Whilst the Company does not wish to impose unreasonable rules of conduct on its employees, certain standards of behaviour are necessary to maintain good employment relations and discipline in the interest of all employees. From time to time, it may be necessary for the Company to take action towards individuals whose level of behaviour or performance is unacceptable.
With the exception of the section entitled ‘alternative disciplinary sanction’, this disciplinary procedure is entirely non-contractual and does not form part of an employee’s contract of employment.
The employee will be given a formal written warning. They will be advised of the reason for the warning, how they need to improve their conduct or performance, the timescale over which the improvement is to be achieved.
They will also be informed the warning is the first stage of the formal disciplinary procedure and any consequences if the terms of the warning are not complied with. The written warning will be recorded and remain on your file but will be disregarded for future disciplinary purposes i.e. will be inactive after six months, subject to satisfactory conduct and performance.
Failure to improve performance in response to the procedure so far, a repeat of misconduct for which a warning has previously been issued, or a first instance of serious misconduct or serious poor performance will result in a final written warning being issued.
This will set out the nature of the misconduct or poor performance, how they need to improve their conduct or performance, the timescale over which the improvement is to be achieved and warn that dismissal will probably result if the terms of the warning are not complied with.
This final written warning will be recorded and remain on your file but will be disregarded for future disciplinary purposes i.e. will be inactive after twelve months, subject to satisfactory conduct and performance. However, the Company reserves the right to issue a final written warning that remains active for a maximum of two years in cases of very serious misconduct or where the employee has a history of misconduct issues.
Failure to meet the requirements set out in the final written warning will normally lead to dismissal with appropriate notice. A decision of this kind will only be made after the fullest possible investigation. Dismissal can be authorised only by a Senior Manager or a Director. The employee will be informed of the reasons for dismissal, the appropriate period of notice, the date on which their employment will terminate and how the employee can appeal against the dismissal decision.
Offences under this heading are so serious that an employee who commits them will normally be summarily dismissed. In such cases, the Company reserves the right to dismiss without notice of termination or payment in lieu of notice. Examples of gross misconduct include:
- Any breach of the criminal law, such as theft.
- Any unauthorised possession or removal of Company products or property, or property belonging to another employee, client, customer or visitor, fraud (including making fraudulent or false expense claims), deliberate falsification of records, false declarations in connection with employment or applications for employment or any other form of dishonesty.
- Using the Company’s property, materials or equipment to carry out work for third parties on a personal basis without permission.
- Misuse of Company benefits, such as improper use of a staff discount card.
- Offering, promising, giving or requesting a bribe, agreeing to receive or accepting a bribe or bribing a foreign public official in connection with employment.
- Wilfully or negligently causing harm or injury to another employee, client, customer or visitor, physical violence, assault, fighting, bullying or grossly offensive, abusive or aggressive behaviour or language.
- Deliberately or negligently causing damage to the Company’s property, or to property belonging to another employee, client, customer or visitor.
- Vandalism of, or otherwise intentionally interfering with, the Company’s computers or computer or telephone network.
- Serious carelessness or gross negligence that causes loss, damage or injury.
- Dereliction of duty, including sleeping whilst at work and undertaking unauthorised activities during normal working hours.
- Wilful refusal to obey a reasonable management instruction or serious insubordination.
- Serious incapacity at work through an excess of alcohol or illegal drugs, whether consumed on or off Company premises but which affects the employee’s ability to carry out their job duties whilst at work.
- Bringing illegal drugs or other illegal substances or items or weapons on to Company premises.
- Smoking on Company premises, other than in designated outside smoking areas.
- Logging on to sexually explicit websites, downloading or circulating pornographic or other offensive, illegal or obscene material or using the internet or e-mail for gambling, illegal activities or the sending of offensive e-mails to work colleagues (in the latter case, including from the employee’s home computer in their own time).
- Engaging in sexual activity on Company premises at any time.
- Posting derogatory, offensive, discriminatory or defamatory comments online (for example, on social media websites) about the Company, its employees, clients or customers or otherwise conducting themselves online in a way that is detrimental to the Company or brings the Company into serious disrepute.
- A serious breach of health and safety rules, including acts or omissions which endanger the safety of another employee, client, customer or visitor.
- A serious breach of security rules.
