‘Would you rehire this employee?’ How honest are referees?

[Dobbysocks]

What is the experience of people when this question comes up in a reference and the relationship between the employee and the school has broken down?

As a HT - I’m always honest. Your credibility would be questioned if they proceeded to hire based on your recommendation and they were deemed unsuitable.

@MN2025 Would someone having a period of long term sick due to mental health be enough to tick no? There are no other issues bar this. Successfully returned after the period but absence feels like a black cloud hanging over.

I'm really interested to see an answer to this from a headteacher - it could be discriminatory to say 'No, I wouldn't rehire'. But I can understand why heads would feel this way if they had been dealing with repeated absences to cover...

Yes this is why I’ve asked. I get that they may tick no if it was lots of absences that were not resulting from a disability or protected characteristic. But wondered what the stance would be if it was due to one of those things.