A domiciliary care worker from Cardiff has been removed from the Register of Social Care Workers after a Social Care Wales hearing found her fitness to practise is currently impaired because of serious misconduct.
The hearing was told that in June 2020 Samantha Gould failed to self-isolate in-line with government advice and visited people receiving care and support in their homes when she should have been self-isolating.
Ms Gould also failed to arrange appropriate staffing for visits to people using care and support, putting the staff and those using care and support at risk of harm. In addition, she falsely claimed that she had completed care calls for people receiving care and support when this was not the case.
After being sacked by her employer following a disciplinary hearing, Ms Gould was then hired by another care agency.
The hearing was told that Ms Gould failed to tell her new employer she’d been dismissed from her previous role and referred to Social Care Wales. She also falsely told Social Care Wales she had told her new employer about its investigation.
After considering the evidence, the panel concluded that Ms Gould acted in a way that was dishonest and lacked integrity, and her fitness to practise was currently impaired because of serious misconduct.
The panel explained its decision, saying: “Some of the proven misconduct is unquestionably deplorable, given that it involves multiple acts of dishonesty directed at two separate social care employers, and directed at Ms Gould’s own regulator.
“It may also be said that visiting the homes of vulnerable users of care and support, at the height of a global pandemic that was claiming many lives daily, whilst a Covid-19 test was pending, was similarly deplorable.”
The panel continued: “There is no evidence of any actual insight before us, nor is there any evidence of Ms Gould taking any steps to remedy the actions, which led to the breaches of the Code of Professional Practice for Social Care that we have identified.
“Consequently, we have no evidence before us as to whether she has taken any steps to ensure that this conduct would not be repeated in future.”
The panel decided to remove Ms Gould from the Register, saying: “We do not consider that any lesser disposal would protect the public, given the lack of both insight and remediation to which we have already referred, and the finding of dishonesty we have made.”
Ms Gould was not present at the five-day hearing, which took place over Zoom last week.