- Discriminating against, harassing, bullying or victimising another employee, client, customer or visitor because of age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race (including colour, nationality and ethnic or national origins), religion or belief, sex and/or sexual orientation.
- A serious breach of confidentiality, including unauthorised access of computer and personnel records and communicating or leaking trade secrets or confidential information about the Company or its employees, clients or customers to third parties.
- Working for a competitor without permission.
- Engaging in an unauthorised activity which conflicts with the interests of the Company or its clients or customers.
- Breaching copyright or any other proprietary interest belonging to the Company.
- Knowingly breaking a legal requirement in connection with employment.
- Bringing the Company into serious disrepute, even if done in the employee’s own time.
- Unauthorised absence, including failure to return from a period of annual leave or other approved leave of absence.
The above is intended as a guide and is not an exhaustive list.
In the event of serious or gross misconduct, an employee may be suspended while a full investigation is carried out. Such suspension will be on full basic pay. Suspension may occur only after very careful consideration of the circumstances and where an alternative to suspension is unavailable. The rationale of why the suspension is considered appropriate will be explained to the employee in writing. Suspension does not imply guilt or blame, and will be for as short a period as possible.
An employee may appeal against any disciplinary decision, including dismissal, to a Senior Manager of the Company within five working days of the decision. Appeals should be made in writing and state the grounds for appeal. The employee will be invited to attend an appeal hearing chaired by another senior manager.
At the appeal hearing, the employee will again be given the chance to state their case and will have the right to be accompanied by a trade union official, a trade union representative or a fellow employee of his or her choice.
Following the appeal hearing, the employee will be informed in writing of the results of the hearing. The Company’s decision on an appeal will be final.
This disciplinary procedure does not apply to any employee who has been employed by the Company for less than two years.
When processing information in connection with any investigation or subsequent stages of a disciplinary procedure the Company will process any personal data in accordance with its data protection policy and any internal privacy notices in force at the relevant time. Inappropriate access or disclosure of this data will constitute a data breach and should be reported immediately to the Company’s Data Protection Officer in accordance with the Company’s data protection policy. All employees must treat as confidential any information communicated to them in connection with a disciplinary investigation or disciplinary matter. Any data breach or breach of confidentiality may also lead to an investigation and potential sanctions under the Company’s disciplinary procedure.
The object of the procedure is to provide an employee who considers that they have a grievance with an opportunity to have it examined quickly and effectively, and where a grievance is deemed to exist, to have it resolved, if possible, at the earliest practicable opportunity.
Most issues or grievances can be solved on an informal basis with line managers, and employees should aim to settle their grievances in this way if possible. This procedure is designed to deal with those issues that need to be approached on a more formal basis.
This grievance procedure is entirely non-contractual and does not form part of an employee’s contract of employment.
If a grievance cannot be settled informally with the relevant line manager, the employee should raise it formally. This procedure has been drawn up to establish the appropriate steps to be followed when pursuing and dealing with a formal grievance.
In the event of the employee having a formal grievance relating to their employment, they should, in the first instance, put their grievance in writing and address it to their line manager, making it clear that they wish to raise a formal grievance under the terms of this procedure. Where the grievance is against the line manager, the complaint should be addressed to an alternative manager. This grievance procedure will not be invoked unless the employee raises their grievance in accordance with these requirements.
A manager (who may not be the manager to whom the grievance was addressed) will then invite the employee to a grievance meeting to discuss the grievance and the employee has the right to be accompanied at this meeting by a trade union official, a trade union representative or a fellow worker of their choice. The employee must make every effort to attend the meeting. At the meeting, the employee will be permitted to explain their grievance and how they think it should be resolved.
Please note that it is prohibited for employees to record (whether covertly or otherwise) the proceedings at the grievance meeting, and at any appeal meeting, without the express permission of the Company. If the Company discovers that an employee has done this covertly, he or she could be subject to disciplinary action.
Following the meeting, the Company will endeavour to respond to the grievance as soon as possible and, in any case, within five working days of the grievance meeting. If it is not possible to respond within this time period, the employee will be given an explanation for the delay and be told when a response can be expected. The employee will be informed in writing of the Company’s decision on the grievance and notified of their right to appeal against that decision if they are not satisfied with it.
If the employee feels their grievance has not been satisfactorily resolved, the employee may then appeal in writing to a more senior manager or to a Director of the Company within five working days of the grievance decision. The employee should also set out the grounds for their appeal.
