SecEd The ONLY weekly voice for secondary education Inside this issue Teacher’s arrest sparks


Issue 280 • April 7 2011 Price £1.00 www.sec-ed.com


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We hear from a range of schools on the little ideas that have had a big impact on engagement with their learning platforms Page 10


call for CRB change High Court orders compensation after the arrest of a falsely accused teacher


by Dorothy Lepkowska


Teachers who fall victim to malicious allegations should no longer have their DNA samples, fingerprints and photographs retained on the Police National Computer, a major teaching union has claimed after a High Court ruling. The landmark judgement should


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lead to police procedures being rewritten and the record of the arrest of teachers and other professionals deleted so that they do not show up on criminal record checks. The calls follow a case taken


by the NASUWT after one of its members in the West Midlands was falsely accused of assault. The police have been ordered to pay compensation to the teacher for wrongful arrest. The union said it would pursue


further legal action if details of the teacher’s personal samples are not removed from the record. Chris Keates, the union’s gen-


eral secretary, said: “This is a land- mark decision for teachers and oth- ers who are vulnerable to allega- tions made by children and young people. New guidance for police is needed urgently to prevent these needless arrests that wreck innocent people’s careers. “Teachers are vulnerable to


allegations made by pupils, which frequently involve police investiga- tion. The overwhelming majority prove to be false but teachers are often deeply traumatised and their career is blighted. This situation is compounded when the police then unnecessarily arrest a teacher who has presented themselves voluntar- ily for interview. “This ruling significantly


restricts the widespread, unac- ceptable practice of police arrest- ing teachers and indeed others when they volunteer to be inter- viewed.” Ms Keates added that she would


be writing to education minister Michael Gove and home secretary Theresa May to seek changes to national procedures “to end this disgraceful practice”.


On the record? NASUWT is calling for teachers' police records to be wiped if they are found to be innocent after arrest The allegation of assault against


the teacher was not pursued by the pupil’s parents and the school had intended dealing with it through its disciplinary process. The police suggested the mat-


ter should be resolved locally, however the teacher was not prepared to accept this because no assault had taken place. The teacher was therefore asked to attend a police station for inter- view, which he did voluntarily and by appointment. However, when the teach-


er attended the police station on December 16, 2009, with his NASUWT solicitor, he was arrested and held in custody for two hours. The police claimed this had


been necessary to prevent the teach- er from leaving the interview. But the Court held that there was no evidence that the arresting officer had properly assessed whether it was necessary to arrest the teacher, as required by Section 24 of the


Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 (PACE). The Court held that an arrest-


ing officer must have grounds to believe that the arrest is necessary, and those grounds must be objec- tively reasonable. In January 2010 the police


decided to take no further action in relation to the assault allegation. Ms Keates added: “Once a


teacher has been arrested, regard- less of whether they are subse- quently exonerated, they are left virtually unemployable because the disclosure of the arrest on Enhanced CRB certificates that teachers are required to produce is generally fatal in any future job application. “Only around five per cent of


NASUWT members who face allegations from pupils have any further action taken against them following arrest. In the majority of these cases there is ultimately no case to answer. “It is, however, unacceptable


that 95 per cent have a permanent stain on their character and career record.” The NASUWT is calling for


police guidance to be rewritten; bet- ter training for police officers and anonymity for staff up to the point of a court verdict. Paula Porter, head of the


Criminal Law Unit at Thompsons Solicitors, the NASUWT’s lawyers, said: “This ruling represents a very significant reining-in of police pow- ers to arrest teachers, firefighters, prison officers and other profes- sionals whose careers are ended by such an arrest appearing on their CRB check, even though they are wholly innocent of the allegation. “The PACE guideline codes


should now be amended to clarify the law in terms of the grounds on which the police can arrest some- one who attends a police station voluntarily for interview. “ACPO (Association of Chief Police Officers) should issue urgent


guidance to ensure other people are not arrested unlawfully in this way.” Dai Durbridge, safeguarding


lawyer at Browne Jacobson, which represents public sector clients, said: “While the court’s agreed that the arrest was wrongful, it does not fol- low that the CRB check will be clear. “It is often the case that police


include arrest information on CRB disclosures regardless of outcome, putting the onus on employers to make the decision on suitability. The Protection Freedoms Bill offers a token improvement by giving individuals the right to request a review of the disclosure.” A spokesman for West Midlands


Police said an internal investiga- tion was being launched into the incident and how the process was handled.


• See page 3: Michael Gove’s new behaviour guidance includes advice on how schools should handle false accusations.


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