Volunteer problem

[Nclarkey]

Hi,
Just seeking some advice. My daughter was grilled by a school volunteer (also a parent of a child in my daughters class) about why she was seeing a counsellor at school. We approached school about this concern. The school spoke to the volunteer about confidentiality agreement and the person concerned said the would not break this agreement. We have since found out she has already spoke to other parents about the matter after telling the school she wouldn't. Also they have now started putting this information on WhatsApp groups. Just wondering what action people would think appropriate in this instance?
Thanks

Go straight back to the school. Make an appointment to see the head teacher and escalate to the governers if necessary.
That is appalling.
I volunteered in schools for years when my DC were little and I wouldn't even have had access to that sort of information, never mind asked the child about it.

I feel that as we already approached the school about someone getting this information from my child that the only action taken was that the volunteer was told not to break the confidentiality agreement that we should escalate further as this person did not bother with this. I also worry that if she is talking about this issue then they could also be talking about other children. I actually feel that this person should not be volunteering at the school

I agree.
You say you approached the school.
Who did you speak to and did you write a letter /email?
Write/email the head. If you write a letter keep a copy.
If you have already approached the HT in writing, write again, including the fact that the information is being shared, and copy to the governers.
Do you have proof of sharing in whatsapp groups?

Having someone on the premises with access to confidential information, who then shares that information, is a massive safeguarding risk.
Who knows what else she could be accessing and sharing?
You are absolutely right to be very concerned.

Write to the governors. This is disgusting.

Yes was HT before and was a meeting but issue was raised by email. So written down as is reply from HT. Someone on WhatsApp group is prepared to support us. Will raise to HT about this again and copy in governors

Get photos or screenshots of the whatsapp messages if you can.
You need evidence.
There could be very vulnerable children in the school who are at serious risk if confidentiality is breached.
Keep paper records of everything too.
Email is good because it contains proof of dates and times.
cc everything to the governers.

Thanks, really appreciate your advice

You could also ring the NSPCC and ask their advice. This is a potential safeguarding issue.
When I was a parent volunteer I wasn't allowed to be alone with children outside the class room setting - usually the teacher would be present at all times.
I could not access the staff room or office.
Also, I would not have dreamt of behaving so badly.
Schools really need to choose their volunteers very carefully.
I already worked at a senior level in a job where confidentiality was essential, so I guess the HT knew I understood confidentiality at least.
The more I think about it the more shocked I am.
I think you should speak to the counsellor too and let them know that your DD has been pressured for information.

Thanks again, the counsellor was copied in on original email so is aware of the issue. I'm actually thinking this is now a bigger issue than before as the person is not being supervised around the school and the HT was aware of this and was not addressed as is still happening

Thanks for advice about NSPCC they have proved very useful. I didn't know they could help in matters like this.
Many thanks

Go back to the headteacher. Volunteers behaviour is disgraceful and I know we wouldn't be having them back in at my school.

With the supervision, what were the circumstances that meant your child was alone with the volunteer? And are they DBS checked? (DBS check makes a difference to how closely they have to be supervised) We have lots of volunteers in my school, they are either in class or in the library where I am doing interventions, so are always supervised but I couldn't guarantee that I would notice a volunteer asking these questions if for example it was said quietly while working with her because I am working with another group so am generally only half listening to the volunteer, whilst its awful of the volunteer I'm not sure you need to be concerned about supervision.

My child was walking back from seeing counsellor and was in corridor when she was questioned by the volunteer (is DBS checked). Volunteer was not with anyone else in corridor. Since we highlighted problem to HT the only thing that the HT highlighted was coincidentally agreement and that volunteer was made aware of this. No issue was made about volunteer roaming school unsupervised questioning students and they are still allowed access into school after the original incident. Have only just become aware that they have breached confidentiality agreement and will raise with HT and governors ASAP.

This is appalling. I work in a school and this behaviour is beyond unacceptable. Please take it further.

Will be taking this further. The more I think about this the concerned I get.

Update on this, was raised as a formal complaint and investigated by HT. Although they found confidentiality agreement was broken she could only prove it involved 2 other people. They also said that volunteer was not a safeguarding risk so could carry on volunteering. Also stated that as investigated before no further action required. But when investigated before both head and volunteer stated confidentiality agreement was not broken so can't see how that is possible. We are taking the issue further to governors as feel that the head has mainly seeked to defend volunteer and disregard risk to children.

