Ann Rodger

Introduction

Ann Rodger is a Scottish social care worker who was struck off the register of the Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC) after being convicted of assaulting an elderly resident of the Kilmarnock nursing home where she worked. Rodger was employed as a social care worker at Argyll House Nursing Home in Kilmarnock, East Ayrshire, when she struck a female resident on the body with a slipper on 2 October 2024. She was convicted of assault at Kilmarnock Sheriff Court on 9 October 2025, and the SSSC subsequently imposed a removal order on her registration, which took effect on 17 March 2026. The regulator characterised her conduct as physical abuse of a vulnerable resident and found her fitness to practise impaired as a result of the conviction. The case was reported by STV News and the local title Kilmarnock Today as an example of a care worker removed from the profession after a criminal conviction for an assault committed inside a care home.

Background Information

Public information about Rodger’s life and career is limited to the circumstances of the case. She worked as a social care worker at Argyll House Nursing Home in Kilmarnock, a town in East Ayrshire in western Scotland. Social care workers in registered positions in Scotland are required to hold registration with the SSSC, which regulates the country’s social service workforce and holds registrants to its Code of Practice for Social Service Workers, a set of standards covering conduct, safeguarding, and the treatment owed to people who use care services. Kilmarnock Today reported that the SSSC took the view that Rodger’s actions breached several sections of that code. According to the same report, she had a previously unblemished record, and the regulator treated the assault as an isolated incident. The resident concerned was an elderly woman living with dementia who lacked capacity at the time of the incident — a vulnerability the SSSC placed at the centre of its reasoning.

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

Adjudicated. The conduct in this section was established by a criminal conviction in court, and the removal order is a documented regulatory decision.

On 2 October 2024, while employed at Argyll House Nursing Home, Rodger assaulted an elderly female resident by striking her on the body with a slipper. The resident was living with dementia and lacked capacity at the time. Rodger was convicted of assault in connection with the incident at Kilmarnock Sheriff Court on 9 October 2025.

The SSSC’s subsequent report set out the regulator’s assessment of the conviction. “This behaviour amounts to physical abuse and risk of harm to a vulnerable resident,” the report stated. “Your conviction calls into question your suitability to work in the social care profession.” It continued: “There was no injury libelled in the conviction, however such behaviour would cause a clear risk of harm to a vulnerable person who was living in a care home with dementia and a lack of capacity.” The SSSC found Rodger’s fitness to practise to be impaired as a result of the conviction.

Public Reaction and Consequences

The case drew coverage from STV News in Glasgow and the West region and from Kilmarnock Today locally, both framing the outcome as a care worker being struck off for assaulting a resident in her care. The SSSC report was notable for the directness of its language. “She relied on you for kind and compassionate care. You behaved in a violent manner towards her,” it read. “We have serious concerns that you do not hold the right values to be a social care worker.”

In deciding the sanction, the panel acknowledged mitigating factors. “It was isolated and you have a good previous history,” it noted. “However, you have not shown any insight or remorse.” It added that it could not “be reassured that similar behaviour would not happen again in the future”, and concluded that “there is a clear need to protect the public given the seriousness of the conviction”, alongside the need to maintain public confidence in the profession. According to Kilmarnock Today, the SSSC considered and rejected lesser sanctions — a warning, conditions, and suspension — on the grounds that none would adequately protect the public, saying a warning “would not be appropriate as it would not adequately address the impairment of your fitness to practise”. Rodger engaged with the SSSC’s investigation but did not request a hearing before a fitness to practise panel; under the applicable fitness to practise rules, the regulator is permitted to impose a removal order directly where no hearing is requested.

Current Status

The SSSC’s removal order took effect on 17 March 2026, striking Rodger’s name from the register of social service workers in Scotland. Her conviction for assault, recorded at Kilmarnock Sheriff Court in October 2025, stands. Neither report indicates that she has appealed the removal order, and no further criminal or regulatory proceedings were mentioned in coverage at the time the removal took effect. Because removal from the SSSC register is published, her status as a struck-off care worker is a matter of permanent public record that follows any future attempt to work in the sector.

Impact on Their Career/Life

The removal order ended Rodger’s ability to work in registered social care roles in Scotland, which require SSSC registration; removal is the most serious sanction available to the regulator, and prospective employers in the sector are able to check a worker’s registration status. The criminal conviction carries consequences of its own, independent of the regulatory outcome. The SSSC’s reasoning captured the balance of the case: the assault was an isolated act by a worker with a good previous history, but the panel found she had shown no insight or remorse and could not be reassured that similar behaviour would not be repeated. That combination — a conviction for violence against a dementia-stricken resident who depended on her care, and a regulator’s finding that she did not hold “the right values to be a social care worker” — leaves her removal from the profession effectively permanent unless a future application for readmission to the register were to succeed.