 | | Question: Although it might only be hearsay, what can one do if one finds that a head, some teachers and the chair of governors colluded to sack a teacher in the school in order to save money?
Joan Sallis replies: I assume you are talking about sacking and not redundancy which are different processes. If so I’m afraid hearsay doesn’t ever get you very far. More important however is the fact that the governing body and no-one else is responsible in law for dismissing a teacher. They would need to elect a special panel to finalise it, and the panel’s decision would be confidential, the detail even being withheld from the governors not on it. This may seem a technicality when a good deal of talk and investigation and maybe as you suggest gossip have already taken place. It may also ring a bit hollow if governors feel they have not had much real involvement, but the consequences remain. The same is true of appointments – even if a headteacher exercises the right to have no governors on an appointment panel, the governing body takes the responsibility for any problems which may arise later.
If either process results in a legal appeal – not unusual - it is the governing body which has to answer for it, but I’m afraid there will always be cases where no-one will have alerted them or spelled this out. Sometimes only the chair will have been included in the process. So if necessary it is up to us to protect ourselves by being vigilant and challenging any decisions which have appear to have taken our consent for granted.
It may be of course that formalities were observed but the evidence was considered by the governors involved to be cooked. This would have to be proved. Invoke your LEA if what you fear turns out to be the case. The big message is that apathy and inattention are dangerous and that sadly governing bodies themselves sometimes have to make sure that they are not dangerously marginalised in sensitive cases.
| | |
