Regulator brings case against ex-head accused of misusing school funds

Martin Shipton

Allegations of fraudulent spending by a headteacher made by a whistleblower are now the subject of a fitness to practise hearing brought by the teaching regulator.

The Education Workforce Council (EWC) has accused Nick Ratcliffe, formerly the head of North Powys Pupil Referral Unit (PRU at Newtown), which is for children who struggle with mainstream education of being “dishonest and lacking integrity” as well as “unacceptable professional conduct” by mismanaging public funds or inappropriately used the school budget between 2019 and 2022.

In 2023 Nation.Cymru revealed how a whistleblower who reported the matter was initially told by Powys County Council’s head of legal services, Clive Pinney, that there was no evidence of any irregularities. It was only when they contacted Audit Wales that any action was taken.

The whistleblower was also present when another senior council official instructed an administrative worker in the unit to delete the school’s Amazon account, thus eliminating evidence of the purchases. Unknown to the senior official, another administrator had copied details of the transactions, so the relevant information was retrievable.

The whistleblower sent an email detailing her concerns to a council official. It included a section which said: “Having had and overheard conversations with [a colleague] who like me was worried about whistleblowing on a headteacher, it appears that during the summer holidays of 2021 and thereafter, [the headteacher] had purchased a number of work tools such as spades, shovels, pickaxes, post hole diggers, driveway fabric etc that have never been seen at the PRU unit where we work. It should be noted that those are only a few items that I have personally been aware of, so can only comment on those.”

On September 16 2022 Clive Pinney, the council’s head of legal services and monitoring officer, wrote to the whistleblower stating: “Your whistleblowing complaint was investigated by the council’s fraud investigation team. Copies of all purchase cards transactions and accompanying detailed invoices were obtained and the PRU was visited for a stocktake. The detailed investigation has provided no supporting evidence in respect of the allegations made within the whistleblowing referral and therefore the case has been closed with no further investigation or action being taken.”

The whistleblower then contacted Audit Wales, which was in touch with the council.

On January 26 the whistleblower wrote to Mr Pinney stating: “I have recently become aware that goods that staff have never seen before have recently been seen in the PRU shed … Perhaps it would be prudent to consider why a headteacher would need to purchase items such as a humidifier (there is no damp in the building), driveway fabric (we have no driveway), decking varnish and decking stripper (we have no decking), a post hole digger (we have never sunk anything into holes in the grounds), Roughneck shovels and spades (I had already been sent to purchase cheap garden tools from a local garden store for the lockdown garden project, not the Roughneck brand).”

Subsequently, the whistleblower received a letter from Mr Pinney on June 30 2023 which stated: “I can advise you that as a result of your whistleblowing complaint, a disciplinary investigation has been undertaken which has resulted in Mr Ratcliffe leaving the employment of the council. Please accept our apologies for the length of time it has taken to reach an outcome to your complaint.”

Fraud allegations

The case against Mr Ratcliffe is now proceeding. A report in the Powys County Times states that the fraud allegations raised by a whistle-blower in 2022 were investigated by Powys County Council, which did not find enough evidence to launch criminal proceedings.

A nine-day fitness to practise case is due to last until January 30 and hear from witnesses including Mr Ratcliffe and former Powys County Council staff, with 1,400 pages of evidence to be assessed.

He is accused of buying GoPro cameras and accessories, drones, power tools, Apple products such as Air Pods, yoga mats, teddy bears and mountain bikes.

The hearing will also investigate claims he spent money on alcohol and food at restaurants, cafés and supermarkets which were not for educational purposes.

The EWC claims Mr Ratcliffe did not adhere to appropriate purchasing processes and did not set out how pupils would benefit from using the items for their learning. The hearing will also hear allegations he did not itemise or keep VAT receipts.

Christmas dinner

Jonathan Storey, acting for Mr Ratcliffe, said the allegations were denied except for the money spent for staff Christmas dinner and bottles of alcohol which were gifts for staff, which the former teacher accepted were an “inappropriate use of the budget”.

Luke Lambourne, EWC presenting officer, said around 2022 then-head of school improvement and learning Dr Georgina Bevan was contacted by a whistleblower highlighting Mr Ratcliffe’s spending using a council-issued purchase card.

An investigation located all the purchased items on site, but concerns were raised as to the “type and extravagance of spending along with identified weaknesses to processes and oversight and auditing matters”, Mr Lambourne told the committee.

This did not include, the hearing was told, the process of looking for cheaper or more value for money items for educational needs.

A number of witnesses and pupils at the PRU were interviewed as a part of the investigation which found that the items were used on a few occasions, if at all.

Jonathan Storey, representing Mr Ratcliffe on behalf of the National Educational Union, told the hearing that the investigation found no evidence of fraud and “despite the suggestion of using funds for personal gain, all purchases were located by investigators on the school site”.

He explained that the purchases were for “legitimate reasons” and approved by Mr Ratcliffe’s line manager after being told that grant funding would “disappear”.

Mr Storey said the former teacher in charge of the PRU had saved the school “tens of thousands of pounds” had the work been outsourced after Mr Ratcliffe and the students used the power tools to “significantly improve” the outdoor area, which was described as a “bit of a state”.

Mr Storey said: “He accepts that during the few years in charge of the PRU he made some purchases, for example gifts for staff at the end of year, which he now knows was not appropriate.

“He was a new headteacher when he was appointed from the outdoor learning private sector. He hadn’t run a school before. Support and training for him was limited. He had a much more experienced line manager who never raised concerns with him and was involved in many of the purchases.

“Mr Ratcliffe’s conduct is said to be dishonest, but you will struggle to see any basis for that either within the EWC case summary or within the evidence.”

He said his “mistakes” were “at all stages for the good of the children”, calling him “”a man who’s given his life to working with vulnerable young people”.

‘Extravagant’

Dr Bevan told the committee that design and technology and science teacher Anthony Bebb deemed Mr Ratcliffe’s purchases “extravagant and not average”.

Mr Ratcliffe told her that teddy bears of varying sizes were bought to help teach staff how to restrain pupils, and the Apple AirPods were used by him to cancel out noise while he was in the office and to help pupils with additional learning needs play music.

The “expensive” power tools were bought for building work outside and for a pupil who had aspirations to become a carpenter, and the GoPro cameras for pupils to make movies.

The committee was told that the PRU had spent around £5,000 more in 2020-21 than in 2021-22, and £15,000 was spent on building improvements at the school site during the Covid year.

The hearing continues.