An investigation was carried out last year into the recruitment of the head teacher at a Brighton school that is now threatened with closure.
Brighton and Hove City Council received a complaint in March last year about the circumstances surrounding the employment of Rob Cooper, the current head of Middle Street Primary School.
One person with knowledge of the investigation said that it had raised “a red flag”.
Mr Cooper left his previous job as a head teacher, at Comberbach Primary School, in Northwich, in Cheshire, in April 2019 and took up the position at Middle Street in September 2020.
The governors on the Middle Street recruitment panel are understood to have asked questions about a gap in Mr Cooper’s employment history.
They were, though, given the “all clear” to employ him by the council’s human resources (HR) department.
An official close to Comberbach Primary School expressed surprise at Mr Cooper’s employment at Middle Street.
The official said that the previous board of governors had not received a request for a reference but could not say more because of the existence of a “compromise agreement”.
His comments were passed to Brighton and Hove City Council. The council’s HR department carried out the investigation – and, in line with council policy, the outcome was not made public.
The complainant was first told about the investigation last June, three months after the initial complaint, and received confirmation that the investigation had been concluded in September last year.
Parents asked questions about the head’s previous employment and whether references had been checked on Tuesday 10 February at the first of three public consultation meetings to discuss the proposed closure of the school.
Brighton and Hove City Council said that it was council policy not to discuss the details of an individual’s recruitment.
The council said: “We can confirm that the council follows a clear policy for recruiting head teachers which all maintained schools are expected to follow.
“The governing body initiates the recruitment process, appoints a selection panel and ratifies any subsequent decision.
“Selection panels are supported by the council’s human resources department and an education adviser which help manage logistics and provide guidance throughout each stage of the recruitment process.
“We understand governors may have different levels of experience in terms of recruitment and offer comprehensive support to ensure a consistent and transparent process.”
The council said that potential employees were not required to disclose the existence of a settlement or compromise agreement.
A compromise agreement, also known as a settlement agreement, is a legal contract between employer and employee which ends an employment contract privately, usually in exchange for a financial payout.
Such agreements usually contain a confidentiality clause and an open reference, also known as an agreed reference, pre-approved by the previous employer to use when seeking future work.
One local governor said that a candidate for a headship with an open reference – addressed “to whom it may concern” – would be “a red flag”.
The governor said that it would make it even more important to know whether the candidate had been subject to a “capability procedure” in their previous post, arising from any concerns about how they performed in their job.
A retired head teacher in Cheshire said that it was an open secret that Mr Cooper had left the school in April 2019 – and a PTA (parent teacher association) newsletter welcomed his successor in May.
Mr Cooper’s LinkedIn profile said that he left his previous job in September 2019 and took over at Middle Street in September 2020.
The retired head said that Mr Cooper was understood to have been on gardening leave – so he may have remained on the payroll during his notice period and while the terms of his departure were finalised.
The same person added that there had been questions about Comberbach Primary School’s finances and concerns about the integrity of SATs (Standard Assessment Tests) there.
The finances at Middle Street, the oldest school in Brighton and Hove, have also come in for scrutiny, with the school racking up an estimated £425,000 debt over the past few years.
The six-figure deficit – at a school with a £1 million-a-year budget – was part of the reason that the governors were replaced by an “interim executive board” (IEB) in June last year.
The move – restricted to “schools causing concern” and so serious that it has to be signed off by the Secretary of State for Education – was a first for any school in Brighton and Hove.
Despite the efforts of the IEB, the school’s forecast deficit of £425,000 – up from £256,000 a year ago – and another drop-off in pupil number led the board to recommend that the school should close. School incomes are closely linked to pupil numbers.
The outcome of the three recent public meetings, one of them held online-only, and the responses to the initial consultation are due to be reported to Brighton and Hove City Council’s cabinet next week.
A written report, setting out the findings and the proposals for what should happen next, is due to be published today (Wednesday 11 March), with the cabinet due to meet at Hove Town Hall on Thursday 19 March to debate and decide the matter.
Mr Cooper was contacted for comment.
