South Wales Evening Post - 26 January 2009
A Swansea social worker has admitted misconduct in the way she handled the case of a baby boy who was later murdered.
Eleni Cordingley, the social worker involved in the Aaron Gilbert case, was struck off the social workers register at a hearing in Cardiff.
She has now also been suspended by Swansea Council.
Ms Cordingley faced a the two-day hearing before the Care Council for Wales and was told she would no longer be able to practice as a social worker in the UK.
The committee concluded she had shown "extremely poor judgement" in the case of 13-month-old Aaron, from Townhill, who died in May 2005, after being badly beaten.
Earlier, the committee heard how a Swansea Council social services team had received two anonymous calls from the same person expressing concerns about baby Aaron's family shortly before his death.
Aaron was referred to as Child A throughout the hearing.
"In failing to act appropriately in response to the complaints between April 27 and May 5, 2005, you are guilty of misconduct by putting Child A at risk," the committee told Ms Cordingley.
"By exercising extremely poor judgement you failed to work in a safe and effective way. The misconduct admitted in this case is considered to be so serious that removal from the register is the only appropriate sanction."
A spokesman for Swansea Council said: "The death of Aaron Gilbert in 2005 was a terrible tragedy and Swansea Council is very sorry that it happened.
"Following the Care Council's decision we have taken immediate steps to suspend the social worker.
"We will also need to consider what further action may be necessary in the light of the evidence and outcome of the Care Council hearing."
Andrew Lloyd, the then boyfriend of Aaron's mother, was jailed for a minimum of 24 years for the baby's murder.
His mother, Rebecca Lewis, was jailed for six years for a charge of familial homicide, failing to prevent her son's killing.
Comments (4)
Let's hope Ms. Cordingley is not vilified as we have seen with the recent Baby P case. The failure in these cases is all too often systematic, with Social Workers having to adhere to strict 'procedures' and all too often scapegoated when these procedures fail children.
Ceri Thomas, Swansea
commented on 26-Jan-2009 18:07
There's a lot more to come out in this case how senior officers knew well before his death of procedural failures. Until matters become more transparent in Swansea and a few heads roll the social services and the council itself will not have any confidence in it. A needless death easily avoided if procedures had been followed.
dai pugh, swansea
commented on 26-Jan-2009 17:44
I agree with martin persons higher than ms Cordingley should be called to account but yet again they haven’t Ms Cordingley will be off from work now on full pay for the next year at least. SSC are working out how they can off load her on to another department and yet again justice prevails .
dave, swansea
commented on 26-Jan-2009 17:34
Surely the situation didn't happen because of just one person. Is this individual just being made a scapegoat for failings higher up the chain? Investigations appear to be very different in Wales than in England where the policy makers also have to account for their actions - or lack of them.
Martin, Swansea (ex Bristol)
commented on 26-Jan-2009 17:09
