A former chief executive of a multi-academy trust has been banned from teaching for bullying staff, acting dishonestly and using offensive language.

Neil Wilkinson-McKie was found to have treated six members of his staff unfairly, including three whom he bullied while working as headteacher and then MAT chief executive at Roseland Academy in Truro, Cornwall.

A Teaching Regulation Agency (TRA) panel also found that he twice sought to improperly influence the outcome of a disciplinary investigation, and threatened another member of staff with an investigation - giving him an untruthful explanation about the allegations he was facing.

And the panel said the 44-year-old acted dishonestly when misleading governors about the findings of a staff survey which had raised concerns about his behaviour.

The hearing was also played secret recordings of Mr Wilkinson-McKie, which had been made by a member of his senior leadership team, showing him to be making offensive remarks about staff.

Mr Wilkinson-McKie accepted allegations based on these recordings but denied the rest of the allegations made against him.

In total the panel found all 10 allegations against the former headteacher to be proven. It ruled that eight of these were a breach of Teachers’ Standards. 

It also found him guilty of unacceptable professional misconduct and conduct that may bring the profession into disrepute.

He has been banned from teaching but can apply for the order to be reviewed in five years.

The TRA panel heard how a whistleblower at the school had raised concerns about Mr Wilkinson-McKie’s interference with a school investigation by trustees at the MAT in May 2016.

He was subsequently suspended and more alleged misconduct was then identified.

Unfair treatment and bullying

Mr Wilkinson-McKie was found to have treated six staff unfairly, of whom three were bullied.

This allegation included:

• Bullying a member of staff by unfairly demoting them; overloading them with teaching hours and giving them unrealistic performance targets;
• Treating a member of staff, who had returned from paternity leave, unfairly by opposing them moving up a pay scale despite them having met targets or made progress towards them;
• Treating a member of staff unfairly after a secret recording revealed he had told the head about an internal investigation that the school “could do to lose” the member of staff being investigated;
• Bullying another member of staff by asking for an investigation into claims that they had not paid for a meal in the dining hall.

The TRA panel also found that, under another allegation, he did not use fair systems for disciplinary matters or dealing with “purported under-performance” and that he threatened the use of disciplinary proceedures “when such action was not warranted”.

The panel found a claim of an unwarranted suspension of a member staff by Mr Wilkinson-McKie unproven. But it did find that he made offensive comments about four members of staff.

This included referring to one member of staff as  “nasty piece of work” and suggesting another “was playing the discrimination card” because of her pregnancy.

Dishonesty

The panel concluded that Mr Wilkinson-McKie had acted dishonestly by not reporting to governors accurately the reason for low levels of attendance in the 2014-15 academic year.

It also found that he misled the MAT’s board of trustees by not revealing the seriousness of concerns about his behaviour.

Mr Wilkinson-McKie’s summary of the survey had said that “staff are supported and well line-managed, support each other and when we are under pressure we pull together.”

However, the staff survey actually contained major criticisms of him including:

•  “It’s not the whole leadership team who are doing a bad job, only the headteacher.”
• “The head tells so many lies, big and small.”
•  “We are losing good staff and word is spreading that this is not a good place to work since the arrival of NWM [Neil Wilkinson-McKie].”
•  “The governors need to act to move the headteacher on before the cracks become ravines.”
• “I feel the staff work harder than the head.”
•  “The headteacher does not seem to have a long term plan or be able to communicate in an open and honest way.”
•  “The deputy headteachers run the school. There is no confidence in the head.”
• “He has no leadership qualities at all and the staff (and students) do not respect him in any way.”
•  “The main problem with the school is the headmaster. He is bad at making decisions, a fact often joked about in the staff room. Even when he does make a decision, he does not take any advice into consideration in making that decision.”
• “The deputy heads do a brilliant job of running the school for him. He seems to delegate everything and take no responsibility for anything.”