Nottingham City Council social worker struck off after children left ‘at risk of harm’

A Nottingham City Council social worker has been struck off after putting vulnerable children and young people “at risk of harm”.

David Alexander Fry was found guilty of misconduct after not visiting children in his care, not keeping adequate records and not carrying out routine work like contacting health visitors.

Despite having 29 years’ experience he failed to correctly look after 25 children between March 2007 and June 2010 when he was employed by an agency working for the council.

In a report, compiled by the General Social Care Council, it stated: “In his wholesale failure to keep adequate records on the children in his care, the registrant failed in a most fundamental way, making it very difficult for colleagues to know what actions had been taken, what visits made and the current position of each child.

“In most instances no record was made because nothing had been done. The registrant had failed to carry out visits and had not acted on management instructions.

The conduct committee of the General Social Care Council met from May 28 to 31 to consider the allegations made against Mr Fry.

He argued his caseload was high, there was a lack of resources, particularly when he first joined the team, and high sickness rates among his colleagues meant he had to cover for them frequently.

The General Social Care Council committee accepted his team was in “difficulty with absences and a heavy workload and that consequently morale was low”.

However it ruled his cases were not overly complex, he had experience and had been a team leader in the past so should have been able to tackle the difficulties.

The committee acknowledged Mr Fry had been under a “significant amount of pressure” but still said his failings were “serious, repeated and widespread”.

A City Council spokesman said: “We brought this case to the attention of the General Social Care Council to safeguard against Mr Fry’s inadequate social work potentially impacting on children elsewhere, so we welcome this ruling.

“We employed a number of specialist and experienced social workers through agencies during a period when we were having difficulties retaining and recruiting social workers and there were high levels of sickness absence.

“By employing experienced social workers our intention was to ensure the best possible outcomes for our vulnerable children.

“We expect the highest standards and utmost integrity from our social workers and as soon as it became clear Mr Fry’s performance fell significantly short of those standards, we took robust action.

“We accept that between 2006 and 2010, our safeguarding services were ranked between inadequate and adequate – but a continuous programme of improvement resulted in a ‘good’ rating last year.

“Our priority is the safety and well-being of the city’s children and we will always strive to do our very best for them.”

Chris Needham, GMB representative for Nottingham, said: “In general all workers are under a great deal of stress at the city council.

“Children’s services and social services are under a great deal of stress and the issue of sickness is a concern to unions.”