CAL v The Disclosure and Barring Service

Facts

The appellant, CAL, worked as a health care support worker at Mid Essex Hospital NHS Trust from 23 April 2018 until her resignation in September 2022. She was suspended by letter dated 12 July 2023, and on 15 February 2024 the Trust's disciplinary outcome letter confirmed that four allegations had been found proved on the balance of probabilities and that she would have been dismissed had she remained employed; two of those allegations concerned the taking of £20 and £140 from patients, while the other two concerned completing patient property lists alone and failing to follow the correct process for logging and storing a patient's valuables. A referral was generated on 22 August 2024 by the Deputy Director of Nursing. The Disclosure and Barring Service sent a Minded to Bar letter on 6 February 2025, and by Final Decision letter of 14 April 2025 included her in the adults' barred list, relying on four allegations that she had taken money from patients: £20 on 22 June 2022, £25 between 17 and 20 March 2022 together with alteration of the Patient Property List, £140 on 3 July 2022 and £380 between 25 January and 2 February 2022. Permission to appeal to the Upper Tribunal on mistake of fact grounds was granted on 19 December 2025.