Bournemouth and Poole College paid a fake "Employment Lawyer" to investigate our formal complaints

(Post made at 1039 UK BST time on 8 Sep 2018 in a personal capacity.  Please see here for important background and disclosure of interests).

The short version of my earlier post is:

My wife and I made two detailed formal complaints to the Bournemouth and Poole College last year about in our view very poor treatment (in her case, of her after 13 years of very dedicated service, and in my case, of schools, some staff, and children including one with a disability) at the Centre for Wessex Young Musicians.

The College appointed an "independent investigator" from an outside firm (View HR Ltd) who has been falsely claiming membership of the prestigious Employment Lawyers Association (ELA) for at least the last two years, by falsely claiming to them (and to the world via their ELA member page) that they were a practising current solicitor when they have not been since at least June 2016.

Claimed to be a practising solicitor but was not. Was not entitled to be an Employment Lawyers Association member

This fake "Employment Lawyers Association" member then, rather like a fake "doctor" who examines only one leg and pronounces that all is well, conducted an extremely unprofessional "independent investigation" in which they effectively only looked at one side of the evidence (the College/CYWM's). (Along with many other procedural irregularities).

The fake employment lawyer gave the College and CWYM a clean bill of health and said that after their "exhaustive investigation" the College would not consider an appeal.

The ELA appears to have acted swiftly and professionally

I contacted the ELA with my concerns about the membership qualifications of this View HR Ltd "investigator".

Three days later this person was no longer a member.  

How much did the Bournemouth and Poole College (a registered charity) pay this fake ELA member/VIew HR Ltd? 

Bournemouth and Poole College is advertising for a new Wessex Starter Strings/Wessex Middle Strings Conductor

(Post made at 1842 UK BST time on 3 Sep 2018 in a personal capacity.  Please see here for important background and disclosure of interests).

An advert was placed last Wednesday (29 August 2018) at  https://www.educationweekjobs.co.uk/jobboard/cands/jobview.asp?v=7841343.

For some reason the closing date is only a week later (Wednesday 5 September 2018, so now only 2 days away).

A copy of the advert is shown below. I'm glad that the rate seems to have gone up & that admin work is no longer being expected. I hope the Bournemouth and Poole College and Centre for Wessex Young Musicians will treat any new occupant of the post better than the WSS/WMS Conductor from Sep 2004 to May 2017 feels she was treated (see here). In particular, will the post still have no notice?

Jane and I genuinely wish any new occupant of the post all the very best: the children and their parents are wonderful and it was a joy to make music with them.

The Bournemouth and Poole College's poor compliance with the Freedom of Information Act continues, having failed to reply to internal review requests after almost a year

(Post made at 1618 UK BST time on 6 Jun 2018 in a personal capacity.  Please see here for important background and disclosure of interests).

The Bournemouth and Poole College is extremely late in responding to two Freedom of Information Act internal reviews:

How often have fire drills taken place at the Centre for Wessex Young Musicians? 

(see here).

and

Discrepancies in information given by College about communicating Wessex Youth Orchestra rehearsal dates to schools

(see here).

Credit where credit is due: the College have finally corrected their website

A thank you to Bournemouth and Poole College who corrected their website earlier this week: it no longer says that my wife conducts the Wessex Starter and Middle Strings (which is good because she stopped doing that just over a year ago).

A year ago, Bournemouth and Poole College and the Centre for Wessex Young Musicians carried out an act of senseless destruction, which was not in the interests of the children in my opinion

(Post made at 1727 UK BST time on 11 May 2018 in a personal capacity.  Please see here for important background and disclosure of interests).

An act of destruction

11 May 2017: an act of destruction at the College and the Centre for Wessex Young Musicians

In my view, a year ago (on 11 May 2017), Bournemouth and Poole College and the Centre for Wessex Young Musicians carried out an act of senseless destruction, which was not in the interests of the children or the Centre.  By dismissing a very popular teacher after 13 years of extremely dedicated service, without notice, explanation or thanks, and 3 weeks into the start of the summer term. The day after she had raised concerns informally over the management style at the Centre. She left that meeting (with a senior person at the College) feeling that her concerns had been listened to, and with the understanding that things were going to improve. Yet the very next day she was dismissed in such a callous, senseless manner.

The teacher concerned - my wife - was devastated.  Many, many, parents told us that they were too, and most important, 60 to 70 children from the Wessex Starter and Middle Strings were unable to understand why a teacher they had known in several cases for years (and in many cases had been very fond of) had disappeared suddenly, without reason or even being able to say goodbye.  Many parents found it incredibly difficult to explain to their children what had happened. Readers will have to judge for themselves whether the College's actions then and since are in line with its stated culture.

