Overturned GSCC banning was ‘disproportionate’

A social worker who was banned from practising by the General Social Care Council has won an appeal against removal from the social care register.

The Care Standards Tribunal (CST) has ruled that a decision by the conduct committee to ban Patricia Kakeeto over her failure to inform them and her employer about a driving disqualification was “disproportionate”.

It has recommended that she should instead be admonished until February 2013.

Ms Kakeeto was removed from the register in February after admitting she had not told her employer she had been disqualified from driving and had continued to receive an essential car user’s allowance.

She then failed inform the GSCC on a registration renewal form three months later and did not declare the conviction and £250 fine on a CRB check two years later.

Ms Kakeeto, at the time a social worker at Tower Hamlets council, in London, was convicted at Barking Magistrates’ Court in September 2007, given a £250 fine and banned from driving after pleading guilty failing to stop after an accident and provide a breath test.

The CST took into account her admissions and remorse and the fact there had been no previous complaints or concerns raised about the quality of her work since she had qualified as a social worker in 2000.

In its ruling, it said the conduct committee should have given more consideration to the fact there had been no cause to question Ms Kakeeto’s honesty at work in her 10-year social work career.

“Balancing all of the features present we consider that the penalty was disproportionate because of the period of good service and the particular nature of the incident itself from which the dishonesty flowed, which in itself did not indicate dishonesty and that the dishonesty was limited to one type of situation that is false declarations relating to a conviction, and not aimed at service users,” said the CST.