A SOCIAL worker manager based in Abergavenny has been struck off the professional care register for misconduct offences.

Alan Kalawsky, who worked for Monmouthshire County Council at its offices in Tudor Street, was formally disciplined by the Care Council for Wales.

A conduct committee, sitting in Cardiff, accepted that Kalawsky was a hard-working disability service manager who had demonstrated commitment during his 14 years with the council.

But after hearing the evidence they concluded he had been responsible for a number of failures rather than making an "isolated misjudgement."

The committee imposed an Removal Order because of these fundamental errors of basic social work practice.

Members felt this was a serious case in which vulnerable service users "were abused and mistreated in a social care setting."

They said the public expected social workers to safeguard such users and to respond to abusive or inappropriate behaviour by colleagues.

There was no doubt, they added, that public confidence in the social care profession had been damaged by the events outlined. These related to him failing to investigate alleged misconduct of care workers under his authority.

One such matter was an incident in July 2010 when a service user complained that one care worker had threatened to burn his toy monkey.

Altogether Kalawsky, who did not attend the hearing, was found guilty of three charges relating to misconduct.

A spokesman for Monmouthshire County Council said the authority could not comment on an ex-employee who had been dismissed from his job although he did confirm that an undisclosed number of careworkers criticised in the report had also been given marching orders.

The spokesman said, "We're satisfied that we've undertaken an in-depth and thorough investigation following all our policies and procedures. We've carried out appropriate actions with service users and vulnerable adults at the centre of our decision making and have fulfilled our responsibilities with external agencies including the Care Council for Wales and the Disclosure and Barring Service."