Social worker receives additonal six months suspension

Social worker Rebecca Allen has been suspended from the Health & Care Professions Council (HCPC) Register for a further six months following a review of a suspension order imposed in 2014 as a result of misconduct and current impairment.

A panel of the HCPC Conduct and Competence Committee conducted a first review of Miss Allen’s suspension from the register imposed on 14 January 2014. She was originally suspended whilst employed at Telford and Wrekin Council for bringing alcohol into a mental health ward for a service user who had been treated for alcohol dependency.

The Panel said it could not be satisfied that there was no risk of repeating the offence due to the “absence of any remorse or insight”.

Panel Chair Andrew Gell commented:“The Panel considers that no further action, mediation or a caution order would not provide the necessary level of public protection. In the absence of engagement with the HCPC process it is not possible to formulate working conditions of practice.”

The suspension order comes into effect on the expiry of the existing order on 14 January 2015.

Ms Allen was not present or represented at the hearing.