How to handle a complaint made by a pupil against an agency worker
Select Education is a proud holder of the DCSF Quality Mark and this means that any person provided to you will have been through a rigorous face-to-face interview and all of the required checks including, references, qualification and identity checks and the List 99 and CRB process. All of these vetting procedures serve to reduce the risk to the school. Nevertheless, just occasionally, allegations of improper conduct are made against such workers.
In years gone by, if there was any concern about the conduct of an agency worker, the solution for schools was simple - send them back to the agency and tell the agency not to ever send them back. And why wouldn't a school do this, surely that was one of the benefits of using an agency?
Well, times have changed and so too, have expectations of parents and the wider community.
At the beginning of this year the (then) DfES introduced their new guidelines, Safeguarding Children and Safer Recruitment in Education. These guidelines have statutory force and Chapter 5 spells out the specific obligations upon schools to investigate allegations made against adults in school.
The guidance highlights the three strands of any such investigation and these are:
- A police investigation of a possible criminal offence.
- Enquiries and assessment about whether a child is in need of protection or other services.
- Consideration of any disciplinary action against the adult involved.
It is self-evident that simply sending the worker back to the agency would not cover these three strands and (critically) may leave children in another school vulnerable.
So, how should you respond in such circumstances? We suggest you follow these simple rules:
- Treat the allegation in exactly the same way as if it had been made against a permanent member of your staff. The worker's status should not affect your response to the allegation.
- Contact your local authority's designated officer to alert them to the circumstances, talk through the issues and receive any advice they may have to offer. This is critical if they believe there are any particular steps that you might need to take to protect the children involved.
- Contact our local Business Manager (telephone 0845 600 1234) and alert them to the circumstances. It is standard company practice in such situations for us to suspend the person in question. This means that we will not offer them any further work unless or until the matter is resolved satisfactorily. We will interview the person in question and get them to make a written statement whilst the events are fresh in their memory. We will provide you with a copy of this statement.
- Whilst we would wish to co-operate with your investigation, it would not be appropriate for us to come into school and speak to children or other witnesses to events. That responsibility has to rest with you.
- It may be that the authorities decide to hold a Section 47 strategy meeting (in accordance with Local Safeguarding Children Board procedures) where all the relevant statutory agencies can meet to decide on an appropriate course of action. In such cases we are happy to attend and will provide all relevant information on the individual to inform the decision making. We will always co-operate fully at these meetings and will assume responsibility for keeping the individual informed of progress as appropriate.
- At the conclusion of an investigation we shall make a decision as to whether we feel the individual is someone who is an acceptable risk to be working in schools in our name. If we conclude that they are not, we will report all of the circumstances leading to our decision, to the Children's Safeguarding Operations Unit at the DCSF. We will copy this report to you for your information. They will decide whether the person should be placed on List 99 or whether the circumstances warrant a referral to the GTC's disciplinary committee.
- If we conclude that there is no case to answer, we will debrief the candidate and discuss their future options. This may or may not include the return to your school. Occasionally candidates will not wish to return to your school even if the complaint has not been upheld.
The risk of frivolous or malicious complaints made against supply staff
It is a fact of life that supply staff can be vulnerable to frivolous or malicious complaints made by pupils. We take trouble to alert our people to this risk and give them explicit written advice (e.g. on the physical handling of children and the use of ICT equipment in schools). They are told that if any incident occurs it is their responsibility to alert the school and our local office as to the circumstances.
Ultimately, however, we are reliant upon your judgement as to whether a complaint may be frivolous or malicious. You will know the characters involved. As a matter of policy we will always err on the side of caution and assume the complaint to be genuine unless or until it is proven otherwise.
Responding to parental concerns
There have been situations in the past where schools have referred irate or concerned parents to our local Business Managers. This is not, in our experience, very helpful. We are not in a position to answer all of their questions and cannot provide them with the sorts of guarantees they are seeking. It is our view that it is only the school that can manage that relationship with parents and our involvement only complicates and compounds these difficulties. We are always happy to advise you of the steps we are taking and for you to share this, as appropriate, with parents.
Concerns about our response to such complaints
All complaints such as these would be handled in accordance with our Complaints procedure. Where these involve allegations made against one of our workers, the circumstances are referred to me for monitoring and further advice. All such cases would be brought to the attention of our Managing Director, Peter Flannery.
If, however, you have any concerns about how case is progressing or would like any further advice, please contact me at j.sheridan@selecteducation.com
- Jon Sheridan
- Child Protection Officer
- November 2007
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