The career of an “excellent” head teacher who gave her life to the profession was “ended by a malfeasant employer” and the professional standards case against her a “travesty”, her representative said in a tirade during that hearing. In a blistering 40-minute attack against the Educational Workforce Council (EWC) committee considering allegations against head teacher Linda Frame her representative Colin Adkins said she was being blamed for issues caused by underfunding.

He said lack of cash to the educational psychology service in Neath Port Talbot had caused delays affecting special needs pupils at Llangiwg Primary which were part of the allegations and beyond her control. Mr Adkins, representing Frame on behalf of the NASUWT teaching union, claimed the EWC fitness to practise committee had been “misdirected”. He accused the committee of “echoing blame-shifting” by her employer Neath Port Talbot Council. Join our WhatsApp news community here to receive the latest breaking news updates.

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Frame, who became head teacher of Llangiwg Primary in 2007, took the school from the worst category of red to the best rank of green under Wales’ now-discontinued colour performance banding, Mr Adkins told the last day of the remote hearing on October 27. She had a previously unblemished career, worked 80 hours a week, and also ran a volunteer Saturday art club at the school.

Mr Adkins launched his attack on the process after the panel some, but not all, of the 10 allegations against her proven. Mr Adkins said delays were caused not by Frame, who was also the school’s special educational needs coordinator, but by hold-ups in the educational psychology service. This, in turn, was caused by underfunding from the council and Welsh and UK Governments.

During nearly 40 minutes of closing remarks to the hearing Mr Adkins told the committee: “There was a backlog in the school psychologist education service. If need is greater than the number of visits there is sure to be bottlenecks and delays. I suspect the educational psychology service was underfunded by Neath Port Talbot Council, and Neath Port Talbot Council is underfunded by Welsh Government, and Welsh Government does not get enough from the UK Government. These are consequences of matters entirely outside Ms Frame’s control.”

He told the panel Frame advised parents to try to get around hold-ups by referring themselves for their child’s statutory assessments. This was an example of her trying to help, he said. “The service, councils, and schools should work together but we get the blame being dumped on Ms Frame and you (the EWC panel) have acted as an echo of that blame deflection,” he told the committee.

Describing the outcome of the hearing as "a travesty” Mr Adkins said Frame had retired and did not want to return to the profession but blasted the EWC for bringing the case and the committee for its findings. “Ms Frame is retired and has not kept up her registration with the EWC. She has done her time in schools and ain’t coming back. She has dedicated her life to teaching and her career has been ended by a malfeasant employer.”

Earlier in the hearing EWC presenting officer Greg Foxsmith had pointed out there was no personal financial gain to Frame paying staff who ran the school’s wraparound childcare service cash in hand. And he suggested she was “spinning too many plates” rather than deliberately failing on tasks like getting the wraparound legally registered.

Responding to that Mr Adkins told the final day of the hearing: “These allegations don’t amount to unprofessional conduct. The outcomes are a travesty. I consider the outcomes a travesty.”

And he said cash payment was a matter of fact. Frame had told staff concerned they must declare their own tax and national insurance liabilities to HMRC as they weren’t employed by the school.

He was speaking after the committee found a number of the allegations against Frame proven, which they found amounted to unprofessional conduct. All the allegations related to the period between 2010 and 2015.

They panel found she was not dishonest but lacked integrity in relation to some of the allegations found proven including paying wraparound care staff cash in hand, not ensuring the Red Dragon Child Care wraparound nursery provision was registered, and not ensuring it complied with national minimum standards for regulated childcare. It also found allegations that she did not keep accurate accounts of income or outgoings from the wraparound or ensure cash received from parents was banked appropriately or recorded in the school’s budget proven. Those amounted to a lack of integrity but not dishonesty, they ruled.

A separate allegation that cash from parents wasn’t stored appropriately was not proven but it was found she had allowed staff to be paid “cash in hand” without taking into account tax and/or national insurance. Again the committee found this showed a lack of integrity and not dishonesty.

Allegations that Frame did not ensure pre-employment checks on one or more members of staff in the wraparound were carried out and that HR documentation for wraparound staff was not kept and/or properly stored were found not proven. But the committee found the head teacher had not ensured the school’s special educational needs (SEN) practice complied with the SEN Code of Practice for Wales (2002) in that she had not kept sufficient records of SEN documentation and/or ensured pupils’ individual education plans were updated. A separate allegation that Frame had not told staff which learners were on the SEN register was found not proven.

On a further allegation that she had not ensured 10 SEN pupils were put forward for assessment the committee found that was proven in all but two cases, which the committee found amounted to a lack of integrity. But it found she had not misled parents and/or other professionals about the progress of SEN referrals made by the school in all the cases alleged. Allegations Frame had failed to ensure healthcare plans were created and/or implemented for those pupils with identified health care needs were not found proven.

Crucially a final allegation that her action in relation to cash in hand payments, accounting, and money-keeping for the wraparound amounted to dishonesty was not found proven. But the committee found Frame was “lacking integrity” in relation to that and for not putting forward some children for SEN assessment.

Finding Frame had committed unacceptable professional conduct the committee imposed a conditional registration order. The panel said Frame must not accept or apply for a job as a SEN coordinator or additional learning needs (ALN) coordinator and must make any prospective employer aware of this. She has the right of appeal to the High Court within 28 days. After the hearing Mr Adkins said: “We are thinking of taking this further.”