A domiciliary care manager from the Vale of Glamorgan has been removed from the Register of Social Care Workers after a Social Care Wales hearing found his fitness to practise was currently impaired because of serious safeguarding failures.
The hearing was told that Keith Marchant failed to act when colleagues raised concerns on multiple occasions about financial irregularities at the service and that a member of staff was emotionally abusing people receiving care and support.
After considering the evidence, the panel concluded that Mr Marchant’s fitness to practise was currently impaired because of serious safeguarding failures.
Explaining its decision, the panel said: “Mr Marchant did not follow any procedure to challenge and report the alleged abusive practices. Instead, he sought to minimise the concerns and indicated that staff would get into trouble for raising the allegations.
“We find that Mr Marchant has demonstrated a lack of insight into his conduct and failed to take any accountability for his actions. He has also failed to display any consideration of the potential consequences of his actions upon those involved, and we are not confident that his conduct is highly unlikely to be repeated.
The panel continued: “We find that Mr Marchant has acted in a way that poses a risk to individuals using services and is liable to do so again in the future. We consider that his failure to follow process and act upon concerns exposed service users to the potential for financial and emotional abuse.
“We have not been provided with any evidence to suggest that he has taken any steps to address his behaviour and we are not confident that he would not repeat the same behaviours if in a similar situation in the future.”
The panel decided to remove Mr Marchant from the Register, saying: “In our view [a Removal Order] is the only outcome which meets the need to protect members of the public and the need to protect public confidence.
“We find that Mr Marchant’s behaviour is fundamentally incompatible with registration as a social care worker. His behaviour has fallen far short of the professional standards expected of him and exposed vulnerable individuals using care and support services to emotional and financial abuse.”
Mr Marchant was not present at the one-day hearing, which took place over Zoom last week.