Hi,

My wife works for a company who looks after adults with learning difficulties who live in their own shared homes. last month she was suspended for an incident that ocurred while she was on her own with one of the clients, and told that she was under a pova investigation. for obvious reaons i can not say what hapened in a public place, but can IM the facts if anyone needs them to answer my query.Anyway, she had an interview with the police, who stated that in their eyes, she had done nothing wrong and had in fact followed the guidelines laid out in this persons notes.

She has been abused by the clients by them grabbing her hair and pulling out chunks, and nothing was done as the company said that that the clients must know that they are stronger than staff, so they can basically do what they want to you and you can not stop them or will be charged with abuse. The police however told her that she has the right to feel safe in her workplace, which she doesn't as she is now in fear of being attacked and the company ignoring it. During the incident under investigation, she was pulled to the floor by the client,and again, that is of no concern to the company.

the company has since, stated that there will always be 2 staff on duty at any time, which at the time of the incident, the other staff were out with the other 2 clients,so she was qalone in the house with the other.

She has to go to a meeting nest week at the office and is only allowed to take a work colleague(there is nobody she can trust not to be biased) or a union rep (she is not in a union), so i am worried that they might use her as an example and sack her. here comes another problem. She is an american citizen with permanent residency, and we are saving up for her to become a british citizen. The american way of talking is obviously different to ours, and she often uses wording that can be misunderstood as it was in her report on this matter, and if she is sacked she may be banned from ever working in the industry again. Could anyone please give me some advice on this matter if possible.I forgot to add that this happened because she wrote up a report of the incident, but noi member of staff or the client made the accusation and being an american, i believe it was the way she worded it that caused a little confusion, and that is why the police said she did nothing wrong when she explained her wordingto them. I shall be happy to give the ful account in a private message if anyone needs it to give me any advice

many thanks.

seapring

Hi,

My wife works for a company who looks after adults with learning difficulties who live in their own shared homes. last month she was suspended for an incident that ocurred while she was on her own with one of the clients, and told that she was under a pova investigation. for obvious reaons i can not say what hapened in a public place, but can IM the facts if anyone needs them to answer my query.Anyway, she had an interview with the police, who stated that in their eyes, she had done nothing wrong and had in fact followed the guidelines laid out in this persons notes.

She has been abused by the clients by them grabbing her hair and pulling out chunks, and nothing was done as the company said that that the clients must know that they are stronger than staff, so they can basically do what they want to you and you can not stop them or will be charged with abuse. The police however told her that she has the right to feel safe in her workplace, which she doesn't as she is now in fear of being attacked and the company ignoring it. During the incident under investigation, she was pulled to the floor by the client,and again, that is of no concern to the company.

the company has since, stated that there will always be 2 staff on duty at any time, which at the time of the incident, the other staff were out with the other 2 clients,so she was qalone in the house with the other.

She has to go to a meeting nest week at the office and is only allowed to take a work colleague(there is nobody she can trust not to be biased) or a union rep (she is not in a union), so i am worried that they might use her as an example and sack her. here comes another problem. She is an american citizen with permanent residency, and we are saving up for her to become a british citizen. The american way of talking is obviously different to ours, and she often uses wording that can be misunderstood as it was in her report on this matter, and if she is sacked she may be banned from ever working in the industry again. Could anyone please give me some advice on this matter if possible.

 

many thanks.

 

seapring

Sorry to hear about your problems and i hope you get things resolved.

Ive experinced similar POVA incidents a number of years ago, they are the to protect the client, but in turn the carer suffers and i feel makes the carer more vunrable to allegations.

What part of the country do you live in ? after reading your thread it sounds like a company ive heard about !

Thanks for the quick reply big boss man.I live in the north east and as i can not mention the company name on here in public for obvious reasons,it is a word used when describing sizes of things

Thanks for the quick reply big boss man.I live in the north east and as i can not mention the company name on here in public for obvious reasons,it is a word used when describing sizes of things

Im sorry i can not provide you with more in depth advice, im sure other people will help you in due course.

There is specific guidlines that care providers have to follow, these are very indepth and are there to protect the carer as well as the client ! by the sounds of your description, i feel the company has not followed guidlines and failed to protect the carer.

Is there any chance you narrow North East down ? I am extremely interested in the name of this company, i understand you can not name them at this time, if and when the time permits please let me know.

I am in darlington

Moved to Employment Forum.

I am in darlington

Thanks for that, it is not the company i thought it was, but still very concerning that incidents like this continue to occur.

Please keep us informed of any developments, take care.

KIrrespective of POVA, your wife is entitled to a duty of care from her employers, and be provided with a safe place of work.

Can I suggest she raises a grievance.

Also I cannot understand this thing about saving up to become British citizen - I didnt think it cost.

Anyway we wont hold her american status against her (except for giving Hannah Montanna to the world!)

thanks for the reply monkeychicken.We will definately consider raising a grievance. Yes, once you pas the citizenship exam, you have to pay the government £720 for the privelidge of obtaining a piece of paper and then £60 odd on top to attend the ceremony which is compulsory.Thats after paying about £3500 for various visas giving permission to reside here over the 5 years before you can take the exam

I think it's a sad fact that Americans working here in the UK are quite often subjected to unlawful discrimination on the grounds of their national origin.

Perhaps it's overlooked as we (kinda) speak the same language and many of them are racially European. They tend to be, in my experience (I lived there for a year), particularly polite, decent people themselves.

My ex-wife worked here for the best part of a year and was frequently very upset by 'comments' made by her co-workers, which they clearly thought were innocuous. They wouldn't have dared make an equivalant 'joke' towards someone who was, say, African-Caribbean or Asian.

Clearly, sometimes there is a language barrier. Your wife needs to be forthright about this, and make sure that her employers take her use of language as an American into account. Although it may not be apparent to them, they're guilty of unlawful discrimination if they don't make reasonable adjustments for her use of language.

B*gger me, I'm dying for a fag.

A quick update and advise if anyone knows of any suitable.My wife has at last received a date for her disciplinary hearing. She was told at her first meeting last year that she would get a copy of the notes taken at that meeting for her to check and sign as being true(notes requested to be verbatim and were not), and that she would hear from them within a week. She obviously did not hear within the week, and the copy of the notes taken were not sent to her, and have been written in their report in a way that favors the company(missing some of the meeting out). Also the company states that there is absolutely no difference between the American and English language, which there obviously is.Everything she has said during this investigation has been twisted around to make her look bad.It also mentions the fact that she asked to be allowed to show exactly what she did, and was not allowed to do so, which would have given insight to what she was really trying to say, but again was taken in the wrong context.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

many thanks,

Under current legislation care homes are required to make a POVA referral if they reasonably believe that a care worker is guilty of misconduct which has harmed, or has placed at risk of harm, a vulnerable person in their care...

Minutes of a meeting are rarely 'verbatim', unless as transcript of recordings... Nevertheless, I would suggest that your wife raises a grievance as per the content of those minutes, once in her possession, in relation to the substance. She may decline to sign them as true...

many thanks for the quick reply BigRedBus.I will get her to do that .

n written in their report in a way that favors the company(missing some of the meeting out). Also the company states that there is absolutely no difference between the American and English language,

Mmmm, obviously they haven't read this yet. TravelFurther - British-American Dictionary

Just click the letters of the alphabet on the left.