Topical Teaching

Figures from the Department for Education show that around 44 per cent of claims made by pupils and their parents were “unsubstantiated, malicious or unfounded”.

In one-in-five cases, teachers were automatically suspended while investigations into allegations were carried out, despite widespread concerns over a wave of false claims.

Fewer than one-in-20 allegations levelled at staff resulted in a criminal conviction.

The Government warned that false allegations had a “devastating impact” on teachers’ lives.

Nick Gibb, the Schools Minister, said: “Every allegation of abuse must be taken seriously, but some children think they can make a false allegation without any thought to the consequences for the teacher concerned.

“When these allegations are later found to be malicious or unfounded, the damage is already done. It can have a devastating impact and ruin a teacher’s career and private life.

“This research shows why the Coalition Government’s plan to give teachers a legal right to anonymity when allegations are made by pupils is so important.”

The Government obtained data from 116 out of 150 local authorities in England.

It found that 12,086 allegations of abuse had been made by schools in 2009/10.

Almost a fifth resulted in teachers being suspended while allegations were investigated. More than half of investigations took longer than a month to complete – beyond the target limit identified by the Government.

Whilst I am a huge advocate for encouraging victims of abuse to go public with their allegations, I am mindful that many innocent teachers tend to be implicated for crimes they never committed.