Dundee social worker left private documents in taxi

A Dundee City Council social worker has been given a formal warning after leaving confidential documents in a taxi.

Rosalind Blair admitted misconduct by failing to take proper care and attention of the documents, which included personal details, medical information and criminal offences and convictions.

The Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC) said: “Leaving this information in a taxi was a failure to respect confidential information and accordingly may undermine trust and confidence of service users in the worker.

“The behaviour also constituted a failure to respect the dignity and privacy of service users.”

The incident happened just over a year ago when Ms Blair was taking work home with her, with the agreement of her line manager.

The SSSC said: “She did this on a regular basis and there does not appear to have been any established procedure for securely transporting documentation outwith the workplace.”

However, no actual harm occurred to the client and Ms Blair had “expressed deep regret”.

“The council decided that the appropriate sanction was the imposition of a warning on her registration for a period of 18 months,” its report said.