Powys care worker 'pinned child to wall by neck'

Amberleigh Care say children at its care home have suffered "significant abuse and trauma in their early lives"

A care worker at a children's home pinned one child to the floor and held another child to the wall by their neck, a standards panel has heard.

Jamie Neil Saunders, from Powys, has been struck off the register of social care workers after a hearing into his conduct at the Amberleigh Care Home in Welshpool in September 2018.

The Social Care Wales hearing found his behaviour amounted to gross misconduct.

The panel said Mr Saunders had not shown "any insight or remorse".

CCTV footage viewed at the hearing showed Mr Saunders pulling one of the children off a window sill, pinning them to the floor and then pulling them back to the floor when they tried to escape.

In another incident captured on CCTV, Mr Saunders could be seen pushing another child and holding them up against a wall by the neck.

'Deplorable behaviour'

"He sought to justify his actions as reasonable restraint and this, in our view, puts his integrity in some question," the panel said in its decision.

"This was without question deplorable behaviour and fell well short of what is properly expected of a residential childcare worker.

"Behaving violently, as Mr Saunders did, amounts to a breach of a fundamental tenet of social care practice."

Amberleigh Care is a residential care home for boys exhibiting harmful sexual behaviours as a result of experiencing "significant abuse and trauma in their early lives", according to its website.

The panel said his immediate removal from the register was "necessary to protect the public and the wider public interest".

Mr Saunders was not present at the one-day hearing, which was held remotely over Zoom.

Amberleigh Care has been asked to comment.