More incompetent (unethical?) behaviour (false advertising) by Bournemouth and Poole College/Centre for Wessex Young Musicians

(Post made at 1409 UK BST time on 13 Apr 2018 in a personal capacity.  Please see here for important background and disclosure of interests).

The Bournemouth and Poole College are still advertising the Wessex Starter and Middle Strings courses on their website (see this page) as being conducted by my wife, 11 months after she stopped conducting these groups. (At their request, with no notice or thanks after 13 years, and without explanation until a week later when a pretext was given which was quickly shown to be spurious given accepted practice by other staff at the College).

See this screenshot, taken earlier today (you can click on any image in this post to see a larger version):

This is false and misleading advertising.

Is this simply incompetence, or is it deliberate, unethical advertising using a very popular teacher's name?

In my opinion, the downplaying of the younger CWYM groups continues

(Post made at 1130 UK time on 06 Mar 2018 in a personal capacity.  Please see here for important background and disclosure of interests).

Further to "The younger groups have got the short straw in the CWYM Summer Concert on 1 July 2017", something which seems to be happening again in the 2018 Summer Concert, there seems at the time of writing to be no Facebook event, no poster, and indeed little mention (apart from in the list of concerts on the CWYM website) of the March concert (on 18 March, with no time stated) by the Wessex Fanfares and Wessex Starter and Middle Strings.

Furthermore, rather than having an external venue (as has happened for the last several years), the younger groups (which are the future of the WYO) are being relegated this year to playing at the Bournemouth and Poole College.  This seems a throwback to the situation about 10 years ago, when the feeder groups just had an informal concert at St Andrew's Hall at the old Constitution Hill site, with little room for an audience, and not much of a sense of occasion.

This seems a pity.  When I was chairperson of the SWYM Committee, it was always our aim to integrate the groups as far as possible, and to minimise any feeling of "them and us" as between the WYO and its feeder groups.

Something I hope I've never adopted as a management style!

(Post made at 1106 UK time on 06 Mar 2018 in a personal capacity.  Please see here for important background and disclosure of interests).

I found the above cartoon (amongst several on the theme of micromanagement) amusing. Managing a team is a challenge, with a balance between delegation and supervising, and I know I've not always got it right! 

Bournemouth and Poole College: why do the concerns I raise matter?

(Post made at 1046 UK time on 27 Jan 2018 in a personal capacity.  Please see here for important background and disclosure of interests).

This is a follow up to a previous post, Why is this public?

Great music education is a partnership between classroom teachers, specialist teachers, professional performers and a host of other organisations, including those from the arts, charity and voluntary sectors.

The quote above is from page 3 of the government's "The Importance of Music", a National Plan for Music Education.

Reactions from some CWYM parents to the concerns I have raised have been along the lines of "fake news!", or "what does it matter if the rehearsals are secret?" "this is just admin, life's too short for that" or "stop criticising the Centre!".

My answers are:

1. To the best of my knowledge, nothing in this blog is "fake news", and I have written evidence to back up everything I have said.  With regard to whether cooperation between CWYM and other musical organisations has been good, I have written statements from several witnesses (which I supplied to the College) that in their view cooperation had been unsatisfactory over a long period of time.  The email from CWYM to a school head of music refusing an advance request for help when one of six (!) extra rehearsals clashed with a weekday school concert  provides clear supporting evidence to back up what those witnesses told me.  Note that there has been no denial from the College that that email is genuine. Notice also that, even today, the CWYM website still instructs parents and children that the rehearsal schedules are secret (http://www.cwym-music.com/wyo-membership-guidelines.html still says "Members will be informed of a following season’s concert dates by email each summer, and then regularly throughout a season on the WYO schedules (for WYO members and families only) and by email").  This is 13 months after a senior member of staff at the College told me in writing that he/she expected the schedules to be published. 
2. To the follow up questions, "so what if they are secret?" "so what if cooperation is poor?" my reply is: isn't that a rather selfish attitude? At a minimum, the likely absence of key players at key times seems to have caused significant stress to some other teachers/ensemble leaders, who have a difficult enough job as it is. Overall the impact on those other musical organisations seems to have been harmful, as indeed one might logically expect it to be.  In any case, the College claims to want to work harmoniously with other community organisations. Indeed as a publicly funded body and a charity doesn't it have a duty to do so? How does secrecy and a lack of cooperation comply with the importance of working in partnership referred to in the quote at the start of this post? In the absence of any valid counter to arguments such as these, if someone were still to say "so what?" then I think their views of right and wrong and mine differ enormously.  I believe most CWYM parents would agree that music teaching plays an important part in schools (see here for my thoughts on this).

