DfES Proposals for Dealing with Allegations against Teachers and other Staff

10 February 2005

Response from the Independent Schools Council

ISC supports a transparent, fair and rigorous process for dealing with allegations of abuse, and welcomes attempts to speed up the time taken to resolve them. ISC schools are aware of their legal and ethical responsibilities with regard to the reporting and management of allegations of abuse.

Paragraph 2.64 of the paper states that ‘we will encourage LAs to provide a service that independent schools... can purchase, and we will strongly recommend those establishments do that'. We have clarified that this refers specifically and solely to the purchase of personnel or training services. Mel Barker of the Children's Safeguards Policy Unit has assured ISC that ‘there would be no question of charging an independent school for the initial consultation with the LA allegations manager, or for arranging the initial meeting/discussion with police/social services and subsequent reviews'.

ISC welcomed this clarification but our concerns remain that the wording of paragraph 2.64 is open enough for some LAs to think that they are allowed or indeed encouraged to charge independent schools for their involvement with an allegation of abuse. Neither DfES nor ISC believes that child protection issues constitute appropriate services to be purchased from local authorities (other than in respect of costs strictly related to training), any more than it would be appropriate for services in this respect to be purchased from the police.

We therefore urge that this wording be amended so that misinterpretation is not possible. In its place we suggest: ‘We strongly recommend that LAs provide a training and personnel service that independent schools can purchase on a voluntary basis at the same rate as maintained schools'. We look forward to seeing the revised guidance.