EPAC promises a reminder on best practice

School Education Directors are to be reminded of good practice procedures surrounding child protection allegations, writes CAROL HOWARD.

The reminder follows Federation contacting Employee Performance and Conduct (EPAC) Unit Director Jane Thorpe to express concern that presentation of allegations of a child protection nature had taken place after 3pm on a Friday.

The timing of the presentation of allegations to employees has always been a difficult issue for the Department of Education and Training. Federation has many examples that the presentation of allegations late on a Friday is a very poor practice. Many recipients are in shock and by the time he/she thinks to seek advice from the Federation, legal firm or their doctor it is often after the close of business.

Regretfully, some of our members after receiving such disturbing information have also attempted self harm.

Recently an investigator arranged for the local School Education Director to present allegations to a member. The School Education Director chose after school hours on a Friday as the appropriate time to present the letter of allegations to the teacher.

The teacher was extremely distressed by this action and was referred to Ms Thorpe, who replied, "In relation to the concern regarding the timing of the delivery of the letter of allegation to [teacher's name] I have spoken to [name] the School Education Director who delivered the letter on behalf of the Employee Performance and Conduct Unit (EPAC) as [name] was not aware that EPAC has a practise of not delivering such correspondence immediately prior to a weekend."

Ms Thorpe went on, "As a result of Federation's concerns I will forward a memorandum to all School Education Directors reminding them of the potential sensitivity of these matters and will provide advice about good practices when informing employees about such matters."

The second issue listed with EPAC related to interviews with students regarding the teacher's behaviour. On several occasions Federation has been informed by members that the students are removed from and returned to the teacher's class in the middle of the lesson.

This was being done by sending a message to the classroom and asking for the student to go to the office where the interview was taking place. At the conclusion of the interview the student was then returned to class, sometimes with a request asking for the next student to go to the office. I'm sure you can imagine the smirks on the faces of the students on their return. Throughout this the teacher is expected to act professionally, and they do, sometimes at great personal cost.

Ms Thorpe's responded to this practice of interviewing students: "Where possible, we will arrange to either interview students off-site or advise the teacher that they can choose to be off-site when the interviews are conducted, with no detriment to the teacher. As you will appreciate there will be some circumstances where such a request may be difficult."

Federation was pleased with these assurances given by Ms Thorpe. However, Federation has yet to see the memorandum to the School Education Directors.

Carol Howard is a Welfare Officer.

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