Open letter to the Bournemouth and Poole College's solicitors

(Post made at 1127 BST on 26 Sep 2017 in a personal capacity.  Please see here for important background and disclosure of interests. Update 0531 BST on 27 Sep 2017: please see the comment below this post to see the College's solicitors' reply). 

From: Patrick Lee
Sent: 26 September 2017 11:24
To: johnandrews@steeleraymond.co.uk
Subject: Re Bournemouth & Poole College (your letter of 14 July 2017)

Open letter (i.e. public and non confidential)

Dear SteeleRaymond LLP

I refer to your letter of 14 July 2017 to me, titled “Bournemouth and Poole College”.

I believe your client (“the College”) may not have given you a full or accurate picture of the situation.  In particular with regard to the evidence supporting my concerns and those of other parents and teachers, and to the fairness and integrity of the independent complaints investigation carried out by View HR Limited, and hence the integrity and appropriateness of the College (and by extension your firm) relying on the outcome of that investigation.  Please confirm whether the College disclosed to you the full contents of my email of 26 June 2017 to the investigator (via the College member of staff appointed by its Quality Department as the point of contact), headed “Formal complaint with items numbered for clarity and ease of reference”?  You say in your letter that you do not believe that there is any evidence to substantiate the allegations I have made – did you make that statement despite having read my email of 26 June 2017 just referred to?

Similarly, did the College disclose to you that, despite the View HR investigator’s outcome letter stating that “no witnesses have been willing to step forward to provide any evidence in support of [Patrick’s] allegations”, I had in fact provided not only documented email evidence in my 26 June email (which the investigator seems to have disregarded, I quote from the outcome letter: “Email communication invariably results in misinterpretation as there is no body language to support its content”) , but I had also provided the Quality Department with the contact details of several witnesses who were willing to support the concerns raised in my complaint? 

These witnesses have subsequently confirmed to me, in writing, that they were *NOT* contacted by the College (or the investigator) with the exception of two who were contacted, but were provided with a totally unreasonable deadline (they were sent an email at 2050 on a weekday evening demanding a response by the end of the day).  This and several other aspects of the investigation give rise to great concern which you should be aware of. I have raised these concerns with your client, but they have chosen to ignore them, and have made clear that they continue to rely on the outcome of this flawed investigation.

I aim to respond to your letter in more detail, but wanted to give you the opportunity to check that the College has disclosed all relevant information to you.

I intend to publish my response to your letter and your response to this email.  Do you consent to my publishing your letter of 14 July 2017, so that my response can be seen in its proper context?  I would be grateful if you would please confirm receipt of this email, either via the “Read Receipt” facility, or via a short acknowledgement reply.

Yours faithfully

Patrick Lee