A FORMER director of a company which ran children’s homes in the Wrexham area has been struck off the register of social workers.

Christopher Edwards, who was sacked by the Keys Group in June 2016, agreed with the facts presented to Social Care Wales (SCW) – formerly the Care and Social Services Inspectorate for Wales (CSSIW) – and will not be able to apply for re-registration for five years.

Mr Edwards was one of the owners and a director of Prospects for Young People, which was taken over by Keys in 2015, following which he was operational director.

In 2014 Mr Edwards was interviewed by the police about allegations of physical assaults on young people in his care from 1989, which he denied.

In 2016 the Crown Prosecution Service decided no action would be taken.

In May 2015 Mr Edwards became aware that a co-director (identified as 'Colleague A') was found to have accessed adult pornography on a work computer and using a company credit card.

Mr Edwards produced his own investigation report before commissioning a report from an external investingator.

After the company was taken over Keys became concerned about his lack of transparency over the investigation and the fact that Mr Edwards himself had been the subject of allegations which had led to a restriction on unsupervised care of children.

He was sacked in June 2016 after it was found he had not disclosed matters to the Care Inspectorate and had asked the Inspectorate to identify an external investigator to look into the allegations against Colleague A when such a report already existed.

The copy of his own investigation report which he provided to CSSIW was also in amended form. One of the paragraphs deleted stated he had not identified any evidence of safeguarding concerns in respect of Colleague A and therefore no regulatory bodies needed to be notified.

The case against Mr Edwards for SCW’s Fitness to Practise panel stated: “By not informing CSSIW of the true position Mr Edwards failed to communicate in an open, accurate and straightforward way.”

His actions, it was claimed “were dishonest and/or lacked integrity” and he should have referred his colleague’s misconduct to the Inspectorate.

Colleague A subsequently voluntarily removed himself from the register and so cannot be investigated.

Because Mr Edwards agreed to be struck off, a meeting of the SCW’s Fitness to Practise panel due to have been held last month was cancelled.

In accepting the case against him, Mr Edwards stated: “I accept that...my fitness to practise is impaired as a result of misconduct.”

The Welsh Government and Disclosure and Barring Service have been informed of Mr Edwards’ current status.