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Preschool committee sacking the manager

4 replies

Quiffniff · 19/02/2019 16:49

Has anyone ever been part of a committee-run (charity) preschool that ended up sacking the preschool manager?

Can you tell me about it? What went wrong? What weren’t you able to resolve?

OP posts:
SileneOliveira · 20/02/2019 07:46

Yes and it was a fucking nightmare.

I was Chair of my child's preschool about 8 years ago, the old manager left and after interviewing we appointed one of the existing workers to the manager's post . She had the qualifications, experience, knew the kids, seemed perfect.

Within just a few months things started going wrong. She was trying to change absolutely everything about how things ran, whether there was an issue or not. She dictated to the other staff. She did not listen when the committee asked her to slow down the changes and be more consultative. It all came to a head when she had a huge falling out with another member of staff over an issue which was nothing to do with work and totally out of committee control. She refused to come back to work unless we sacked the other worker, who had been there for about 15 years. Obviously we couldn't do that and told her so. So she said that she'd have us for constructive dismissal.

Anyhow, it all rumbled on for a few weeks with lengthy phonecalls to ACAS - people don't seem to know that employers can get advice from them too and they were fabulous. Also we had a lot of help from the Pre-School Play Association which we paid an annual fee to and they provided phone support and advice too (which was basically that she didn't have a leg to stand on regarding constructive dismissal).

After she understood that we wouldn't be sacking the member of staff we had a problem with she handed in her notice. Phew.

Have to say though, it put a huge black cloud over my child's year at pre-school. As a committee member you are not paid to deal with that sort of shit and it was horrendously stressful and time-consuming, we had to do interviews with staff members to clear up the allegations the manager was making and I was spending 2 or 3 hours a DAY on it until it was resolved. Everyone's an expert, usually the people who haven't bothered their backsides to get onto the committee are the worst wading in with "advice".

So good luck. My advice having been through it is - get all the committee singing from the same song sheet. Use ACAS and any body you might be part of. (Professional legal advice is simply not affordable to most pre-schools). Follow your disciplinary processes to the letter. Tell parents you will not be able to speak to them about it at present.

Quiffniff · 20/02/2019 08:13

Oh this is ringing so many bells!

Even to the staff falling out issue.

I don’t think ours will ever hand in her notice though. Ever. I think that would actually be quite ideal right now.

Yes ACAS and our membership to a body that also provides legal advice have all been invaluable. We are all well read on our policy and protecting ourselves by following procedure.

You are complexity right though. This is taking hours each day and it’s half term and my kids have a half-present mum. It’s all not ideal.

Thanks for the reply though. Solidarity.

OP posts:
SileneOliveira · 20/02/2019 08:27

The other thing I learned is that you can't control the gossip. Everyone involved in our scenario lived locally. The manager had older children at the same schools as older siblings of the children at the pre-school, the staff had kids there too, you'd bump into people in Costa and Asda. Everyone thinks they know what's been going on. "I can't believe you won't sack Gladys because of what she said to Agatha (manager)" or "Oooooh, what's going on at Sunny Hollow pre-school, I heard you sacked the manager for thumping Mary" or "I studied employment law at A-level so I will now talk to you for 20 minutes about a situation I know nothing about".

Everyone's an expert. Everyone has an opinion about how you should be doing your (unpaid, voluntary) job. Nobody will say thank you once it's all resolved.

However. If you're ever in an interview situation when they ask about managing conflict you have a superb example to draw on.

Lonecatwithkitten · 20/02/2019 11:54

Having had a similar situation not in Pre-school, but a similar organisation I would GDPR is your friend with the gossips.
Sorry I am unable to discuss this due to GDPR - ends just about any conversations, follow by for the really pushy ones as I previously said Ian not able to discuss this.
We ensure it was always discussed in reserved part of the meeting which whilst privately minuted will never be read outside the committee.
Ours was a significant safeguarding issue which made it even trickier.

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