On receipt of such a request, a more senior manager or a Director (who again may not be the person to whom the appeal was addressed) shall make arrangements to hear the grievance at an appeal meeting and at this meeting the employee may again, if they wish, be accompanied by a trade union official, a trade union representative or a fellow employee of their choice.
Following the meeting, the senior manager or Director will endeavour to respond to the grievance as soon as possible and, in any case, within five working days of the appeal hearing. If it is not possible to respond within this period, the employee will be given an explanation for the delay and be told when a response can be expected. The employee will be informed in writing of the Company’s decision on their grievance appeal.
This is the final stage of the grievance procedure and the Company’s decision shall be final.
If an employee’s complaint relates to his or her dissatisfaction with a disciplinary, performance review or dismissal decision, they should not invoke the grievance procedure but should instead appeal against that decision in accordance with the appeal procedure with which they will have been provided.
Staff members have a contractual responsibility to perform to a satisfactory level. Where sub-standard performance is found to be due to negligence or lack of application of the staff member, then the disciplinary procedure will normally be appropriate.
However, issues of a staff member’s capability may arise from time to time where sub-standard performance relates to lack of the required knowledge, skills or ability rather than misconduct. This also applies to frequent, short-term absences due to sickness or other which prevent the staff member from performing to a satisfactory level.
In these cases, the staff member should, wherever practicable, be assisted through training and coaching and given reasonable time, to achieve the required standard. It is for this reason that Hopscotch provides a Capability Policy.
The Capability Policy is intended to:
- secure the required improvement in cases where performance falls short of that expected of a member of staff in a particular post
- help poorly performing staff to be more effective
- provide a fair and effective means of securing redeployment to a more appropriate position or where this is not practical, dismissal.
A capability issue is not necessarily a disciplinary issue (and should not be treated as such). However, as with any meeting which could result in a formal warning or other action, the individual has the right to be accompanied by a work colleague.
At each review stage, the staff member should be advised of the consequences of a failure to reach the required level of performance, or the necessary improvement required, or of not being able to return to work or maintain a satisfactory level of performance through capability.
The procedures in this policy apply to all staff members.
When a staff member’s performance becomes a matter of concern, their manager should keep informal notes of the way in which the performance falls below acceptable standards and the occasions on which this is noticed.
The manager should consider whether cultural, disability of other equal opportunity issues may be a factor in managing a capability issue. The manager can monitor this for a few weeks at which stage they need to decide if further action is required.
The manager should meet the staff member informally and explain how the performance falls short of the standard expected. The manager should consider any possible staff development or training opportunities which may help the staff member reach the standard required. Considerations may be given to internal training or an external course. Managers may discuss these options with senior managers.
The staff member should be set clear written performance targets and realistic timescale for improvement. These should be jointly agreed in writing on a Performance Improvement Plan (PIP) The staff member’s performance should be regularly reviewed until the performance targets are met.
Where an informal process has been followed and there continues to be a significant performance issue, considered to be concerned with capability, the manager should move onto the next stage.
The manager should formally meet the staff member to discuss their performance in the job. The staff member should be given the opportunity to be accompanied by a work colleague. A senior manager may be present at the meeting, if required. The meeting should be structured examining the cause of the problem, the job requirements and the employee’s knowledge, skills and ability, and any shortfall.
The manager should consider what might be done to improve the situation and help the staff member. This could include further training or development needs; changes in their duties which might improve performance, or assistance from other colleagues.
A further plan for improvement should be agreed at this meeting. It may be necessary for the manager and staff member to reconvene to clarify any questions, and ensure that they are comfortable with the proposed solutions. The plan should be documented by the manager, detailing the areas and level of improvement required, the timescales and an appropriate review date. The staff member must be advised that, should the necessary improvements not be achieved, their continuing employment may, in due course, be at risk.
Two copies of the above should be made and signed by both manager and staff member to demonstrate they seek to agree the targets for improvement. One copy should be given to the staff member.
On the date set for the review, the manager should meet with the staff member to review progress and evaluate any improvements in performance.
If the performance is in line with the targets and no further action is required, then this should be acknowledged and noted in writing by the manager. If there has been an improvement, but the staff member’s performance has still not reached the required level, then the period for improvement should be extended with a new review date set. The normal expectation is that targets and timescales should be set and reviewed twice before moving on to the next stage.
