A GREENOCK care worker has been reprimanded by watchdogs after failing to turn up for his first shift with Inverclyde Council and sending someone else to carry out his duties instead.

A Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC) hearing found that Julius Adeniyi, a support worker in a care home service for adults, put service users at 'risk of harm' by his misconduct earlier this year.

A report from the panel said he had 'abused the trust' placed in him by his employer and the service user, who 'had an expectation that you would carry out care, rather than send someone else in your place to carry out your role'.

However, the panel judged that Adeniyi had fully co-operated with the investigation and had 'demonstrated insight, regret and remorse', while stating that there was 'no pattern of concerning behaviour'.

The local authority support worker failed to attend at the home of a service user on April 8 - his first shift - and did not contact his employer to inform them that he was sick.

He then sent a female worker, who is a registered carer but is not employed by Inverclyde Council, to step in and initially lied to his team leader about the cover-up.

The SSSC report states: "Whilst we now know that [the woman] is a registered carer, she may not have been trained to the standards expected by your employer and may not have been aware of the needs of the service user.

"In addition, the behaviour could cause emotional harm and feelings of distrust to service users and their families if they were to find out that a service they trusted and relied on, employed a worker who would send someone else in their place to carry out their role.

"Whilst you did go on to admit to your employer that [the woman] attended a visit to a service user, instead of you, that explanation was provided almost three weeks after you had initially not been honest.

"Your suitability to work in social services could be questioned by reason of your dishonesty."

The report says that Adeniyi has 'provided an assurance' that he would 'not behave in this way again' and the misconduct 'appears to be an isolated incident'.

It adds: "Whilst the misconduct is serious, it is not suggested that you meant to cause any harm, or that any actual harm occurred.

"You have explained that you did not want to let the service user or your employer down, especially as it was your first shift.

"It appears you made a bad judgement call in the circumstances and did not act with any malicious intent.

"If a member of the public was aware that his had happened, they would still be very concerned to learn of the behaviour, despite the explanation provided by you."

A nine-month warning has been placed on the worker's registration.

The report adds: "A reasonably informed member of the public would lose confidence and trust in the profession, and in the SSSC as an effective regulator if behaviour of this nature was not marked as unacceptable.

"There is a requirement to reaffirm clear standards of professional conduct."