Leaders’ surgery

The antidote to common leadership conundrums...

Complex ramifications

Q I am a business manager and while I was on duty, I had reprimanded a student and confiscated a mobile phone in accordance with the school policy – I had then been slapped on the hand by the angry, abusive parent who came to remonstrate with me. What should I do?

A This is a technical assault, and you need to decide if this is reported to the police. However, as you were only doing your job in accordance with the school policy, your employer (the governing body) owes you a duty of care to protect you in the carrying out of your duty. The starting point should be a report to the headteacher, who can enable letters on behalf of the governors, get access to counselling services and put in place other supportive ‘caring employer’ measures. If this parent’s misbehaviour had happened before, the parent could be banned from the site under section 547 of the 1996 Education Act – a measure to prevent a “nuisance being caused on education premises”; if this ban was put in place, the measure should be subject to a review after a period of time (say six months) and the parent must be allowed to appeal to the governors the banning decision. The school should also put in place arrangements for the parent still to be able to contact the school, say through a named person.

Perpetual employee accountability

Q I am a headteacher and at the end of the summer term I had a complaint from a parent alleging that her daughter had been repeatedly insulted and shoved hard by a member of staff. The member of staff was leaving to go to another school, and did not co-operate with the investigation carried out over the holiday.

A There is a sequence here: The first thing is to deal with the potential allegation of child abuse by reporting it to the Local Authority Designated Officer (LADO). The school’s own brief and initial investigation showed that while there had been contact, the physical element was not completely as described by the parent. However, there was truth in the verbal abuse element. Assuming the LADO was ‘not interested’ (as was the case here) the school should then consider its own internal disciplinary process, and because the teacher had allegedly fallen short of the standards as outlined in Part 2 of the Teacher Standards, a professional conduct issue. Because the teacher frustrated the investigation while they were still an employee through ‘being not available’ and ‘being ill’, and only a written denial had been submitted, the teacher had moved out of the employment of the school by the conclusion of the investigation. However, as the allegation involved a breach of professional standards, the file of information and the investigation report should be passed to the receiving school who could take action in respect of the breach of professional standards. In short, if there is an alleged breach of professional standards, teachers can run but can’t hide!

Grooming allegations: cause for serious concern

Q I am a deputy headteacher. A parent has phoned alleging that a (female) member of staff is grooming their daughter. They refused to name the member of staff until they came into school for a parents’ evening in a month’s time.

A Although it is tempting to leave this for a period of time, you are in receipt of information that should be passed to the LADO. If the LADO feels that more urgent investigation is needed then other agencies (for example, the police) could make enquiry of the parent to acquire the name of the member of staff allegedly grooming the girl. It would be totally wrong of the school not to do anything.

Equally, while the school may have its suspicions about whom the member of staff is, it would be wrong to take any action such as suspension until such time as there is any proof of the allegations. Although the allegation, if proven, is gross professional misconduct and one may ‘normally’ suspend, the present government guidance is that if the allegation is from within the school community, schools should be sure that there is a case to answer before suspending as a protection to teachers from malicious allegations.

Find out more...

ASCL Professional Development (PD) runs the following courses that relate to some of the issues discussed:

Care and Compliance – Managing the Legal Hazards
05 March 2014, Birmingham www.ascl.org.uk/care_compliance

Legal Issues, Managing Challenging Pupils: Duties and Powers
31 March 2014, London www.ascl.org.uk/managing_challenging_pupils

Strategic Behavioural Management that Works
27 March 2014, Leeds www.ascl.org.uk/strategic_behavioural_management

Practical Legal and HR Guidance for You and Your Institution
13 March 2014, London www.ascl.org.uk/ legal_hr_guidance

• For more information and/ or to book your place, see www.ascl.org.uk/pd

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