Stockton-on-Tees social worker struck off for misconduct

Social worker Michael David Andrew has been struck off for misconduct while working for Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council.

The decision by a panel of the Health and Care Professions Council’s conduct and competence committee resulted from Mr Andrew’s failure to safeguard a service user from serious harm.

Mr Andrew also formed an inappropriate relationship with another service user’s grandmother.

The panel heard that Mr Andrew did not follow child protection procedures to adequately safeguard service user A, a vulnerable teenager with learning difficulties, from the risk her mother’s partner, Person B, posed to her. Service user A was later raped by person B. The panel also heard that Mr Andrew pursued a relationship, which later became sexual, with person C, the mother and grandmother of council service users.

In July 2009, he was cautioned for assaulting person C’s ex-partner and a police constable. Panel chair Colin Allies commented: “In the panel’s view, the registrant’s actions and omissions had contributed significantly to the harm which subsequently befell the adolescent service user A.

“There was evidence that the registrant’s wide-ranging failings had been repeated over a long period of time and, in the absence of meaningful reflection, demonstration of true insight and any appropriate measures to address his failings, the panel considered that the registrant still posed a risk to service users.”

The panel decided the most appropriate action was to strike Michael David Andrew from the HCPC (Health and Care Professions Council) register with an interim suspension order in place to cover the appeal period.

Mr Andrew was present and represented himself at the hearing.