The Bournemouth and Poole College's Wessex Youth Orchestra spent just under £2,000 on extra players for two concerts

(Post made at 1412 UK time on 02 Jan 2018 in a personal capacity.  Please see here for important background and disclosure of interests). 

On 3 December 2016, as still then Chairman of the Society for Wessex Young Musicians (SWYM), I was very surprised to be asked to sign cheques totalling just over £3,000.  This included just under £2,000 for extra players for the WYO's concerts of 16 November 2016 (the Music for Youth Schools' Prom at the Royal Albert Hall, 16 extra players) and 4 December 2016 at the Lighthouse (at least 8 extra players).

I have no objections to extra players in principle e.g. to fill in missing parts (e.g. harp), or in situations where the musicians concerned were ex WYO members. The latter help provide extra continuity, and can usefully - because they often know the WYO children well - be part of the accompanying adults team on tours.

But the numbers involved seemed a) much higher than usual, b) the majority had no connection with the WYO, and c) had not been cleared with the SWYM Committee in advance. Expenditure had instead been approved for the WYO to receive sectional rehearsals led by Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra players. I have always felt this was very valuable because all WYO players benefit from such tuition, and it also enhances the link with our excellent local professional orchestra.

The Bournemouth and Poole College's Centre for Wessex Young Musicians Facebook page claims it is a charity - I don't believe it is one

(Post made at 0855 UK time on 02 Jan 2018 in a personal capacity.  Please see here for important background and disclosure of interests). 

The Centre for Wessex Young Musicians (CWYM)'s Facebook page, set up by the Bournemouth and Poole College early in 2017, is at https://www.facebook.com/cwymwyo/.

This states that it is a "Charity in Poole, Dorset" (click on the image to see it in larger detail).

Why? And for how long has this claim (false in my view) been made?

To the best of my knowledge, CWYM has never been a charity, and neither has SWYM (the Society for Wessex Young Musicians).

Just a few reasons why music (and particularly group music) is so important in education

(Post made at 1220 UK time on 28 Dec 2017 in a personal capacity.  Please see here for important background and disclosure of interests). 

In today's world in which very many children have a very short attention span and very often call out/take a sip from a water bottle, taking part in a group musical activity (such as a choir or a wind/brass/string/percussion band, or an orchestra, or even "just" a series of call and response musical games in a class setting) offers many life skills that will stand them in very good stead in their future working and family life.  Here are just a few that come to mind:

Bournemouth and Poole College: a failure of governance because of a lack of accountability and little apparent concern for ethics

(Post made at 2245 BST on 25 Sep 2017 in a personal capacity.  Please see here for important background and disclosure of interests). 

In my opinion a flawed complaints system (which is being used to silence criticism rather than address it) is preventing accountability for poor practices.  In what way is the College accountable for what I believe to be very poor ethical behaviour, if it accepts the results of a manifestly flawed (and itself unethical, because of incorrect statements that no witnesses came forward to support complaints) "independent" complaints investigation?  Where is the accountability and ethics in the College refusing to allow an appeal despite the clear flaws in the investigation?  Where is the accountability in the College refusing to allow my concerns to be passed on to its Board? How is the College's refusal to investigate items complained about not a violation of its Complaints Policy? Aren't all these things further evidence of unethical behaviour and a failure of culture, governance and leadership at the Bournemouth and Poole College?

My concerns about the current operation of the College's Complaints Policy

(Post made at 1957 BST on 15 Sep 2017 in a personal capacity.  Please see here for important background and disclosure of interests).  

In my opinion, based on my recent experience, there are many things about the current operation of the Bournemouth and Poole College's Complaints Policy that are inconsistent with good practice. Here are some of them:

The independent investigator appointed (and paid, although this is itself is not unusual) by the College objected to my taking a netbook (a small computer) to my first meeting with her, saying it made her feel uncomfortable, and there was no need for me to take notes because a notetaker from the College was present. I explained that I wanted to be able to refer to correspondence, and to take my own notes.  She insisted that she would prefer me not to. I therefore agreed to close the netbook. Soon in the meeting she asked me questions that I needed to refer to correspondence to answer, so I asked (and was granted permission) to temporarily open the netbook.  Towards the end of the meeting, I wanted to make a note of some action points that were down to me as a result of the meeting, so again I asked (and was granted permission) to write them down in my netbook. I said it was irregular that I was not allowed to take my own notes, in the way that I have done throughout my career to date, including meetings with senior lawyers, and in sensitive discussions.

