WHISTLE BLOWING HANDBOOK Polcy Date: September 2017 Revew Date: September 2018 Char of Governors: Smon Hanson Governors Approval: 19 th September 2017
Contents 1 Introducton... 3 2 Defnton... 3 3 Prncples Supportng the Procedure... 3 4 Legslaton... 4 5 The Procedure... 4 6 Malcous Accusatons... 7 7 External Sources... 7 8 Montorng, Evaluaton and Revew... 8
1 Introducton 1.1 There s a balance to be struck between the rght of the nddual member of staff to speak freely on a range of matters and the rght of the School or colleagues to protect themselves aganst false and malcous accusatons. 1.2 A whstle blowng procedure s about the ways n whch concerns about malpractce may properly be rased wthn the Studo School and f necessary outsde the School. 2 Defnton 2.1 Whstle blowng nsde the work place s the reportng by workers or ex-workers, of wrong dong such as fraud, malpractce, msmanagement, breach of health and safety law or any other llegal or unethcal act ether on the part of management, the Governng Body or by fellow employees. Workers may nclude, for example, contractors and agency workers. 3 Prncples Supportng the Procedure 3.1 Create an ethcal, open culture: Wrte, publsh and communcate a code of conduct and ethcs. 3.2 Establsh safe routes for communcatons of concerns: Appont ndduals or a group outsde the normal lne management to recee complants of rregulartes or other concerns. 3.3 Protect the whstle blower: Make t clear that the Academy wll support and not dscrmnate aganst concerned employees provded any clam s made n good fath. 3.4 Establsh a far and mpartal nvestgate procedure: Make sure that the Academy responds to the concern by focusng on the problem, rather than dengratng the messenger. 3.5 Remnd staff of the duty of confdentalty: The duty of fdelty s mpled by the law n every contract of employment and prohbts employees from publcly dsclosng employers confdental nformaton, unless t s n the publc nterest that nformaton s dsclosed or unless the Studo School fals to properly consder or deal wth the ssue.
3.6 Safeguard aganst abuse of the procedure: Ensure that the malcous rasng of unfounded allegatons s recognsed as a dscplnary offence. 3.7 Uphold the rght to dsclose a concern: The nddual member of staff has the rght to dsclose a concern/ssue f the Studo School does not deal wth the matter. 3.8 Involve governors and staff n developng the procedure: To be effecte there should be a sense of organsatonal ownershp of a whstle blowng procedure. 3.9 Revew: Ensure there s a revew mechansm usng the comments and experence of those who may have had reason to nvoke the whstle blowng procedure. 4 Legslaton 4.1 The Publc Interest Dsclosure Act 1998 s desgned to protect whstle blowers from detrment and unfar dsmssal. The people protected by the Act nclude workers, employees, thrd party contractor staff, agency workers and work experence provders. 4.2 Students may also have nformaton whch should be rased n the publc nterest and there should be proper procedures n place for them to ar ther concerns; e.g. a students complants procedure. 5 The Procedure 5.1 All partes need to agree that the ssue rased wll be kept confdental whle the procedure s beng used. 5.2 The Representor (the person rasng the concern) should:
Rase ther concern wth ther lne manager or the Prncpal. Ths may be done orally or n wrtng. The Representor has the rght to have the matter treated confdentally. If the lne manager beleves the concern to be genune and that t s approprate to use the Whstle Blowng procedure, the manager should contact the Clerk to the Governng Body (the Assessor). Should t be alleged that the Clerk to the Governng Body s nvolved n the alleged malpractce, a senor manager should be contacted to act as Assessor. If the Representor feels unable to rase ther concern wth ther lne manager or the Prncpal n the frst nstance, they may contact the Assessor drect. If ths occurs the Representor wll be asked to justfy why they feel unable to rase the concern wth ther lne manager or the Prncpal. 