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‘COVER-UP’ ON SCHOOL STAFF RECRUITMENT
Council boss under fire as he announces probe into safety checks
TOWN Hall leader James Kempton was last night (Thursday) accused of attempting to “cover-up” failings in staff recruitment procedures at an Islington primary school.
At a heated meeting of the Town Hall’s executive Labour leader Catherine West criticised Cllr Kempton’s plans to set up a boroughwide inquiry into how school staff references are checked. Cllr Kempton refused to allow her to read out a statement.
Cllr West had heckled the Town Hall chief for not specifically referring to Canonbury school, where 12 governors quit claiming they were being scapegoated for errors in recruitment.
She told him: “You’re trying to cover things up as usual. Why are you only focusing on the current practices? Any inquiry about the safeness of our children and the safeness our parents feel has to deal with the particular instance of Canonbury School.”
The inquiry, which will be made public in two months’ time, follows revelations reported exclusively in the Tribune – that there had been failings in the way staff were recruited
at Canonbury Primary School as far back as 2005.
She added: “You do not learn lessons from the [present], you learn lessons from the past.”
But Cllr Kempton brushed aside Cllr West’s remarks, saying he believed reports on Canonbury would be included in the investigation.
Reading out a statement, Cllr Kempton said he has asked Janet Mokades, chairwoman of Islington Safeguarding Children Board (ISCB) to conduct an independent inquiry into “the robustness” of recruitment processes in all Islington schools and make further recommendations if necessary.
He said the inquiry will focus on the shared roles and responsibilities of all involved in safe recruitment processes in schools; consider the roles and responsibilities of councillors in safeguarding children and the relationship between officers and councillors. The findings will be presented in public to the council’s June 18 executive meeting.
It emerged last week that, out of 81 appointments to posts at Canonbury since 2005, only nine staff had one or more references on file, there was no evidence of criminal records checks for 13 staff and more than half did not appear to have had their identity checked.
Islington Council last week obtained an injunction against the Evening Standard regarding articles on recruitment.
Labour Cllr Barry Edwards told the meeting: “I was speaking to one of the governors that resigned. They were concerned that there appears to have been problems known by the authority three years ago and they only came to know about them in the last few weeks. Will the question of why that delay occurred be part of that investigation?”
Cllr Kempton said: “If that governor wishes to give evidence to Janet’s inquiry, I’m sure she’ll be happy to hear from him.”
It is understood a letter was sent to Canonbury parents on Monday asking them to volunteer to become new governors. |
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