Good luck - you shouldn't have to take it further the HT should deal take it very seriously. Shocking behaviour from HT.

That is from your perspective not a good outcome and I fully understand your concerns and wish to take it further.

If i put myself in the position of headteacher, then I might want to minimise the damage and reputation of the school because agreeing that there was a safeguarding issue would have meant it needed to be reported to the LA. What you do not know and will not get to know until the Autumn term is whether the volunteer has been quietly shelved for the new academic year in terms of working at the school.

Having said that it appears to be a significant safeguarding issue as well as a confidentiality issue and the head teacher should have liaised with the LA over the problem and then told the volunteer that she is no longer a volunteer at the school.

We have been informed by the head that the volunteer has already been told she can continue to volunteer as they are not viewed as being a risk to safeguarding inspite of breaking confidentiality agreement and also have lied about breaking it. We are to meet with governors shortly after autumn term starts.

This is shocking.
Our school do not allow parent volunteers to help with their own child's year group as these things are more likely to happen.

I usually think people are making a mountain out of a molehill but that's outrageous. That woman shouldn't be volunteering - what a breach of privacy.Good luck with the governors.

It's appalling - and I go into my child's class to volunteer... the only information I know about the kids other than names, and who sits on what table and the like extra to that is stuff parents themselves have told me (so I know things like that one child has autism but I know that because that child's mum has told me so).

I am probably more careful than lots of other volunteers because obviously I've seen it from both sides of the fence over the years. I'll even make a policy of asking a child to get me the pencil sharpener off the teacher's desk (they're allowed to do this) instead of grabbing it myself (and having my own pen to write in reading records etc although that's usually because pens in school are an endangered species by about April time ), to make sure there's absolutely no possible chance of me being accused of knowing anything more than the bare essentials - because I know people can get funny about school volunteers so I'm covering both school and myself against any possible ill will or playground mutterings doing things as cautiously as I do.

I don't do playground gossiping or flipping school mum whatsapp stuff though - really cannot be fucked and all they're ever talking about in our school playground is fucking eyebrows. Fucking eyebrows for god's sake - the amount of school playground angst devoted to eyebrows as some kind of ultra high maintenance relationship just boggles my mind. Eyebrows are just these things that sit above your eyes and might occasionally get tweezers brandished at them optimistically - but now they seem to be some epic beauty task and you need to devote hours of parental intelligence gathering missions to find out who gets their eyebrows "done" where! Other schools have parents desperately digging to try to find out who is on what coloured reading book - it's who has whose "eyebrow lady" in ours!

What bothers me is how did the volunteer parent know about the counselling? What records have been accessed that they were not entitled to see (they wouldn’t be entitled to see anything) or who has told them about the counselling?

I have had a look at our Safeguarding Policy and I think the WhatsApp takes it to a new level. Initially it would depend on the conversation with the child and the nature of it but spreading confidential info to others is definitely not acceptable. However for the Head to be happy with this state of affairs is beyond belief!

Schools should have rules for volunteers and teachers and office staff re confidentiality. It might be quite difficult to prove the conversation was an event that should be reported under the Safeguarding policy but it depends what yours says and it certainly depends on the nature of the conversation. The WhatsApp is different and I think the Head should have acted more decisively.

This person should not be volunteering. The Heads actions should be investigated. Hopefully the Governors understand their role! Is the Head the Designated Safeguarding Officer? Which Governor is the Safeguarding Governor? Read all the policies but you must expect volunteers to be allowed to move around the school unsupervised. They can also hear children read in a quiet space. Obviously most parents are fantastic helpers. You cannot leap from what has happened to say a decent volunteer isn’t safe to be in the school. This one should be removed from the list but others should be able to continue without being watched. They should not be volunteering in their own child’s class.

Had their child heard from your child about the counselling and passed the info on to the volunteer? This doesn’t excuse anything of course, but it might answer how the volunteer knew in the first place.

What bothers me is how did the volunteer parent know about the counselling? What records have been accessed that they were not entitled to see (they wouldn’t be entitled to see anything) or who has told them about the counselling?

My child was walking back from seeing counsellor and was in corridor when she was questioned by the volunteer (is DBS checked). Volunteer was not with anyone else in corridor.

There's a name change midway through the thread but I think that's the answer to that question.

Oh Yes. I understand that. The volunteer seems to have put two and two together but children are out of class quite often so the volunteer assumed DD was seeing the counsellor? It certainly means the volunteer cannot be trusted and is not suitable to be in school.