Ask the Expert: Inappropriate friendships

I am a youth worker and am concerned about one of my colleagues, who I know has been meeting young people outside of our club hours without our manager’s knowledge. Should I worry?

Some services operate in such a way that staff may have to meet young people outside of the normal service hours due to a range of reasons, including school, accessibility or just simply that weekends are the easiest time to meet in a safe and neutral space.

However, alarm bells are ringing here for me. Is it common practice for your service to meet with young people at the weekends? What are your policies on this, including lone working, professional boundaries and, ultimately, whistleblowing?

If your manager is unaware this is happening, you have a duty of care to raise it as an issue of concern, as it may be completely innocent, or it may be that inappropriate friendships are being built outside of professional boundaries.
 
Professionals cannot be friends with the young people they work with. It compromises the relationship between the young person and the service. I would be questioning why this worker is doing this without the manager’s knowledge – that in itself is enough reason to raise the alarm.

Answered by Jeanie Lynch. Lynch works for Barnardo’s and has 25 years’ experience of working with vulnerable children and families