42 - Bury College Failed to Make DBS Referral After Accusing Teacher of Abuse.
A tribunal case involving Bury College has exposed what may be one of the most troubling contradictions possible within an educational safeguarding process. Throughout disciplinary proceedings, internal investigations, safeguarding documentation and tribunal submissions, the college repeatedly framed a teacher’s conduct as serious misconduct involving a disabled student. The language used was not minor. The college’s own documents referred to: a student with a “recognised learning disability”, “harm thresholds”, safeguarding procedures, LADO involvement, and even stated that the conduct “could be classed as a hate crime.” The teacher was suspended, investigated, and ultimately dismissed for gross misconduct. Yet despite all of this, there has been no referral to the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS). That fact creates an extraordinary contradiction. Because either: the college genuinely believed a teacher posed a safeguard...