A FORMER teacher awarded more than £1.5m following a series of employment tribunal judgements has criticised her former employers over a ‘lessons learned’ report which she claims is inaccurate.

Karen Hall said she has only seen a redacted version of the Durham County Council report but was “extremely alarmed” by some of its contents she considers misleading.

Mrs Hall, from Hamsterley, County Durham, who previously taught at West Cornforth Primary School, was made redundant after acting as a whistle blower by raising serious complaints.

She said unless the errors she has identified in the report are corrected she will consider seeking a judicial review.

However, a spokesman for Durham County Council insisted: “The report that was produced was a factual report and was independent.”

A motion put before the county council last October requested an inquiry to provide the answers as to how an original employment tribunal compensation award to Mrs Hall escalated from £59,321 to an estimated £1.5m.

The council’s internal audit team began what was described as an independent review in February this year to determine what lessons could be learned and to minimise the risk of something similar happening again.

A confidential report was delivered to councillors last month at a meeting at which Mrs Hall was present - although the press and public were excluded.

In an email to selected councillors, seen by The Northern Echo, Mrs Hall highlighted what she considers are inaccuracies, saying she was “staggered” to see the thrust of the report place the blame on school governors and conclude the advice given by the council in her case had been correct.

Mrs Hall said: “[The council’s] actions were repeatedly criticised throughout the judgements.”

Members of the authority’s audit committee are due to be briefed at meeting today (Friday, September 30) about a number of ‘controls’ – 18 in all – put in place intended to mitigate the risk of a similar case like Mrs Hall’s.

These include

* Assessing the competency of potential witnesses giving evidence at employment tribunal hearings more thoroughly

* Closer monitoring of dispute cases by the council’s legal services and human resources departments including the use of mediation services where appropriate

* A more ‘joined up’ approach when advising schools on selection for redundancy procedures where school staff are already in dispute with managers in order to consider all risks

* Formally documenting relevant outcomes from employment tribunal judgements to ensure that lessons are learned from individual cases.