A social carer who had a “sexually motivated” relationship with a teenage boy she was meant to be caring for has been banned from working in the industry in Wales.
Jade Fitzpatrick started a relationship with a 17-year-old boy when she worked at a care home in north Wales run by the Keys Childcare group. The boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was living at the care home at the time.
Miss Fitzpatrick, now 26, told the youth that she loved him, arranged to take him on a trip to Thorpe Park which included an overnight stay, spent time with him on days off work and in his bedroom at the care room at night.
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A Social Care Wales hearing was held earlier this month and the panel heard that, between January 2020 and September 2020, Miss Fitzpatrick “failed to maintain a professional boundary” and formed an “inappropriate relationship” with the male in question.
During the hearing it was found that Miss Fitzpatrick was “dishonest and lacking integrity” and that “it was more likely than not that her behaviour was sexually motivated”. Seven charges against her in total were proven, and the panel retired to consider whether Miss Fitzpatrick’s fitness to practice in future was impaired by her actions.
On Monday, March 21, the findings were made public and a decision on the issue of impairment was read out by the chair of the panel, Lorna Savidge, who said Miss Fitzpatrick “poses a risk to vulnerable users of care and support.”
(Image: WALES NEWS SERVICE)
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Concluding the hearing, she said: “We have considered the information before us and have concluded that Miss Fitzpatrick is impaired by reasons of serious misconduct and that her fitness to practise is currently impaired. We are satisfied that the conduct we have found proved is short of what would be appropriate in social care practise.
“We are clear that this serious misconduct undermines public confidence in the social care profession. We have decided that it is necessary and proportionate to impose a disposal order, and that only a removal order is adequate.”
The removal order means that Miss Fitzpatrick, who did not participate in the hearing, can no longer work in any regulated social care role in Wales.
Previously, her former partner, Matthew Griffifths, himself a social care worker, received a warning which will stay on his record for three years after he “failed to take appropriate action” because he did not notify the relevant people of his suspicions and later knowledge regarding Miss Fitzpatrick’s relationship with someone in her care. He was told that any repetition of such an offence will “likely lead to his fitness to practise being impaired”.
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