5.3 The Assessor should: v ntervew the Representor wthn seven workng days, n confdence, or earler f there s an mmedate danger to loss of lfe or serous njury; obtan as much nformaton as possble from the Representor about the grounds for the belef of malpractce; consult wth the Representor about further steps whch could be taken; advse the Representor of the approprate route f the matter does not fall under the School s Whstle blowng Procedure; report all matters rased under ths procedure to the Governng Body s Responsble Offcer. 5.4 At the ntervew wth the Assessor, the Representor may be accompaned by a recognsed trade unon representate or a work colleague. The Assessor may be accompaned by a member of the Studo School staff to take notes. 5.5 Wthn ten workng days of the ntervew, the Assessor wll recommend to the Prncpal one or more of the followng: the matter be nvestgated nternally by the School; the matter be nvestgated by the external audtors apponted by the School;
v v the matter be reported to the Department for Educaton; the matter be reported to the Polce; the route for the member of staff to pursue the matter f t does not fall wthn ths procedure; or that no further acton s taken by the School. 5.6 The grounds on whch no further acton s taken nclude: the Assessor s satsfed that, on the balance of probabltes, there s no evdence that malpractce wthn the meanng of ths procedure has occurred, s occurrng or s lkely to occur; the Assessor s satsfed that the Representor s not actng n good fath; the matter s already (or has been) the subject of proceedngs under one of the School s other procedures or polces; the matter concerned s already the subject of legal proceedngs, or has already been referred to the Polce, the external audtors, the Department for Educaton or other publc authorty. 5.7 Should t be alleged that the Prncpal s nvolved n the alleged malpractce, the Assessor s recommendaton wll be made to the Responsble Offcer of the Governng Body. 5.8 The recpent of the recommendaton (Prncpal or Responsble Offcer) wll ensure that t s mplemented unless there s good reason for not dong so n whole or n part. Such a reason wll be reported to the next meetng of the Governng Body. 5.9 The Representor s dentty wll be kept confdental unless the Representor otherwse consents or unless there are grounds to beleve that the Representor has acted malcously. In the absence of such consent or grounds, the Assessor wll not reveal the dentty of the Representor except: where the Assessor s under a legal oblgaton to do so; where the nformaton s already n the publc doman;
on a strctly confdental bass to a professonally qualfed lawyer for the purpose of obtanng legal advce where t s essental that the Representor provdes evdence at a dscplnary hearng or other proceedngs. 5.10 The concluson of any agreed nvestgaton wll be reported by the Assessor to the Representor wthn twenty eght days. 5.11 All responses to the Representor wll be made n wrtng and sent to the Representor s home address. 5.12 If the Representor has not had a response wthn the above tme lmts, they may appeal to the School s external audtors, but wll nform the Assessor before dong so. 5.13 The Representor may at any tme dsclose the matter on a confdental bass to a professonally qualfed lawyer for the purpose of takng legal advce. 5.14 The School wll ensure the Representor s protected from any form of vctmsaton or dscrmnaton. 6 Malcous Accusatons 6.1 Delberately false or malcous accusatons made by a Representor wll be dealt wth under the School s dscplnary procedure. 7 External Sources 7.1 Whstle blowng to an external source wthout frst gong through the nternal procedure s nadvsable wthout compellng reasons. A reason may be that the Representor s not content wth the concluson of the Assessor. In partcular, ths means beng careful about what s sad to the meda. Compellng reasons could be the nvolvement of the senor managers, serous health and safety ssues or possble dscrmnaton. The external sources whch could be used are: Kenton Schools Trust (Chef Execute) Department for Educaton
v v. Member of Parlament Natonal Audt Offce Health and Safety Execute. Polce 7.2 The School wll ensure the Representor s protected from any form of vctmsaton or dscrmnaton. 8 Montorng, Evaluaton and Revew 8.1 The Governng Body wll revew ths polcy at least every two years and assess ts mplementaton and effecteness. The polcy wll be promoted and mplemented throughout the School.