loss of employment and challenging this
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Hi all,
To give a brief overview, in August I found out that my partner was being charged with indecent images of children. The investigation started a few years ago and was due to downloading images of a girl who he was speaking to and had said she was 18, she was infact 15. There's much more context but is not all that relevant for this post.
I was due to start a social work apprenticeship with the employer i had been with for 20 months, the week after. I do not live with my partner.
I notified my work to ensure that any risk assessements or restrictions could be put into place.
I had worked for a Council for around 20 months as a Family Support Worker when I successfully applied for a Social Work Apprenticeship. I passed the recruitment process, received an unconditional university offer and then a conditional employment offer.
The conditions included DBS, references, Occupational Health and qualifications. I completed these requirements and my DBS was clear.
I had already resigned from my existing Council role in reliance on the apprenticeship. The Council then withdrew the apprenticeship offer.
The formal reason given was that satisfactory pre-employment checks had not been received. However, documents disclosed through my SAR suggest the real concern was my relationship with my partner, who had been charged with serious offences involving indecent images of children. Internal emails specifically refer to concerns about my “decision making and risk”.
I had disclosed the situation to the Council, understood the seriousness of the allegations and was trying to obtain further information and safeguarding advice. At the time I was also experiencing an acute mental-health crisis.
My main concerns are:
I was not given an opportunity to respond before the decision was made. The formal reason for withdrawal appears different from the internal reasoning. My previous 20 months of professional experience and positive apprenticeship interview evidence do not appear to have been properly considered. The Council knew about my ADHD/disability and my adjustment needs, but I am unclear whether this was considered. This definitely impacted my communication with them about the issue. My age was specifically mentioned in the internal correspondence alongside concerns about my judgement. "**** is 20 and her partner is 25" HR instructed recruitment to use a template with no appeal option. I cannot identify evidence of a proper individualised risk assessment or consideration of alternatives such as supervision or safeguards. I lost both the apprenticeship and my existing Council job after resigning in reliance on the offer.
There are also concerns about my sickness absence being changed to TOIL and missing information in my SAR.
I am now persuing early consiliation and potentially an Employment Tribunal.
I’d particularly appreciate views on whether this could potentially involve disability discrimination, discrimination arising from disability, failure to make reasonable adjustments, age discrimination or recruitment discrimination, and whether the process used to withdraw the offer raises any employment-law concerns.
I accept that the Council was entitled to consider safeguarding issues. My concern is whether it was reasonable to conclude that my personal circumstances demonstrated professional risk without giving me an opportunity to explain them or properly considering the wider context.
Additionally, if anyone else has lost their employment and challenged that (successfully or unsuccessfully) I would be interested to hear from you.
Between finding out myself and my employment being withdrawn, it was only a few days so it all moved fast. My disclosure emails were not sent in full to HR, and instead snippets were taken out of their full context or judgements were based on assumptions or 2nd hand information which were untrue.
Thank you
To give a brief overview, in August I found out that my partner was being charged with indecent images of children. The investigation started a few years ago and was due to downloading images of a girl who he was speaking to and had said she was 18, she was infact 15. There's much more context but is not all that relevant for this post.
I was due to start a social work apprenticeship with the employer i had been with for 20 months, the week after. I do not live with my partner.
I notified my work to ensure that any risk assessements or restrictions could be put into place.
I had worked for a Council for around 20 months as a Family Support Worker when I successfully applied for a Social Work Apprenticeship. I passed the recruitment process, received an unconditional university offer and then a conditional employment offer.
The conditions included DBS, references, Occupational Health and qualifications. I completed these requirements and my DBS was clear.
I had already resigned from my existing Council role in reliance on the apprenticeship. The Council then withdrew the apprenticeship offer.
The formal reason given was that satisfactory pre-employment checks had not been received. However, documents disclosed through my SAR suggest the real concern was my relationship with my partner, who had been charged with serious offences involving indecent images of children. Internal emails specifically refer to concerns about my “decision making and risk”.
I had disclosed the situation to the Council, understood the seriousness of the allegations and was trying to obtain further information and safeguarding advice. At the time I was also experiencing an acute mental-health crisis.
My main concerns are:
I was not given an opportunity to respond before the decision was made. The formal reason for withdrawal appears different from the internal reasoning. My previous 20 months of professional experience and positive apprenticeship interview evidence do not appear to have been properly considered. The Council knew about my ADHD/disability and my adjustment needs, but I am unclear whether this was considered. This definitely impacted my communication with them about the issue. My age was specifically mentioned in the internal correspondence alongside concerns about my judgement. "**** is 20 and her partner is 25" HR instructed recruitment to use a template with no appeal option. I cannot identify evidence of a proper individualised risk assessment or consideration of alternatives such as supervision or safeguards. I lost both the apprenticeship and my existing Council job after resigning in reliance on the offer.
There are also concerns about my sickness absence being changed to TOIL and missing information in my SAR.
I am now persuing early consiliation and potentially an Employment Tribunal.
I’d particularly appreciate views on whether this could potentially involve disability discrimination, discrimination arising from disability, failure to make reasonable adjustments, age discrimination or recruitment discrimination, and whether the process used to withdraw the offer raises any employment-law concerns.
I accept that the Council was entitled to consider safeguarding issues. My concern is whether it was reasonable to conclude that my personal circumstances demonstrated professional risk without giving me an opportunity to explain them or properly considering the wider context.
Additionally, if anyone else has lost their employment and challenged that (successfully or unsuccessfully) I would be interested to hear from you.
Between finding out myself and my employment being withdrawn, it was only a few days so it all moved fast. My disclosure emails were not sent in full to HR, and instead snippets were taken out of their full context or judgements were based on assumptions or 2nd hand information which were untrue.
Thank you
