people at the GSCC never circulate funny emails, play a joke on a colleague or generally act the fool for a laugh (as distinct from just being fools).
Mr and Mrs Wilt’s office have a Moo clock – you know like a cuckoo clock, but instead it has a cow that pops out on the hour and goes moooooooooooo! Wilt bought it as a office present some years ago (not on expenses). Our clients love it. It, like the dog, helps to keep life in perspective.
Seriously, four years later do the GSCC want to profile that as misconduct? Well, obviously yes. It can only be designed to embarras the poor chap, silly dork he may have been. But it is rather dorkish to play on it. Dorks!
I can imagine now, that GSCC officer ‘drooling’ over the paperwork, spending months thinking, can I get the bastard on that one? He annoyed people, for Gawd sake. It was probably a distraction and yes if it were me I would have probably given him a few words of advice – discipline him? No, for Gawds sake!
OK, it is in the context of him accessing various non-related work websites over his work computer for several hours when he should have been working – you very naughty boy. It seems there is no suggestion they were sex sites. So, can we let this go please. Please, let him learn his lesson (assuming all allegations are true) and give the bloke a break. This is a purely internal matter, surely.
More serious is his failure to progress a permanence plan for children, and not make statutory visits. Yes, that is serious, and it is alleged he misled managers in stating he had. That is not good. Not good at all.
However if Wilt had a £ for every social worker who had a bad hair day and failed to meet all their targets, he would not be here and sailing on the Med in his luxury boat!
The thing is, the GSCC always go for the low hanging fruit, the line of least restance and an easy catch so that they can apply the Cosh.
This case will be interesting if the Registrant has a half good representative. But then of course the so called ‘independent committee’ needs to be overcome – about as independent as they are competent, and they aint got a good record so far.
Wilt