No case to answer

I've had a spate of no case to answer to answer decisions recently, all without any final hearing being held.  Just before Christmas, a nurse alleged to have various competency issues was found by the Case Examiners to have remedied those issues sufficiently by the time of their decision, so that there was no longer a realistic prospect of impaired fitness to practice being found.  This was a very interesting case, because the NMC got an interim conditions of practice order against the nurse, and this made it very difficult for her to find work as a nurse and thus remedy her failings.  With great perseverance on all sides and a helpful agency, she did find work and that was the key.  This nurse actually wrote a testimonial earlier about how she had been finding it difficult to find work and how she became demotivated, but with suitable encouragement from me she was successful, and thus gave us the opportunity to get out of this case without a hearing - a great result.

Then two results in one day - firstly a social worker who had worked for an employer on an agency basis for about three weeks and found themselves being referred to the HCPC (how unlucky is that!) for failing to do their job properly.  This case required a 2 hour video conference with the client, after which I prepared a forensic breakdown of the allegations and why there was insufficient evidence to prove a single one of them.  The Investigating Committee panel agreed with my submissions and threw the case out.

Secondly, another social worker who was referred to the HCPC by disgruntled parents whose child was subject to a s47 enquiry.  Their allegations had been dealt with internally by the social worker's employer, but the result was appealed again and again by the parents, and unfortunately in the face of the pressure from the parents, the employer became less than fully supportive of the social worker.  The referral involved almost 300 pages of allegations, but with a slightly different tactic this time, a response was prepared and submitted and again the Investigating Panel accepted our submission and stopped the case.

One of the favourite parts of my job is the phone call to convey the good news - I don't know why but there always seems to be some moisture in my eyes at the end of these phone calls... must be the dust from my papers!