A COUNCILLOR has said that Pembrokeshire County Council attempted to ‘cover up’ allegations against former Saundersfoot CP School Headteacher Helen Lester.

Cllr Jacob Williams submitted a late question to the meeting of Full Council that was held on Thursday, December 14, and Chairman Cllr Paul Harries allowed the following questions to be raised.

In his submission Cllr Williams said: “The Education Workforce Council’s Fitness to Practise Committee recently determined that Helen Lester, “acted with unacceptable professional misconduct” by, among other things, changing pupils’ test results in an effort to “make the school look good.”

“During the hearing it was claimed that concerns were brought to the attention of Pembrokeshire County Counil’s education department by the new Headteacher, Nick Allen, ten days after he started at the school, who was told there was no need for an investigation as the Headteacher in question had left.

“As a matter of urgency, under requisite powers, could the leader or cabinet member please respond to this incident, specifically addressing:

“When concerns were first brought to the education department’s attention, how these were treated, what the outcome was and if this is now being reviewed?

“Whether any efforts are being made to establish if similar practices have occurred at other schools, and to try and prevent future occurrences?”

Cllr David Lloyd, Cabinet Member for Education, responded saying: “This is a very serious matter. Initial concerns were raised by the new Headteacher with the Education department. However no evidence was provided to substantiate those concerns.

“Following consideration within the education department, the Head was advised that a re-test could be done to see if they were able to answer the questions. The Head notified the Education Department of the outcome but no further action was taken.

“On June 17, 2016, the Education department was contacted by someone making allegations against the former head. A further email was received by the chief executive with more detailed allegations were made under the association of headteachers and following conclusion of the investigations, the matter was referred to the Education Workforce Council for Wales for their consideration.

“The National Test Results were examined for all Schools in Pembrokeshire where there was any association to Helen Lester but no more concerns were raised.”

Cllr Lloyd went on to say that since that had taken place all schools were reminded of their duties by the Counter Fraud Awarness and training for Headteachers was also taken up.

Cllr Jacob Williams said: “This serious allegation had gone, so far, uncommented on by Council and I thought that the public were due a statement on this to reassure that a cover up hadn’t happened or that it had happened and it would be looked in to.

“Cllr Lloyd’s reply was quite helpful but deeply concerning. The concerns were brought to the Council’s Education department two years ago and rather than look at the allegations that test results had been fiddled or improper practices had been undertaken, their response was to put right the test results.

“It wasn’t until 2016 when further whistleblowing that this was investigated and it seems the right thing did happen. I do intend to take this further and I am quite clear now that there was an attempt to cover this up, it’s totally unacceptable.”

Cllr Williams went on to ask who it was that dealt with the allegation when they were first made in 2015 and if there was a policy in place that was followed.

Cllr Lloyd responded stating he did not know the answers to those questions.