'Inappropriate relationships with clients' dominate social worker complaints

Over a third of complaints about social workers to their professional standards body have been about inappropriate relationships with their clients, a regulatory body said today.

The General Social Care Council (GSCC), which started registering social workers in 2003, said that of the 49 cases heard by its conduct committee eight of them involved relationships between the social worker and people using the service or their families.

It receives, on average, 40 complaints about registered social workers or students every month.

The council has barred 23 people from social work in the last five years. Five of those disciplined have been suspended and 19 have received an admonishment, a black mark on their record.

In only two cases did the committee find there was no misconduct.

The council also found that 582 applicants did not have the proper qualifications and 214 were also refused registration because of criminal convictions, health conditions and disciplinary matters.

Sir Rodney Brooke, chairman of the GSCC, said: "Misconduct is very rare, and the majority of the 97,000 social workers and students carry out their work with true professionalism.

"Perhaps more than any other profession, social workers should be acutely aware of the boundaries that should be in place in terms of their relationships with people who use services, their families and carers.

"Social workers must recognise and use responsibly the power that comes from their work, and ensure that nothing impairs their objectivity and ability to make sound judgments.

"Inappropriate relationships can potentially put people who use services at risk and we intend to work on a project to develop additional guidance."