News
A council has been forced to apologise after it was revealed it had employed a senior social worker previously convicted of offering a contract killer £10,000 to murder her husband.
Lynda Barnes, 55, was hired by Bath and North East Somerset Council as an assistant team leader in 2005, ten years after being dismissed from her last job as a social worker for the offence.
Mrs Barnes’ criminal past only came to light during a hearing for a child protection case, in which the judge heard she had lied under oath and tried to persuade a colleague to do the same.
The investigation of Judge Paul Barclay into Mrs Barnes revealed her original pre-sentencing report had described her as someone whose “sense of reality is blurred with her fantasies” and needed assistance to enable her to separate reality from fantasy.
Although Bath and North East Somerset Council confessed that Lynda Barnes had admitted her previous offences during the job application process, it had been a “highly sanitised” version of events.
Since hiring Mrs Barnes in 2005 as an assistant team leader, she had been promoted to the more senior position of team leader; a job responsible for managing 20 other social workers.Mrs Barnes has now been dismissed from this position, with the council forced to conduct an urgent review of all child protection cases where she has had involvement. The council has also promised a review of its recruitment procedures to prevent similar mistakes happening in the future.
“It was a mistake to employ Lynda Barnes and one that we regret. I asked for a review of cases where Lynda Barnes had a significant involvement and am satisfied that no children have been unfairly removed from their families.” commented Chris Watt, Cabinet member for Children’s services.