If no adequate improvement has been made, the manager will consult with Senior Managers to consider Disciplinary Action.
If a staff member is absent due to sickness for a prolonged period of time which Hopscotch deems to be unreasonable and detrimental to the running of the nursery, the following procedure will apply:
- Investigate the staff member’s sickness and specifically find out how long it is likely to be before the employee will be able to return to work
- Arrange a meeting for the staff member to respond to any information Hopscotch has and put their point of view forward if they think their job should remain open longer
The investigation is likely to involve speaking to the employee and carrying out a medical investigation. Hopscotch will ask the staff member to sign an authority to contact their doctor for information. A staff member is under no obligation to agree to this, but as long as Hopscotch has attempted to carry out these investigations any subsequent dismissal is unlikely to be unfair.
Hopscotch will consider that if the staff member is deemed to be disabled under the provisions of the Equalities Act, they are required to consider whether there are any reasonable adjustments that can be made to enable the employee to return to work. Both Hopscotch and the staff member will be involved in these discussions. When commissioning a medical report Hopscotch will ask the Doctor to consider whether the staff member is disabled and whether there are reasonable adjustments which would enable the staff member to return to work.
The staff member will be invited to a meeting, at which they have the right to be accompanied by a work colleague. The medical evidence obtained will be discussed and the staff member’s viewpoint will be put forward.
If Hopscotch concludes that the staff member is unlikely to be well enough to return to their job within a reasonable time, Hopscotch will consider:
- whether there are any vacancies which can be offered to the staff member which they could do now or in the near future.
- whether there are any reasonable adjustments which could be made to enable the staff member to return to work (if they are disabled).
If Hopscotch concludes that the staff member is not capable of returning to their position in a reasonable time frame, then the disciplinary procedure will be invoked.
This will be considered using the procedure for Capability as detailed above. Hopscotch will consider
- the level of sickness absence which cannot be tolerated long term
- if staff member’s sickness absence exceeds those levels.
Human Resources will monitor and track instances of short-term absences. Upon reaching three or more absences within a three-month period, the line manager will schedule a meeting with the employee to discuss the absences and any underlying issues.
This policy applies to all employees, volunteers, and agency staff working at Hopscotch. It covers allegations of misconduct, abuse, neglect, or other serious claims involving staff members in relation to children, parents, colleagues, or other stakeholders.
Allegations will be handled confidentially, and information will be shared only with those directly involved in the process.
All staff members involved in allegations will be treated fairly and impartially, with respect for their right to be heard.
Staff members who are the subject of allegations will be provided with appropriate support, including access to counselling services via our EAP with Open Up, or HR support throughout the process.
Allegations will be investigated promptly and thoroughly, in accordance with statutory and Local Authority safeguarding procedures and the nursery's policies.
No staff member will face retaliation or negative consequences for raising allegations or participating in the investigation process.
In cases where it is deemed necessary, and in order to ensure the safety of the children, colleagues, or other parties involved, the staff member who is the subject of the allegation may be placed on paid suspension during the investigation. This decision will be made by the Nursery Manager or HR Manager on the nature of the allegation and the circumstances involved.
When an allegation is made, it will be promptly acknowledged by the Nursery Manager or Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL), who will explain the next steps to the staff member involved.
The staff member subject to the allegation will be appointed a designated point of contact (e.g., the Nursery Manager or HR), who will provide them with clear guidance on their rights, the investigation process, and any available support.
Allegations will be investigated in accordance with safeguarding guidelines and local authority procedures. The investigation will be led by the Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL), HR Manager, or an external investigator, where appropriate, ensuring impartiality and thoroughness.
Once the investigation is complete, the outcome will be communicated to the staff member, and appropriate steps will be taken. If the allegation is not substantiated, the nursery will work to support the staff member in regaining their confidence and role. If the allegation is upheld, actions will be taken according to the nursery’s disciplinary procedures, safeguarding policies, and statutory guidance.
If the allegation involves concerns about the welfare of a child, the appropriate child protection procedures will be followed, in line with statutory requirements and the nursery's safeguarding policy.
If the allegation is raised by a colleague, parent, or other stakeholder, they will be supported through the process as well. This includes offering guidance on how the complaint will be managed and access to support services.