A residential child care worker from Flintshire has been removed from the Register of Social Care Workers after a Social Care Wales hearing found his fitness to practise is currently impaired because of serious misconduct.
The hearing was told that in September 2018, Ryan Howells used disproportionate force to inappropriately grip the throat of a vulnerable young person in his care, which resulted in Mr Howells being suspended by his employer.
The hearing was also told that Mr Howells spoke in an inappropriate way to his colleague, and failed to follow his employer’s mobile phone policy by using his personal mobile phone at work and showing an image on it to the young person.
After considering the evidence, the panel concluded that Mr Howells’s fitness to practise was currently impaired because of serious misconduct.
The panel explained its decision, saying: “We consider that Mr Howells’s overall conduct, namely the use of his personal mobile phone, swearing at a colleague in the presence of service users and causing harm to [the young person] by carrying out an inappropriate restraint can be properly characterised as deplorable.”
The panel continued: “Mr Howells does not recognise that there has been any wrongdoing on his part and has displayed a complete lack of insight regarding his conduct.
“He has not sought to remedy his behaviour following the instigation of Social Care Wales proceedings and we have not been provided with any evidence of reflection or lessons learned…
“Further, Mr Howells has not shown any remorse for his actions or displayed any empathy for the potential impact upon [the young people involved]. In the absence of any remedial steps, insight, remorse or engagement by Mr Howells, we consider there is a significant risk of repetition in relation to his conduct.”
The panel decided to remove Mr Howells from the Register, saying: “Mr Howells has shown a disregard for, and serious departure from, the relevant professional standards set out in the Code of Professional Practice for Social Care.”
The panel continued: “We do not consider there is any other way to protect the public due to his complete lack of insight and any evidence there is likely to be satisfactory remediation of his impairment.”
Mr Howells was not present at the three-day remote hearing, which was held over Zoom last week.