Teachers in legal action after being left in limbo when free school opened

Former teachers of two schools on Merseyside that were closed and replaced by a free school have launched legal proceedings.

The teachers worked at St Wilfrid’s High in Litherland and St George of England High in Bootle. They were left without jobs when The Hawthorne’s Free School was opened.

The NASUWT said the teachers were “victims of the failure of the Hawthorne’s Free School Trustees and Sefton Council to resolve the question of who has responsibility for the staff”.

The union confirmed that it would lodge Employment Tribunal claims on behalf of its members against the free school and the local authority for unfair dismissal, redundancy payments, breach of contract and failure to comply with the statutory duty to consult.

General Secretary Chris Keates said:"The failure of the Free School Trustees and Sefton Council to resolve this issue before the teachers' contracts were severed on 31 August is quite simply unacceptable.

"These are teachers who have given dedicated service to thousands of children and young people and they deserve better than to find themselves cast adrift while the council and the Free School Trustees argue among themselves and try to pass the buck.”

Keates added that the fact Sefton was considering a judicial review did not meet the immediate needs of the teachers who had no job and no redundancy payment. “A judicial review at this stage is cold comfort,” he said.

The NASUWT General Secretary has written to the authority putting forward proposals for interim measures to support the teachers affected, pending the outcome of legal proceedings.

Keates added: “The Secretary of State for Education must also take some responsibility for creating a situation where there is a lack of clarity of the responsibility of the trustees of free schools in these circumstances.”

A spokesman for Sefton said the council expected to be able to comment on the issue shortly.