Dismissals in Community Schools

The governing body of a community school can decide who to recruit and who to dismiss but those decisions must be given effect by the local authority.

In a recent Employment Appeal Tribunal (‘EAT’)  the EAT upheld the tribunal’s decision that valid notice of dismissal had not been given until the teacher in question had received a dismissal letter from the local authority.

A teacher was employed by the local authority at a community school. She was dismissed due to lengthy sickness absences. The local authority and the School’s governing body argued that the teacher was given valid notice of dismissal by a letter from the governing body which the teacher received on 29 February 2012. The EAT upheld the tribunal's decision that valid notice had not been given until the teacher received a letter from the local authority, the following day on 1st March.

On the face of it the fact that valid notice was not received until a day later does not seem to be of great concern. However, the significance of this was that like the majority of teachers, if the claimant was given notice of termination by the end of February then her employment would terminate on 30 April 2012. However, if notice was not given by the end of February then her employment would terminate on 31 August 2012. As such, the local authority’s letter was received a day too late and consequently the claimant was entitled to be paid until 31 August.

Detailed legislation for community schools sets out that although the governing body and senior leadership team of a community school will be actively involved in the recruitment of staff, teachers at community schools are appointed and employed by the local authority.

When it comes to dismissing those employees, the governing body will determine if a teacher employed by the local authority to work at the school should cease to work there. The school will then need to notify the local authority in writing of its determination and the reasons for it and the local authority has a 14 day window in which to terminate the employee’s contract with the local authority. Given the costly effect in this case, we would recommend that community schools give notification to the local authority with sufficient time for the local authority to send the notice to the employee. It may also be prudent to check that the local authority has sent that notice before any ‘cut off’ dates.

This system of providing notice is in contrast to teaching staff at an academy who are of course employed by the academy trust, usually through a charitable company. The academy trust, as the employer, can give notice directly to employees to terminate their employment without needing to consult with the local authority.