At a press conference held today (Thursday 26 January)
details were released of the serious case review into events at
Hillside First School which came to light in December
2010.
At that time Avon and Somerset Police began a joint
investigation with our children and young people's
services into an allegation of sexual assault on a pupil at
the school by a teacher, Nigel Leat. This investigation led to him
pleading guilty at Bristol Crown Court in May last year to 36
sexual offences including 22 counts of sexually assaulting
children. He received an indeterminate prison sentence.
North Somerset Safeguarding Children's Board commissioned a
serious case review into the circumstances surrounding the events.
The board brings together representatives of each of the main
agencies responsible for promoting children's welfare, and helping
to protect children from abuse and neglect.
The independent chair of the board, Tony Oliver, revealed the
details of that review today.
The focus of a serious case review is on learning, to identify
weaknesses and areas for improvement, to learn lessons in order to
improve the safeguarding of children in the future. He added that
the review is independent of all the agencies involved and
endeavours to set out an understanding of exactly what
happened.
"The questions we ask ourselves are: What happened? Where
did it happen? Why did this happen? How did this happen? What
could have been done to prevent it happening? How will we ensure,
so far as possible, it does not happen again?
"The focus of the review is on learning the lessons in order to
improve the safeguarding of children in the future."
He paid tribute to the children, families and staff at Hillside
School affected by this case, saying:" Over the past 13 months they
have all remained patient and acted with great dignity.
"I thank them all for their understanding and pay tribute to the
way they have handled what has been an incredibly traumatic
time."
Mr Oliver then went on to outline some of the key elements of
the report, the recommendations and how those recommendations are
being implemented.
Our director of children and young people's services, Sheila
Smith, said: "We accept the recommendations as set out in the
report. While we can change procedures to make sure that the school
environment is as safe as possible for the children, as the review
says there is no substitute for a strongly established culture of
safeguarding within schools which gives priority to ensuring the
safety of children and encourages staff to challenge apparent
misconduct.
"It is important to remember that the person responsible for
what happened is Nigel Leat whose devious and manipulative actions
have had a devastating effect on his victims, their families and
the whole school community."
The serious case review and the executive summary can be viewed
on the North Somerset Safeguarding Children Board
website here.
