A whistleblowing allegation was made at a local council, alleging that a member of staff was working on a self-employed basis during office hours and fabricating their timesheets.
Does your academy have a strong whistleblowing policy and procedure in place?
If not dealt with correctly, whistleblowing can lead to financial and reputational damage. Veritau’s service supports schools and academies to get this right.
Whistleblowing legislation provides protection to every employee in the UK. Concerns should be taken seriously, and schools and academies must be aware of legislation that protects whistleblowers.
The DfE’s ‘Academy Trust Handbook’ says:
“The board of trustees must agree a procedure for whistleblowing, and publish it on the trust’s website, to protect staff who report individuals they believe are doing something wrong or illegal.
The trust must ensure all staff are aware of the whistleblowing process and how concerns will be managed.
Staff should know what protection is available to them if they report someone, what areas of malpractice or wrongdoing are covered in the trust’s whistleblowing procedure, and who they can approach to report a concern.
The trust must ensure all concerns raised with them by whistleblowers are responded to properly and fairly.”
Veritau’s professionally qualified officers can support you through the complexities of whistleblowing, and ensure that you know what to do should someone raise a concern.
Our free whistleblowing policy template is available to any school that wants to adopt it.
Our whistleblowing service
Our annual support package includes:
- Up to date whistleblowing policy (annually reviewed)
- Secure log kept of all whistleblowing reports
- Independent whistleblowing hotline and awareness raising material for staff
- Access to Helpdesk for provision of advice to senior managers
- E-learning packages for employees and managers on whistleblowing
- An annual report for your audit committee, trustees or senior managers
Access to an independent whistleblowing hotline gives reassurance to members of staff who might be reluctant to report concerns directly to school staff or trustees.
Veritau’s hotline is answered by knowledgeable staff who are used to taking sensitive and confidential information and are able to give advice to whistleblowers.
Our whistleblowing leads
Jonathan, Kelly and Lottie all have first-hand experience working with schools, and working on a wide range of sensitive whistleblowing issues.
They’re also qualified investigators, should you require a trained officer to carry out an enquiry at your academy. This could relate to:
- Fraud or corruption
- A whistleblowing concern
- Theft or other wrongdoing
Jonathan Dodsworth
Director - Corporate Fraud
Jonathan is an Accredited Counter Fraud Specialist with a wealth of experience delivering counter fraud services to public sector organisations across the region. He was instrumental in establishing the North Yorkshire housing fraud partnership and is an active member of various public sector counter fraud networks.
Kelly Holmes
Senior Corporate Fraud Investigator
Kelly holds both Accredited Counter Fraud Specialist status and a qualification in investigative practice from CIPFA. She has many years of experience as a fraud investigator and leads on complex internal and whistleblowing investigations. Kelly also has experience working in a busy HR team and is ACAS trained on conducting internal investigations.
Lottie Leonard
Senior Corporate Fraud Investigator
Lottie started with Veritau as a trainee in 2019 and is now an Accredited Counter Fraud Specialist and Senior Investigator. Lottie has specialist knowledge of whistleblowing investigations and has experience leading on large and complex fraud investigations. She is also ACAS trained in conducting internal investigations.
Experts in the education sector
We have a large and growing number of schools and academy clients, many of whom we support with other areas of assurance such as:
Schools & Academies Assurance Services – Veritau BrochureOur whistleblowing support package perfectly complements our other assurance services, helping you fulfil responsibilities set out in the Academy Trust Handbook.
Case study
Whistleblowing investigation into conflict of interest and alleged timesheet fraud
