Janice Brown-Simpson v Arbor Academy Trust — 2021

Janice Brown-Simpson was employed as an unqualified teacher at Northwold Primary School under the Overseas Teacher Training scheme. The tribunal found that the four-year period and the Assessment Only route to QTS were not terms of her contract, and that although she failed Stage 3 of the AO assessment three times, the headteacher had observed her over nearly four years and later provided a balanced reference for her GTC(S) application. The tribunal accepted that the headteacher's first reference was genuine and based on overall knowledge of her teaching, not only on the external assessments.

On 14 April 2020 Ms Okoye wrote to dismiss the claimant on the basis that it was unlawful for her to continue teaching without QTS after four years. The tribunal found that the sole reason for dismissal was a mistaken belief about the lawfulness of continued employment, and that the respondent later sought to undermine the claimant's newly obtained QTS by challenging the headteacher's reference and pursuing revocation through GTC(S) and the Department for Education. The appeal panel then relied on a supposed policy not to employ unqualified teachers unless on the Trust's one-year training programme, but the tribunal found that no rigid written policy of that kind existed and that the appeal substituted a new reason after the event.

The tribunal held that the dismissal was substantively unfair because the respondent did not show a potentially fair reason. If the reason had been capability, the tribunal found the belief that the claimant was incapable or unsuitable was not based on reasonable grounds. If the reason had been some other substantial reason, including expiry of the fixed term or failure to obtain QTS within four years, those reasons did not justify dismissal in the circumstances. The claimant received a basic award of £2,152.00 and a compensatory award of £24,880.82, made up of a prescribed element of £16,075.30 for 1 September 2020 to 28 April 2021 and a non-prescribed element of £8,805.92, including £500 for loss of statutory rights. The total monetary award was £27,032.82.