A Fife carer who left a service user alone for nine hours after leaving their shift early has been warned.
Keiron Hay departed prematurely while employed as a support practitioner by Richmond Fellowship Scotland Limited in January 2023.
Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC) said Hay caused the service user – named in the report as AA – distress as a result.
Hay has been handed a 12-month warning after an investigation by the care watchdog.
Fife carer caused service user distress by leaving shift early
The SSSC found that while delivering one-to-one care during a 24-hour shift, Hay “withdrew support” after AA’s behaviour escalated.
Instead of contacting the on-call service – as is procedure outside office hours – he attempted to call a senior support worker and a manager.
Neither were working and, as a result, the care user was left on his own for around nine hours.
He was noted to be “anxious” when support arrived for him.
Additionally, as well as leaving AA unattended, Hay was found to have left his medication unlocked.
While it was noted that while AA was unlikely to take more than the required amount of medication this was still a breach of procedure.
‘Public protection concerns’ over Fife carer’s behaviour
The report added: “Your behaviour fell below the standards expected of a social service
worker.
“Any repetition of the same or similar behaviour would raise public protection and public interest concerns and therefore there is a requirement to reaffirm the standards of professional conduct by imposing a warning on your registration.”
However, Hay was said to have previous good history and cooperated with the SSSC investigation.
The Richmond Fellowship Scotland Limited has been contacted for comment.
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