Friday 27 September 2013

Discipline and the culture of blame

I can't help feeling that it is inappropriate to bring cases like the one recently described on the Health and Care Professions Council website

The social worker concerned had probably not practiced safely, and it seems likely that her work was under par, but surely this is a matter for retraining and closer supervision, not being struck-off.

This social worker is said to have failed to take a child protection referral properly and said to have failed to conduct an assessment properly. We are not told why. Taking her to a disciplinary panel only serves to stoke up the culture of blame. 

Stoking up the culture of blame results in making children less safe, not more safe. That is because people who have made errors of judgement, or failed to live up to best practice standards, will seek to hide their failings and not openly report them. And that results in not learning from errors.