A Fife nursery worker has been struck off after she assaulted a child by dragging them across the ground by the arm and shouted “shut up” at another.
Margaret Spencer, who was employed as an early years officer at Saline Nursey School, in Dunfermline, was removed from the Scottish Social Services Council register after she was found to have committed five instances of misconduct.
While employed, on June 8 2012, she was found to have spoken to a child “in an inappropriate manner, in the presence of other nursery children, shouting “shut up”, or words to that effect.
On September 13 the same year, she was also found to have assaulted a child by seizing their body and pushing them down into a chair.
In further allegations, she was also found to have spoken to a child in an “inappropriate manner by shouting, “Don’t you dare hit me”, or words to that effect as well as telling another child she “was a very rude little girl” in the presence of other nursery children.
Evidence was found that on May 29 2013 Spencer assaulted a child by dragging them “across the ground by the arm.”
In a report by the SSSC, it states: “Service users have the right to expect that they will be treated with dignity and respect and protected from harm by social service workers in whom they and the public place have placed their trust and confidence.
“By seizing a service user by the body, pushing them into a chair and by dragging them across the floor by their arm, the registrant’s behaviour was physically threatening and abusive and was likely to cause fear, alarm and distress to the service user.
“She has placed the service user at risk of physical and emotional harm in a place where the service user should feel at home, knowing they are safe, cared for, valued and treated with respect and dignity.”
Spencer has now been removed from the Scottish Social Services Council register, following the council’s decision to make a removal order.