I work in a school. I contacted the DfE anonymously (there is an option to do it anonymously on the online contact form when you select the “disclosure in the public interest” option) back in June with genuine concerns about the school and MAT (Multi Academy Trust), the concerns are really serious and one was of a criminal nature as well.
Last Friday I had the police at my door saying they needed to speak to me, the school and the MAT had reported that they believed the whistleblower statement to be “malicious communications” and that the school and the MAT believed they had been “targeted” (the police didn’t elaborate on why the school/MAT believe they have been targeted). Turns out that the DfE had other anonymous whistleblower statements about the school/the MAT and the MAT accused me of apparently writing them all! For the avoidance of doubt, I did not write the other whistleblower statements. So now the concerns about the school are no longer being investigated just because the MAT believes they’ve been targeted when in fact people are just raising genuine concerns. The school would have known it was me who went to the DfE as when the DfE contacted the MAT about the concerns they apparently realised that it was similar to the concerns that I tried (unsuccessfully) to whistleblow internally prior to contacting the DfE.
Aibu to think it’s not right to try and identify/expose anonymous whistleblowers like this?
I genuinely know nothing about the other whistleblower statements that the DfE have received and they were not submitted by me. Apparently the DfE contacted the MAT to say how many statements they had, what the concerns were and that they were investigating and then the MAT went to the police and said they feel targeted and tried to blame it all on me.
So instead of the concerns actually being investigated the school and the MAT are just trying to identify and expose the whistleblowers or just try and falsely blame them all on me.