WWYD colleague situation

[NotmySundaybest]

Colleague disclosed the night before they drank a bottle of vodka, blacked out on sofa for young disabled child to wake her up in the morning on the sofa.
Pleaded not to tell manager & that she has support in place & spoken to crisis team.

Would you still inform line manager out of duty of care?

Does she have to drive as part of her work? I mean it’s appalling parenting but not sure what it’s got to do with her manager if it hasn’t affected her work today. Social services would be who to report it to if you are concerned about her drinking and her children.

No. Keep your nose out. She has said she has arranged support. If she wants to talk to her employer, she will.
You sound keen to share. Hopefully, you'll be a great confidant and support.

She drove into work.
We also work in a safeguarding field

I would be calling SS.

I think social services too.

SS are already involved.

I wonder why she told you. It sounds as though she is asking for help.

Is she a colleague or a friend?

I think I’d tell her straight that she was very bloody stupid, you wish she hadn’t told you about her reckless/illegal behaviour and if she tells you about something else again you’d feel bound to report it.

That doesn't guarantee she won't do it again now just that she won't tell the OP about it.

If you do that she might lose her job. That is going to make everything worse for her and the child.

You say you work in safeguarding field - do you work with children or vulnerable adults? IE someone who would be at risk if she came to work under the influence of alcohol? If so you have a responsibility to ensure their safety and should be discussing a LADO or PiPOT referral with your manager. If not I'd probably anonymously ensure the child's social worker is aware of what she had shared.

Another possibility is for you to speak to the safeguarding lead of the school if you know which school the child goes to. If SS already involved this adds an extra piece of information

Do you have a safeguarding lead at work can you have a confidential chat about concerns about your colleague.

If she's reached out to you ask her what you can do to support her in crisis

Stop scaremongering. Employers have a duty of care to ensure staff wellbeing. If she is otherwise a good employee and good at her job management should go down the "how can we help" route. Especially if it's a first offence and hasn't actually affected work.

Aside from that op sounds a bit too keen to share some "juicy gossip" and forgets it's someone's life.

To be fair @Username1872 it could have been ‘someone’s life’ if she causes injury, accident or death getting behind the wheel while over the limit.

if she was confiding in you about emotional stress and turmoil, I’d keep her confidence. Offloading about stupidity and reckless behaviour when your profession is safeguarding would not be welcome though.

I would report it to manager and social services. She's taken a huge amount of risks there so her child and other people need to be protected but she also clearly needs help.

On a selfish level, it wouldn't be great for others to find out you knew and didn't report given you work in safeguarding.

Even if that was a possibility, it's not a reason not to report this.

That is true. She could (and likely would have been) still over the limit the following morning. Either way it is likely to be (especially if a public sector employee) the supportive pathway will be the first route.

Manager is safeguarding lead.
Colleague also at management level.

Report her. Both as a duty of care to your service users but also out of concern for your colleague's wellbeing.

So I reported her.
Got thanked by manager. Fully supported that it was the right thing to do.
From this though obviously manager has raised it with her. She has insinuated that I have lied & has basically contacted other colleagues speaking negatively about me.

You absolutely did the right thing, and I would also tell you manager as a follow up that she's been bad mouthing you to other colleagues.

I've generally found it to be the case that when someone is obviously in a bit of a situation (evidenced by SS involvement aside from anything else) actually things like her telling you she drank a bottle of vodka just add colour to an already well painted picture of "all is not well". You're not going to be the one that causes everything to fall apart because it already has.

If other people are at risk because of her behaviour (eg her disabled child, the general public from drunk driving) you have to consider them first rather than protecting the self destructive person.

I assume you work with the disabled child?

Yes it was the right thing to do to tell you manager. Does your employer do random alcohol tests? Maybe they need to start.

No I don't work with disabled child but colleague has been open about her mental health struggles.
She has recently said she's had respite for her daughter increased.