The other complainant (my wife) had presented a detailed written statement to her first meeting with the investigator. (Her complaint and mine were being treated by the College as a joint complaint and were being investigated by the same investigator, albeit with separate meetings).

Response eventually received from BPCollege Principal, very unsatisfactory in my opinion

(Post made at 1112 BST on 29 Aug 2017 in a personal capacity.  Please see here for important background and disclosure of interests).  

See the comment added on 21 Aug 2017 to my previous post.

No response yet from BPCollege to my letter re significant concerns about the impartiality and fairness of recent complaint investigation

(Post made at 2354 BST on 31 Jul 2017 in a personal capacity.  Please see here for important background and disclosure of interests. Update 01 Sep 2017: response eventually received from the College, please see the comment below this post).  

This is a follow up to the preceding post.  Here is a copy of an email I sent earlier to the College (the chain of emails referred to is shown in the preceding post and this one):

Open letter:

Dear Bournemouth and Poole College Principal (cc Quality team)

I do not appear to have had any response to my requests, despite asking that correspondence be forwarded to someone deputising for you in your absence:

1. (see my email of 14 July below to your Quality team) “Please advise me which external agency is most appropriate.”
2. (see my emails of 17 July below), asking for confirmation that my email of 1017 on 17 July has been forwarded to the Chair of the Bournemouth and Poole College Board together with my comments “Please also forward this to James Hampton, Chair of the Bournemouth and Poole College Board – I wish the Board to be aware of my concerns about the way this investigation has been conducted and to ask for a response from them.”

Please would you provide me with responses to 1 and 2 above as soon as possible, and no later than 1700 on Friday 4 August.

Yours faithfully

Patrick Lee

One more witness confirms s/he was not contacted by the College/Independent Investigator

(Post made at 1757 BST on 18 Jul 2017 in a personal capacity.  Please see here for important background and disclosure of interests)

So far this makes a total of 6 supportive witnesses who say they were not contacted, and 2 who were, but were given a very unreasonable deadline (just over three hours before midnight to reply the same day).

If key witnesses for one side are not called, how can the process be impartial?

(Post made on 17 Jul 2017 in a personal capacity.  Please see here for important background and disclosure of interests)

In my opinion the impartiality and fairness of the investigation carried out cannot be relied upon (key witnesses not contacted + other irregularities)

(Post made on 17 Jul 2017 in a personal capacity.  Please see here for important background and disclosure of interests).  

This is a follow up to the preceding post.  This is a copy of an email just sent to the Bournemouth and Poole College.

Open letter:

Dear Quality team and Bournemouth and Poole College Principal

In fact I have since heard that, contrary to the statement in the Independent Investigator outcome letter to me that no witnesses interviewed corroborated my allegations and that no witnesses had been willing to step forward to support my allegations, so far 4 witnesses have confirmed that they were NOT contacted by the College/View HR Limited (the Independent Investigator’s company).  In addition, 2 witnesses had been contacted, but were given an unreasonable deadline (email sent at 2049 on 11 July requesting a response “today”). I also know so far of at least 1 witness supportive of the other person’s complaint who was also NOT contacted by the College/View HR Limited. In my opinion this raises serious questions about the impartiality and fairness of the investigation. 

in my opinion, in view of this and other procedural improprieties the outcome of the investigations must be regarded as suspect and neither the College nor anyone else should place any reliance on the investigation carried out by View HR Limited. I understand that some of the witnesses who the Independent Investigator failed to contact will be getting in touch with the College.

Yours faithfully

Patrick Lee   

Formal complaint to Bournemouth & Poole College was not upheld "no witnesses came forward to support": several confirm they were NOT contacted ...

(Post made on 14 Jul 2017 in a personal capacity.  Please see here for important background and disclosure of interests).

Copy of email sent to Bournemouth and Poole College's Quality Department (the department that handles complaints, any letters or emails of complaint are sent to this department for action)

From: Patrick Lee 

Sent: 14 July 2017 17:27

To: 'Quality' <quality@bpc.ac.uk>

Subject: RE: Response Letter

Thank you for your letter. I am not satisfied with the outcome or the process followed, which in my view contained serious procedural improprieties and irrationality .  Your letter says that the College will not allow an appeal.  Your complaints policy states:

“If at this stage the complainant remains dissatisfied, they will be advised as to which external agency is most appropriate for the complaint to be referred to.”

Please advise me which external agency is most appropriate.

Kind regards

Patrick Lee