Whistle Blowing Policy and Procedures

The Council and the Governing Board are committed to the highest possible standards of openness, honesty, integrity and accountability.  As part of this commitment the Governing Board is keen that activity, which falls below these standards, is reported to the school (or Council) in order that it can be dealt with promptly.

The Governing Board acknowledges that the public and staff are often the first to realise that there may be something seriously wrong within the school and wish to encourage those with concerns about any aspect of the school’s work to come forward and voice those concerns.  Usually these concerns are easily resolved.  However, when they are about unlawful conduct, financial malpractice or dangers to the public, other staff or the environment, it can be difficult to know what to do.

You may be worried about raising such issues or may want to keep the concerns to yourself, perhaps feeling it’s none of your business or that it’s only a suspicion.  You may also fear you may not be taken seriously or be victimised in some way.  If you work within the school you may also feel that raising the matter would be disloyal to colleagues.  You may decide to say something but find that you are not sure how to raise the issue or are not sure what to do next.

The purpose of this policy is to:

• encourage anyone (members of the public or school based staff) to feel confident in raising serious concerns;
• reassure those that if they raise any serious concerns in good faith and reasonably believe them to be true, i.e. “whistle-blow”, they will be protected from victimisation and their concerns will be taken seriously;
• provide avenues for members of the public and school based staff to raise concerns and receive appropriate feedback on any action taken; and
• ensure that those that raise serious concerns get an appropriate response to the concerns they have raised from the Governing Board or Council and, if not satisfied, show how they may take the matter further if they are dissatisfied with the response.

This policy should enable you to raise your concerns about suspected malpractice at an early stage and in the right way.  The Governing Board would rather that you raised the matter when it is just a concern rather than wait for proof.

If something is troubling you, which you think the Governing Board should know about, or look into, please use the processes described in this policy to report your concern.  Please don’t ignore the concern.

You can read our full Whistle Blowing Policy by downloading the PDF below:

  Whistle Blowing Policy.PDF