Essex social worker suspended for falsifying case records

Social worker Andrew Charles Mills has been suspended from the HCPC Register for falsifying the case records concerning two service users whilst working in one of the children in care teams at Essex County Council.

A panel of the HCPC Conduct and Competence Committee heard that Andrew Charles Mills created four statutory visit records, falsely indicating he had visited Child A.

The Panel further heard how Andrew Charles Mills created a false Viability Assessment for Child B’s paternal grandmother, which was later presented in court.

Panel Chair Linda Summers commented:“It is clear that, at the relevant time, the registrant’s fitness to practice was impaired. He did, however, show some element of insight in accepting, in interview, that his misconduct could have had serious consequences and amounted to a massive error of judgement. Then, as now, he was quite unable to explain why he had behaved in this fashion.

“The Panel has no idea what, if anything, the registrant is now doing and thus has no information about the possibility of remediation. Were he to continue to act as a social worker there would be an obvious risk of repetition by the registrant of such misconduct.”

The Panel decided the most appropriate action was to suspend Andrew Charles Mills from the Register for a period of 12 months with an Interim Suspension Order in place to cover the appeal period.  Interim Suspension Order in place to cover the appeal period.

Mr Mills was not present or represented at the hearing.