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Staff conduct on and offline

Staff conduct on and offline. Dai Durbridge. This session. Breach of trust offences Recent examples and common themes Risk areas Policies to manage those risk areas Plenty of time for discussion and questions. What are the risks?. Blurred boundaries Inappropriate relationships

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Staff conduct on and offline

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  1. Staff conduct on and offline Dai Durbridge

  2. This session Breach of trust offences Recent examples and common themes Risk areas Policies to manage those risk areas Plenty of time for discussion and questions

  3. What are the risks? Blurred boundaries Inappropriate relationships Reputational damage for your organisation

  4. What are our concerns? Mobile phone contact Text contact Social media contact Social media exposure

  5. Does it happen much? • Education examples • Jeremy Forrest One female pupil 15 • Salford Stallion Three female pupils 14+ • Emma Webb Five male pupils 15-17 • Helen Goddard One female pupil 15

  6. Does it happen much? • Education examples (cont) • Madelaine Martin One male pupil 15 • Christopher Hird Three female pupils 13-15 • Robert Liddle One female pupil 15-17 • 129 teachers convicted between 1991 and 1998 • 959 allegations of inappropriate relationships in 5 years

  7. Breach of trust offences S.16-21 Sexual Offences Act 2003 Any pupil under 18 at your school or college Four different offences, all very serious

  8. Breach of trust – quick quiz • Four main offences based on relationships with pupils. For the offence to apply: • Do you need to have direct contact with the pupil? • Do they need to be in your class? • Is it enough simply for them to be a pupil at your school? • Does it have to involve a teacher or could it be wider staff?

  9. When does the offence apply? • The offence applies if: • “A” looks after persons under 18 who are receiving education at an educational institution and “B” is receiving, and “A” is not receiving, education at that institution • In other words: • You are “A” and “B” is any pupil at your school

  10. What are the four offences • Sexual touching of B by A (s.16) • Causing or inciting B to engage is a sexual activity (s.17) • Engaging in sexual activity in front B (s.18) • For the gratification of A, causing B to watch a sex act (s.19)

  11. What is the penalty? • Prison • Sex offenders register • GTCW sanction • Barred by the DBS from working with children

  12. Underlying themes • In each of the cases discussed earlier, one or more of the following were recurring themes: • Over familiar teacher/pupil relationship • Social networking contact • Mobile phone and text contact • In some case, school culture was also an issue

  13. Outside of education • Do the breach of trust offences apply? • No • But professional body sanctions, DBS barring, reputational damage and prison all do

  14. What are the risks with social media and mobile phone contact and how can we mitigate them?

  15. Scene setter • Used education as a case study • Applies equally to health, social care, youth services and so on • When we talk about education, think about your workplace and practices

  16. What are the risk areas? • Social networking contact • Mobile and text contact • School culture: • Over familiar teacher/pupil relationships? • Whistle blowing polices? • Whistle blowing in practice?

  17. Social networking sites • Staff profile pictures • Staff posts • Teacher pupil contact • Open privacy settings • Friending • Photo sharing

  18. What is your school’s approach? • Do you have a policy that covers friending pupils? • What does it say? • Do you talk to you staff about being sensible with: • Privacy setting? • Profile picture? • Posts? • Can you influence your staff in this respect?

  19. Mobile and text contact • What is your policy for mobile phone contact? • Sharing personal mobile phone numbers? • Teachers sharing with pupils and vice versa • Is it ever appropriate to exchange numbers? • Is it appropriate to retain numbers in personal phones?

  20. Mobile and text contact • Is it appropriate to text pupils? • Is it appropriate to text pupils from personal mobiles? • Photo sharing? • Do you have school/pool mobiles? • Is your policy/approach fit for purpose? • What should it say?

  21. School culture • How does your school approach these risks? • Can they be nipped in the bud? • Does it always have to lead to criminal investigations or can it be stopped sooner? • Strong culture required

  22. What is your school’s culture? • Whistle blowing policy and practice • Do you have a robust policy in place? • How have you disseminated it and trained your staff? • Do your staff feel comfortable enough to do it? • Will they be believed and supported?

  23. What policies and what should they say? • A policy to manage digital contact with pupils to cover: • social media • mobile phone and text • email • instant messaging • future proof against new methods • What do you want yours to say?

  24. Questions?

  25. Five key messages to take away • What does your social networking pages say about you? • Are you and your staff complying with your policy? • Influence colleagues re their social network appearance • Lead by example • Ensure clear boundaries with children

  26. Dai Durbridge | 0161 300 8037 | dai.durbridge@brownejacobson.com

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