Schools take out insurance to guard against angry parents
PRIVATE schools are now taking out legal insurance for teachers, amid a rise in parents calling in law firms when their children are in trouble.
If a complaint to a school about their child does not yield favourable results, wealthy parents are increasingly turning to solicitors’ firms in an attempt to force the school’s hand.
This can be terrifying for teachers as any kind of allegation against them can damage their career even if it turns out to be false, according to John Roberts, founder of Edapt, which provides legal cover for school staff. “It is something you are more likely to see in independent schools where parents have the means to be able to do that,” Mr Roberts told The Sunday Telegraph.
He said that instructing lawyers would not usually be a “first port of call” for parents, but tends to occur when they feel the school has not given them a satisfactory response.
Edapt launched in 2012 as a membership organisation for teachers who pay a monthly subscription and can access up to £100,000 of legal costs. Two years ago it launched a new type of whole-school membership.
“Now we have a number of schools – both independent schools and multi -academy trusts – taking out subscriptions for all their staff,” he said.
Michael Charles, chief executive of Sinclairs Law, which specialises in edu- cation, said there is now a “greater propensity” for parents to involve lawyers when they fall out with a school.
“There is no doubt that as school fees rise, parents are becoming more willing to challenge schools that they feel have let them down,” he said.
The average cost of privately educating a child from age four to 18 is now £275,000, according to an analysis published by Fidelity.
Mr Charles said that one of the biggest causes of a falling-out between parents and private schools is payment of fees – in particular paying for the notice period when a child moves schools.
Parents sometimes get lawyers involved if their child is about to be expelled and they want to come to an agreement with the school whereby they withdraw their child voluntarily.
This would mean that the child’s school record need not state they were expelled, which could have an impact on future school, university or job applications.
Lord Lucas, a hereditary peer and owner of The Good Schools Guide, said that private schools are “by and large pretty well lawyered up” and are used to taking a “pragmatic approach” when dealing with parents.
He said there is “always a danger” that wealthy parents will employ lawyers and “fight hard” against a school. “To have some kind of legal insurance for teachers is a sensible thing to do. Lawsuits are an enormous distraction.”