Herts County Council changes after social work failures

Council chiefs have ‘revolutionised’ the way social workers record cases after a former employee was struck off. Alcus Dunn is banned from practising as a social worker after a catalogue of failures while working for Herts County Council.

The General Social Care Council’s Conduct Committee made the decision when it met to consider his case last month.

It found that he had put vulnerable children at risk of harm.

Among the errors were Mr Dunn’s failure to keep adequate records, or in some instances, any records at all in relation to the cases on his workload.

He did not report one missing child to police and failed to include details of a child’s bruising and absence from school in a report. Another child that went missing was also not reported by Mr Dunn.

Council spokesman Jane Vine said: “Our systems have changed significantly since Mr Dunn was dismissed in late 2008.

“We have revolutionised the way we manage our recording system and introduced an electronic system, so it is not possible for a social worker to progress a case without using the system and if they don’t do so it will be picked up quickly.

“The system was introduced in January 2008 and Mr Dunn was suspended in April 2008.

“We took immediate action to suspend him as soon as we became aware of the situation.”