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 ForrestOne female pupil15 Salford StallionThree female pupils 14+ Emma WebbFive male pupils15-17 Helen GoddardOne female pupil15

6. Does it happen much? Education examples (cont) Madelaine MartinOne male pupil15 Christopher HirdThree female pupils 13-15 Robert LiddleOne female pupil15-17 129 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 1.What does your social networking pages say about you? 2.Are you and your staff complying with your policy? 3.Influence colleagues re their social network appearance 4.Lead by example 5.Ensure clear boundaries with children

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