I'm sorry, you've made the wrong decision.
Here are some points that you need to consider. You should have included all of these in your reflective activity.
- When you received the friend request from Jenny, you decided to do nothing. However, this meant that there was not an opportunity to identify the risks to Jenny’s well-being. If you had taken action, you may have been able to help prevent harm to Jenny.
- You have acknowledged that Jenny is now at greater risk of harm because you did want to get drawn into her problems earlier. Therefore, by not acting at that point to get support and care for Jenny, you have shown that you do not understand your duty of care to her as a social service worker, or you have chosen to ignore this. Either way, your suitability to be a social service worker could certainly be questioned.
- By now telling your manager about friend request and the post, you are helping Jenny to get the support and care that she needs. However, you are likely to be asked to explain why you did not tell the care manager about your contact with Jenny before now, particularly as this may have prevented the harm to her. It could be regarded that you are now trying to cover your back because the situation is becoming more serious.
- Your judgement and suitability to be a social service worker could be called into question as you have shown that you do not have a clear understanding about your duty of care. Although Jenny is no longer in your direct care and support, you and your organisation may still have statutory responsibilities towards her. Your organisation will have policies and procedures in place about reporting concerns. Your action means that you are not following these which could lead to disciplinary action taken against you by your employer. Also, it could also lead to an investigation by the SSSC which could result in sanctions.
- If you received the friend request in your own time, outside of work, you might think that has nothing to do with your employer or the SSSC. However, the SSSC Code of Practice for Social Service Workers states that you must not behave in a way outside of work that calls into question your suitability to be a social service worker. So, you could still find that your actions in not reporting the contact from Jenny are investigated.
When you received the initial friends request from Jenny, right thing to do was to not to respond to it and to contact her care manager right away. You can find more about why this was the right thing to do here.
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