No-show social worker Debbie Hobson struck off

Debbie Hobson's misconduct was aggravated by falsifying records, a fitness to practice hearing found

A social worker who claimed she paid regular visits to a child she had not seen for 30 months has been struck off.

Debbie Hobson's misconduct was aggravated by falsifying records, a fitness to practice hearing found.

Ms Hobson, a team manager at Denbighshire council, denied her conduct was dishonest and said mistakes were honestly made.

The child was in line for adoption but it could not go ahead because Ms Hobson had not done the necessary work.

Ms Hobson, who worked in Denbighshire's intake and intervention team, was supposed to visit the boy - known only as Child A - every six weeks between May 2017 and March 2018.

But she created retrospective calendar entries to falsely make it appear seven visits had gone ahead.

Serious misconduct

Ms Hobson, who qualified as a social worker in 2007, claimed she had been made a scapegoat and been unable to cope with her workload.

The Social Care Wales hearing said Ms Hobson should have admitted that was the case at the time.

Instead a panel found her actions amounted to serious misconduct - saying they were not isolated incidents but a course of conduct over a significant period of time, which included leading her superiors to believe visits had been made.

Creating false records showed a lack of integrity and "breached the ethical code of her profession", the committee ruled.

"We find that you have badly let down Child A," chairman Islwyn Jones said.

"You behaved in a way that calls into question your suitability to work in the social care profession.

"In our view you do pose a current risk to individuals using services."