Accused Aberdeen social worker felt ‘bullied’

A former Aberdeen social worker accused of a series of “failures” involving the care of 12 vulnerable children has claimed she was undermined and bullied by her local authority supervisors.

Heather Clark broke down in tears on the second day of a disciplinary hearing as she admitted she “couldn’t cope” while working for the city council.

She accused social work bosses of intimidation and said she lost confidence in her own ability to do her job.

The local authority sacked the 51-year-old in March and the Scottish Social Services Council’s conduct committee will decide today whether to revoke her registration as a social worker.

She is accused of 24 “failures” relating to six Aberdeen families in the period leading up to last year’s damning HM Inspectorate of Education report on child protection services in the north-east.

Ms Clark, who qualified in 2004, told the hearing in Dundee that she had 44 cases to deal with at one point.

She said: “Maybe I should have recognised sooner that I wasn’t coping but maybe someone else on the team, a senior, should have noticed I wasn’t coping.

“If I was so bad, then why was I allowed to carry on for four years?

“I would’ve thought management could have taken some responsibility. They were aware of the cases I was dealing with.”

Ms Clark admitted she “wasn’t up to it” in terms of record-keeping, a problem highlighted in several of the charges against her.

However, she rejected accusations relating to four of the six families, including claims that she failed to take any action after receiving a call alleging that a 14-year-old with significant health issues had been assaulted sexually and physically.

“I know the child that’s mentioned but I have no recollection whatsoever of taking any call and there’s just no way I wouldn’t have done anything,” she said.

A council witness claimed on Tuesday that an “audit” discovered she had taken the call.

Ms Clark was also accused of failing to take action after a support worker informed her that cannabis had been “ingested” by three young children in a city family to which she had been assigned.

Ms Clark said she had been told only that the drug had been spotted in a bedroom of the house, not that the youngsters had swallowed it.

“I would have acted if I thought it had been digested,” she said.

She was alleged to have been “dishonest” by telling senior social worker Carol Davie that she had informed the mother of the same children of an allegation of abuse from within the family when she had not.

Ms Clark said there had been three allegations of abuse relating to the same family member and she had spoken to the mother about one, but found she was already aware of all the claims. The former social worker also said she had followed legal advice from council lawyers before speaking to the mother.

Ms Davie gave evidence for the council at yesterday’s hearing. She said she had spoken to the mother at a child-protection conference about the allegations after Ms Clark informed her she had discussed the claims.

“When the conference started I started talking about these allegations but it became clear the mum hadn’t heard,” Ms Davie said.

Ms Davie also told the hearing that it was three weeks before action was taken over the claim that the family’s three children had swallowed cannabis because Ms Clark had done nothing.

Ms Davie told the hearing she had found Ms Clark in a distressed state when she called her to ask about progress with a case-conference report linked to another family.

“Heather was upset,” she said. “She was in tears, saying she wasn’t managing, that she couldn’t cope.”

When quizzed by committee convener Bobby Mangto about support provided by managers, Ms Davie said: “As far as I’m aware, all reasonable support was given to Ms Clark.”

Ms Clark later said she believed she had not been given enough help.

Of former supervisor Helen Mackenzie, she said: “Unfortunately, we felt that her help and guidance wasn’t right.

“There wasn’t proper guidance or discussion of cases. It was almost ad hoc.

“I felt undermined and lost confidence. I feel like I’ve done good work with some families and set up good networks with people.

“I think, as time went on, the harder I tried the worse it got.”

Of another former supervisor, Roslyn Clark, she said:

“As I stated, I felt intimidated and bullied by her.”

Aberdeen City Council’s social work department has been overhauled since two damning reports last year from HMIE and the Social Work Inspection Agency, which made 23 recommendations for change.

Former chief social worker Sandra Power has left and council restructuring has led to the creation of a social work director post, as well as a dedicated committee of councillors.