OH referral already.

[ladymalfoy]

DH being bullied at work. Culminated in him being signed of for work related anxiety.
Head has made referral the day he told them he'd been signed off.
Union involved etc.
my questions are...
Can she do this so soon?
Will OH be supportive of DH or is it another way to bully him?
TIA

[Finola1step]

I don't have experience of OH but I know teachers who have been referred. In those cases, OH have been supportive to the teachers, often causing frustration for the Head!

Hope it goes well.

[Technical]

Yes, that's my experience too.

Not a teacher, but we made a referral for another member of school staff. OH sided very much with the staff member and weren't at all helpful to the school.

[NCFTTB]

I've heard OH are on the teacher's side too.

[CalmaLlamaDown]

My DH's boss referred him to OH the same day he was signed off. OH said that the Head had asked them for a report ASAP so my DH was given a date to attend a meeting with them the same week and told he would be in breach of contract if he didn't attend!

DH had barely had a day off sick in 5 years so the speed of referral and tone of the letter was a complete shock to us. Head wanted rid of him and my lovely DH was too stressed to defend himself so resigned. Luckily found another job without too much problem and is happier now so turned out to be a blessing in disguise in the end. Hope your DH gets the support he needs.

[ladymalfoy]

Thank you so much more the replies. I've heard differing accounts of whether they help or provide more evidence for nasty Heads to remove staff.
We haven't had the date through yet but I can at least confirm the vast majority of experiences are positive.

[ladymalfoy]

Nightmare. Union rep now said he won't be in meeting with DH. Fuming. I'm going with him now.
Can anyone give us an idea of the sort of questions that will be asked and what we need to avoid talking about in case it exacerbates the situation?
Meeting tomorrow so advice needed ASAP.
TIA

[Merefin]

Are you in LA or academy? LA Occ Health more likely to be neutral. Some schools buy in a private OH service which may give them a result that they find more 'useful' to them IYSWIM.

Ask.

I think you can go for an independent assessment yourself if you think the OH service is not being independent.

It's rubbish your union aren't attending...take very full minutes yourself and don't agree to anything there and then. Then escalate it up your union hierarchy as soon as you can after that.

And yes the HT can refer as soon as that. It might be argued it's good practice to get external advice etc

[ladymalfoy]

Thanks. His in an LA funded coop trust school. It's NHS from other county that our LA 'buy in'.

[Merefin]

An NHS service will be pretty fair IME. They don't want any complaints to the CQC!

Good luck for tomorrow.