A DISGRACED social worker who failed to act on vital information about an abused Huddersfield toddler has been banned from working.

But Judyth Kenworthy, who was employed by Kirklees Council, will be able to return to her career after two years.

A disciplinary panel last night imposed the two-year suspension on Mrs Kenworthy, of Shepley, who failed to pass on information about the abuse of Deighton toddler Sanam Navsarka a week before she was murdered, and then lied about it.

She was guilty of misconduct, the panel found, but they did not strike her off the social care register.

Mrs Kenworthy was warned that Sanam had a bruise on her head and had been locked in a cupboard, but she did not act. In neglecting to do so, she was found to have put at risk the two-year-old, who died shortly afterwards in the wake of appalling mistreatment.

The social worker denied having been told about the cupboard incident, but a General Social Care Council committee in London found this to be untrue. She admitted failing to pass on warnings about the bruise on the child’s head, however, saying she had been “extremely busy” at the time and had dismissed the information as “tittle tattle”.

A spokesman for the panel said: “The registrant’s professional failings in 2008 were serious and multiple.

“She was a professional with 18 years experience in social care who had received training in Child Protection Law and Procedures. She failed to report alarming information that Child A (Sanam) had a bump on her forehead, believed to be caused non-accidentally and had been locked in a cupboard.

“Her omission was not in accordance with The Children Act 1989 and was an unambiguous breach of established child protection procedures and policies that she knew about.

“Although not her social worker, she failed Child A who died just over a week later”.