Safeguarding & private school fees

[SheHasAWildHeart]

School rule: You have to give a terms notice if you take your child out of the school and have to pay the fees until the end of term regardless of when your child leaves.

What happens if - there is a serious breach in safeguarding at the school that your child is put in danger and you have to take them out straightaway? You are then unable to give your term's notice. Also would you pay for the remainder of the term even though the school failed in its duty of care and its side of the 'contract' by putting your child in danger?

You have signed a contract and are therefore expected to seek remedy within the terms of that contract.

What does it say in T&Cs?

Make sure you get everything documented. This sort of situation usually ends up in court.

You would need to have exhausted the official channels of complaint - to the teacher/head/governers etc before removing the child.

If the danger is so great that you have to remove them that day then what about the safety of the other children?

What actually happened?

Not necessarily so re deposit. Could b a case for Fundamental breach if the facts fit. I'm not an employment lawyer so you'd need specific advice. goldsmithibs.com/resources/free/Breach-of-Contract/notes/Breach-of-Contract-Remedies.pdf

Right I'm a Governor at a private school with responsibility for CP.

I am not in the UK though

If you are talking about the forfeit of deposit as you didn't give adequate notice, this may come under breach of contract to provide a safe environment.

More info is required. Was this a one off incident that was so severe you pulled your child immediately? In this case a reputable school would/should be working with you to make things right.
If it is an accumulation of a number of issues, has the school been working with you to resolve these?

Potentially they are in breach of contract?

I am assuming this incident is so serious that the Police and Social Services have been informed and that the school's safeguarding policy has been followed. I would have thought, if there has been a serious incident (the details of which we do not know) that a school would not be so heartless as to add insult to injury by demanding fees when a child is absent after such a serious problem.

If the incident is not being investigated and has not been reported, you have to report it. Have they agreed it is a safeguarding incident? Try and negotiate with the school if they are unwilling to waive the fees. If they are not at fault (and they may not be) then an investigation will prove this. It might be more difficult to negotiate on fees in that situation. Are you going to say what happened?

If the school have failed a child in such a big way I'd imagine you would get the money back to keep you quiet. I know a boy left our school in difficult circumstances who got their money back but everyone else who has moved has had to pay it.

There was a similar thread a year or so ago. Very hard to prove safeguarding issue requiring you to remove child without fulfilling the usual notice period. You will have needed to demonstrate that you went through school's procedures first. But, as others have said unfortunately you have a contact with the private school which will reunite you to abide by its terms and conditions.

I can think of a number of safeguarding issues where a child should be removed from a school. In such serious issues, all parties should be working through the safeguarding policy and external agencies should be working with the school. There is a possibility that a school has CRB checked all its staff, but a member of staff has acted inappropriately, for example. A child should be removed in such a circumstance. You could argue, though, that the school has taken all appropriate measures to keep children safe.

The problem with private schools is that once you have signed their contract, a full terms' notice is needed to terminate it, regardless the circumstance even when the school had breached their side of the contract or a member of their staff had committed a serious offense (as in my case). I found private schools' complaints procedure is not worth the paper it's written on, because private schools can simply refused to follow the procedure to protect themselves. They can get away with this, because the Independent Schools Inspectorate (ISI) and the Department of Education (DoE) would not investigate individual cases. ISI is basically not independent, and the DeE simply don't care once you've opted out of the state system.

If there is a serious breach in safeguarding at the school, then you should contact a solicitor before you refused to pay their fees. If your child was physically harmed, then a no-win no-fee solicitor would be more than happy to take up your case.

I got a letter from the school today confirming that I won't have to pay the fees. It wasn't the money it was just having to relive the whole situation all over again that was really upsetting me.

I think you should still report your case to the ISI, so that at least there is a record what had happened. Private schools have been getting away with very bad behaviour for many many years.

Glad you have resolved the financial side. Ime ISI is a bit spineless as it is insular and not independent. However a genuine safeguarding issue could be reported to the council child protection team or Ofsted if the school includes Early Years or boarding.

Are you intending to leave it so that other children are at risk? Can you really do that?

Is this what other parents have done so the problem is swept under the carpet, until it resurfaces again!