Informal capability/support package?

[Placeinthesun]

Ex H has told me he is 'a few days away from formal capability'.... For now on a ' support package '. Union involved and having regular meetings to manage his workload.

How serious is this? He's mainscale, ups and been in post 22 years.

Thanks.

It depends what the school is like. Some schools are genuinely supportive, and formal capability is a genuine support package to get a teacher back on their feet, BUT in some schools, capability procedures are used to get rid of older (and wiser - so therefore not easily taken in by SMT bull$hit), expensive teachers. There are teachers out there who have played the game correctly while on formal capability and come out the other side, but also many who have ended up going off with stress due to the relentless pressure put on them by management, and they've ended up losing their job, and often their sanity with it. You Ex H will have a gut feeling for which type of school he's in, probably the latter by the sounds of it, in which case it's very serious. At least the Union are involved.

He very much doesn't want to take time of with stress (and thus far hasn't taken any) he just wants to survive through this term, he had a bit of a breakdown wrt our marriage ending and has other external factors going on like moving house and his dm moving into a care home...hopefully factors that school are taking into consideration.

He is well aware that he is an expensive option with no TLR stuff but with 20+ years at the same school he has been through 4 heads, knows all of the families and dynamics of the school and does have responsibilty for things like the school newspaper/BBC School Report and extensive media stuff over and above his teaching load. My own feeling is that he is a good teacher but lacks confidence at lesson obs (over plans, struggles with the paperwork and ends up tired and stressed before them) & not very organised (burys head about marking, concentrates on planning and over does it then ends up marking in gluts out of guilt and is overly conscientious when he does) and life stuff has thrown him from just keeping his head above water to drowning...and he should really have asked for help before crisis was reached.

I hope school will be sympathetic.

It is VERY serious. I've always been told that 95% of staff don't survive capability and in my own experience a school does it when they want to get rid of a teacher. In fact, that's the only reason schools do it.

What usually happens is the teacher goes off with long term stress / takes early retirement / gets another job before it goes to 'formal' capability (at which point the school are legally obliged to tell any future employer than this person has been on capability proceedings.

If at all possible I'd be urging him to think about another job before it gets to that point. Maybe a side step or another career?

I hate sweeping statements but in his position I would urge him to consider immediate resignation, leaving at Christmas if possible.

People in my department have come through the informal support programme. The key thing is that positively engaged with it, and also I suppose that it was genuinely designed to improve their practice rather than lose them. I work in a subject area that struggles to recruit qualified staff, and I have a vested interest in keeping the ones I have. Cost has honestly not been an issue. My latest recruitment is a UPS teacher.

However, if he is not making progress during the informal part, then he does need to seriously consider his options before he is placed on formal capability, which must be disclosed on future references. Most heads would allow someone at that point to leave on a compromise agreement.