Carer who displayed sexual and racist behaviour and imitated patient in wheelchair banned by SSSC

A carer who displayed sexual and racist behaviour and imitated a patient who was in a wheelchair has received a removal order.

Paul Raymond Anderson was employed as a support worker at Sense Scotland Supported Living: Fife & Surrounding Areas in Glenrothes when the incidents occurred.

He was accused of making racially and sexually motivated comments to a colleague, dubbed ZZ to protect their anonymity, on or around September 2, 2021.

Anderson was also accused of imitating a vulnerable patient in a wheelchair, dubbed AA to protect their identity, on the same day.

While being bathed, AA splashed his colleague with some water – leading Anderson to remark that “I bet that is not the only way you get soaking” to ZZ.

This was believed by the Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC) to be sexually motivated.

Following this, while shampooing AA’s hair, he commented how if his colleague YY (who is of Asian heritage) was carrying out the task, it would be called “an Indian head massage”.

In this instance, Anderson was believed to have acted in a way that was racially motivated by the SSSC.

Finally, the carer also imitated AA by sitting in the wheelchair, pretending to bang into objects, imitating AA’s vocal sounds and pretending to drool.

The SSSC stated that all three of these incidents occurred in AA’s presence.

His fitness to practise was found to be impaired by the council, who stated that his misconduct “raises serious values concerns and calls into question your suitability to work in the profession.

The decision papers stated: “In the course of one day at work and in the presence of AA, you acted in both a sexually motivated manner and a racially motivated manner towards colleagues.

“The behaviour falls far below the standards expected of registered social care workers. It is behaviour that is fundamentally incompatible with professional registration.”

The council found that Anderson had not shown any insight, regret or remorse for his actions on the day on the incidents, and had not engaged with the investigation.

Given the serious nature of his actions, it believed that there was significant risk of similar behaviour being repeated by the carer, with a risk of harm to service users as well as colleagues.

It stated: “A reasonably informed member of the public would lose confidence and trust in the profession if you are not found to be currently impaired.

“A reasonably informed member of the public would be concerned about the seriousness of your behaviour, the lack of respect and dignity shown towards the service user by imitating them and the lack of insight shown.”

Anderson’s position against the allegations was that his actions were “jokes and shouldn’t have been taken seriously”.

The SSSC concluded that a removal or registration order was the most fitting consequence of his actions, active from September 9.

A spokesperson for Sense Scotland said: “I can confirm that Sense Scotland suspended this employee in September 2021.

“We reported the allegations to the SSSC and the Care Inspectorate and we began an internal investigation. This employee did not work for Sense Scotland again and their employment with us ended in September 2021.

“We investigate all allegations and have robust policies, procedures and training in place to protect and safeguard the people we support.”