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Sacked head Jay Henderson |
School head loses sacking appeal
Education chief says recruits to top posts know pressures ahead but most still love job
SACKED headteacher Jay Henderson has claimed he may take legal action against Canonbury School governors after losing an appeal against his dismissal.
His comments came as the Town Hall’s director of children’s services responded to a series of accusations made by Mr Henderson in last week’s Tribune over Islington’s relationship with private company Cambridge Education (CE), the firm which runs the borough’s schools.
Mr Henderson, who has been in Australia, was not present at the appeal hearing on Friday before a panel of three governors. He was represented by Derek Morris, from the National Association of Headteachers.
Mr Henderson said: “I doubt very much if I will be taking it to a tribunal but I am considering legal action against the governors, who have a responsibility for the welfare of headteachers.
“The investigator noted in broad terms that if they had managed my well-being better... this may have all been avoided. In fairness to me and the next headteacher of Canonbury, I really hope lessons will be learned by the governors.” The situation at Canonbury, where it was discovered some staff files were incomplete, prompted a full investigation into safe recruitment of staff in Islington’s schools.
A month after Mr Henderson’s sacking in May, 12 governors quit, claiming they were being scapegoated over the issue of incomplete records, some of which lacked evidence of compulsory criminal record checks.
Mr Henderson has spoken at length about the pressure headteachers are under. But the Town Hall’s director of children’s services, Eleanor Schooling, who has been seconded to Islington from CE, said headteachers “know what the job description is”.
She added: “They do training. Most of them love their jobs and there’s a lot of responsibility. But they know that when they take the job and they are paid accordingly.”
In response to Mr Henderson’s decision to speak out, she said: “I haven’t got much time for that at all. That describes somebody‘s point of view and state of mind. The things he was dismissed for were very serious.
“The facts speak for themselves. He’s been dismissed for gross misconduct. That was partly around his management for safe recruitment and the person responsible has been held accountable.”
Schools can choose to use CE or other private companies to help with staff reference checks.
Mr Henderson repeatedly criticised the council’s relationship with CE, accusing the company of being too expensive and offering an inferior service to other private companies.
Ms Schooling said: “The other private companies don’t always provide all the things you need to do as a statutory requirement in terms of CRB [Criminal Records Bureau] checks. Because CE has a clear contract with the council, it’s set out that they are going to do those things.”
She said the council will now demand all schools use only companies that guarantee CRB checks are made.
Mr Henderson claimed that when he took over at Canonbury, the school’s files, which CE was looking after, were “a mess”.
Ms Schooling said: “I arrived [at CE] in 2006 and I knew HR [human resources] was an issue so I set about making a better service out of it. I appointed a new head of HR and she worked diligently on things like CRB checks and providing the service schools wanted. If there are missing things in your own school files it’s for you as a headteacher to chase them up, not for the HR provider.”
She disputed Mr Henderson’s claim that CE was only trying to make a profit, adding: “CE doesn’t make a profit. It’s part of Mott McDonald, a wholly employee-owned company. No profits go out to external people. There’s no profit made out of the contract here. There’s a management fee and that’s paid out whether or not CE achieve their targets agreed by the council.”
Ms Schooling added: “I’m glad this episode has come to an end. The school can look to appointing a new headteacher. It’s got a strong governing body, everybody’s focused on what’s best for the children and I’m really looking forward to next term when I hope the school can put all this behind it.
“We want to draw a line and the school needs to move on. We’ve come to the end.” |
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