An Angus council children’s worker has been issued a three-year warning after he put a service user in a headlock and dragged him to the ground.
A watchdog found Edwin Dickinson assaulted a male service user – named in the report as AA – while employed by the local authority.
The Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC) has now placed a three-year warning on his registration following the incident in January 2021.
The location of the incident has been redacted in the report.
Angus care worker placed assaulted service user
The SSC found evidence that Dickinson “did assault AA, who was a resident, and did grab him round the neck with your arm and drag him to the ground”.
It was said that AA “often displayed challenging behaviour” but as an experienced carer Dickinson “should have been able to deal with the incident without resorting to physical contact”.
His manager had also told him that he should not prevent AA from leaving the house.
The report also described the incident as a “headlock”.
The SSSC said that despite showing “instant regret” concerning the distress caused AA, Dickinson failed to take responsibility for assaulting him.
Previous 4-year warning for swearing at young person
The SSSC also noted that concerns had been raised about Dickinson’s behaviour in the past.
The report added: “In 2014 a four-year warning was imposed on your registration after you swore and shouted at a young person in your care and called them a ‘f****** little b******’.
“Both incidents give rise to concerns about your underlying values.”
As well as the warning for the most recent incident, the SSSC ordered Dickenson to undertake child protection training.
An Angus Council spokesperson said: “We can’t comment on individual employees.
“We deal with staffing matters appropriately through our agreed internal processes.”
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