A SCOTS childcare worker has been given a warning on her registration after buying a “willy warmer” and “bush brush” for young service users.
Clare Dunlop was also found to have massaged a 17-year-old’s calves using a massage bar whilst working for an undisclosed organisation in Bathgate, West Lothian in March 2020.
On the same day she also gave a 16-year-old service user a back massage.
Just months before, Dunlop bought a “willy warmer” for a 16-year-old care user ahead of Christmas.
And another 16-year-old was gifted a “bush brush” from Dunlop as a Christmas present.
Following an investigation into the inappropriate gifts and massages by the Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC), Dunlop was handed a warning on her registration for a year.
The care regulator panel also found the childcare worker’s fitness to practise to be impaired.
They said: “Social service workers are expected to maintain appropriate professional boundaries with service users they support.
“You gave young people in your care massages and bought them inappropriate presents.
“Your actions were misjudged and amounted to a breach of the trust placed in you by the service user, their families and your employer.
“Such behaviour has the potential to be misinterpreted by the service users and could lead them to believe that all social service workers would treat them in this way.
“This could create a misguided and unrealistic expectation on their part, which may affect how they interact with other workers in the future.
“As such, your behaviour placed the service users at risk of emotional harm.”
The SSSC also told Dunlop that she must undertake training in professional boundaries, and child protection.
And she is required to put together a “reflective essay” detailing how she breached professional boundaries.
Dunlop accepted responsibility for the inappropriate nature of the gifts she bought for service users.
However, the SSSC panel said she did not demonstrate any insight or regret, nor apologised for giving the youngsters massages.
