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Nepotism in schools

19 replies

EloiseMinch · 12/07/2018 17:12

At DC's school the head has hired her husband and daughter on to the staff. Is this normal and are there normally rules about nepotism in primary schools?

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ThinkingCat · 12/07/2018 19:12

That sounds a bit strange to me. Presumably there was a proper interview process with more than one interviewer?

NotAnotherJaffaCake · 12/07/2018 19:17

Governors should not have let this one through for precisely this reason. I’d be wanting to know how their appointment fitted with the school’s recruitment policy. Is it an academy?

ILoveMyDressingGown · 12/07/2018 19:27

I've worked in a couple of schools where the head was married to another member of staff or where staff members were somehow related to each other. It didn't seem to affect their work or their relationships with other teachers/TAs but being a supply teacher I wasn't in those schools long enough to be able to say that for definite.

EloiseMinch · 12/07/2018 19:43

ThinkingCat It's a great question. I assume it's hard to go against the head's wishes in any case.

NotAnotherJaffaCake It's a standard community primary school. I am not ever sure if there is a written school recuitment policy.

I could email the governor's to ask how this has happened I suppose?

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ThinkingCat · 12/07/2018 20:08

If it's a state school there'll be a local authority policy on everything.

admission · 12/07/2018 20:20

The answer is that there is nothing legally to stop the head teacher in hiring husband and daughter as long as they are positions that are not in management positions. However there are always potential conflicts of interest if at any time there was an issue around work / competency, other staff may find it very difficult to raise any concerns.

Of much more concern to me would be the actual mechanism that happened to recruit the two family members. Was there a proper recruitment process, with job descriptions etc and was it an open competition for all to apply? Having made a decision to offer the job then did the school carry out all the safeguarding checks which are detailed in the safer-recruitment guidance. So for instance were references taken up.

In many cases like this, this is where the process fails. Governors will not normally be involved in the recruitment of junior staff in the school only the senior leadership team, so they may well not even be aware of the recruitment of family members.

For me, if the safer-recruitment guidelines have been ignored or not correctly followed through, this becomes a significant safeguarding issue. There is also in my experience a significant risk that if the head teacher is bending / breaking the rules here, that there will be other areas of her management which are questionable.

The key for you is to establish whether a proper recruitment process with adverts etc was carried out or was it all arranged around the kitchen table. If you can show that there was no proper recruitment process, then you need to report this along with a question as to whether safer-recruitment processes like references were carried out to what is called the LADO (Local authority designated officer) who is responsible for managing all issues around safeguarding.

If the head has failed to carry out the recruitment process and not done these checks then they could well be looking for another career.

Killybashangel · 13/07/2018 14:13

In the programme Educating Greater Manchester the Head had employed his two brothers.

Killybashangel · 13/07/2018 14:14

Or perhaps they'd all been employed by someone else

user1483972886 · 14/07/2018 09:06

Nepotism between staff and governors is big at our school.... I think it's totally unprofessional but I'm not sure who you report it to and if I did it would be social death. It's terrible.

Pud2 · 14/07/2018 09:25

Not quite sure on what basis you would want to start investigating this. Is there a specific concern around competancy or safeguarding?

incywincybitofa · 14/07/2018 10:56

@killybashangel I can't work out if your post was tongue in cheek or whether you hadn't realised that as you posted, that particular head and 3 of his SLT have been suspended
I've seen related staff in primaries and prep schools I'm ok with it as long as a structure is in place to make sure there is no conflict

Killybashangel · 14/07/2018 11:21

Hi, no i hadn't realised that

Killybashangel · 14/07/2018 11:24

Looked it up and i think the story hit the news an hour or two after i posted!

Justtheonequestion · 14/07/2018 11:28

Why does it bother you?

Chickenbhunaandoice · 14/07/2018 13:19

Given the shortage of teachers more and more are coming through direct routes.

We have 3 teachers who are related to each other. 1 on long term supply who came at very short notice- as recommended by her relation.

We would have struggled to get a teacher in the open market. Getting them through links is a real bonus- saves agency fees as well.

It may surprise you to know that jobs in schools such as head, teacher, site supervisor, cleaner and lunchtime supervisor can be very difficult to recruit to.

Support staff and office staff tend to be easy to appoint.

admission · 14/07/2018 17:28

It is becoming more difficult to recruit teachers, especially in a school which is not considered to be doing well. There is absolutely nothing wrong with appointing a relative providing that the appointment process was carried out correctly and the safeguarding principles applied to the appointment.
What is concerning in too many instances is that assumptions are made when the person is known, though they do not know what is really potentially lurking in their background from a few years ago.

EloiseMinch · 14/07/2018 19:25

It’s interesting as I am pretty sure you are not allowed to be the direct line manager of your daughter or husband in most of the public sector. Maybe the council has some rules on this of course which would apply.

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trinity0097 · 15/07/2018 11:18

Only headteacher adverts have to be advertised.

It’s bloody hard to get good staff at the moment in schools. Teachers and support staff. We have offered one job this year 3 times and each time have been turned down. This was for a teaching assistant role in a prep school in a lovely area. I’ve had to send teaching assistants home on trial days from agencies when we tried them as their command of English was so poor we couldn’t have them in school. I’ve watched interview lessons from teachers so poor it ruled them out immediately due to basic subject knowledge in a KS1 class.

Chickenbhunaandoice · 15/07/2018 12:32

It is becoming more difficult to recruit teachers, especially in a school which is not considered to be doing well.

Or that are doing very well Smile

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