Thanks for getting back to me. I will be contacting them on monday and tomorrow I will pull out the school policy have a re-read through. In an appeal case can further evidence be submitted along the way or can we only use what we sent in at the time we sent the appeal in? If so I will start putting an appeal pack together as mentioning what you guys said about the special needs pupils would come in handy as it was never brought up in the last meeting.

just a small update on this..... They have accepted that an appeal can go ahead and we got a letter today....... In line with the schools disciplinary policy and procedure. I am writing to notify you that the appeal hearing will be difficult to set up within the 20 working days due to the limited availability of governors and your union representative I will contact you again as soon as a date has been fixed. Just some advice really we haven't spoken to the Union yet but can't see them having a problem with time especially 20 days notice. so will contact them on monday but I was wondering can they do this just more or less say we will contact you whenever? We have submitted new evidence but nothing that would in this case hold it up like this for them to investigate and they never stated it in the letter just wondering where I would go from here?

Yeah court is a long way off yet, just need to get in contact with the insurance company now as the last time we spoke to them 2 weeks ago they were passing the persons details onto their legal team and not heard anything since, I was either waiting for some kind of statement from the other party or at least the insurance company to send forms through the post to get some prices on the damage to the car but so far they haven't done anything so will be giving them a call today. I'll update further once I know more. Thanks

Firstly I was aware that I did answer all questions I wasn't sure I missed any? Because there was more than 1 person replying to me it put me in a position to try and fill some gaps in be that it repeated because the 18month warning and the last disciplinary were kind of the same thing so questions were raised on both. You did go off the track a bit about special needs and how that would effect parking which is something I never thought of which could possibly help, it's a route she never thought of going down. So here is what is happening so far, she put in a case for an appeal already and this was accepted by them pending them getting professional advice as to whether they should proceed to a hearing or not. with it now being the holidays she told me they probably wouldn't do anything until after. Again I apologies if I have missed a question asked. As an update not sure if I mentioned this to avoid repeating myself......the appeal went in thursday last week but since then my wife has called into the school and noticed cars parked where they shouldn't be over a 2 day period, not really understanding how an appeal works I was on the understanding you needed new evidence and while she could argue over the special needs pupils which is a good idea I was thinking of using these photos taken of the cars parked where they shouldn't in the grounds as new evidence as well. Another thing the school have refused to give her a reference but she has worked there for 8 years and the only reference they did do was year started and finished, her job title and grounds for being sacked. I'm aware an employer doesn't have to give a reference but there must be some legal standing because of the length of time she worked there, she was thinking of going to Acas for advice.

If we were to take this ourselves through the courts what fees would I need to pay out (roughly) as would represent ourselves

Thanks for the comments even though you've lost me a little. Her Union were Unison although they did say because she had gone against the Management Directive and the school hadn't broke any rules and she already had an 18 month final warning then they said the chances were high that she would get the sack and this rung true. Part of the 18month written warning was because of latness to work and while most of this was because of the parking disputes some of it she had to hold her hand up and admit was her fault, I did think 18 month was a very harsh as she had no other warnings so went straight to a stage 3 more or less. on that case though the school used "failure to follow a management direction to present to work on time" "health and safety risk with not knowing where she was" "failing the needs of the children by not being in morning handover" It was something like that but her parking was brought into the dispute as well as her line manager putting some wrong times down but they decided her action were sufficient enough to warrant an 18 month final warning. I think she said she would post here at some point and explain things in better detail. but she was suspended on the 7th November so as to not disrupt the investigation that was a week after she had been parking in school grounds. 11th of November a meeting took place to put her case to the investigating officer, HR adviser and her Union. they asked in the week she parked in the grounds why didn't she move her car she said I was hoping that school would look at her evidence and perhaps give her a parking permit. they said it wasn't going to happen and while she was suspended she should have looked for a parking space. She explained again about parking permit and holding on and not knowing where to park that was safe for her and wouldn't disrupt her lesson giving the school a reason to discipline her for leaving and moving her car all the time. they as I explained went on about her being the face of the school outside of and during working hours and she wasn't going to get a permit. so after another week she found a suitable parking space outside of school. sent an email on the 18th november to inform them then 2 days later got a letter to say it was going to the governors for the 1st of december and didn't even reply to the email about finding parking. However her pack arrived 4 days later and in that pack was a statement signed by the principle on the 7th November saying that if my wife found alternative parking before the hearing he would consider the situation resolved. She put this to the governors who said that it was "too little too late" I'm just wondering nobody commented on this and I was wondering if there was a case we could use on this?

Her reason given was because her car had been damaged 3 times while she was in school working. not just hers but another member of staff and that also she had been given abuse from the local residence not just her but other staff. one staff member had to report a matter to the police because one of them was threatening her while she was sat in her car. Also my wife was supporting special needs pupils in main stream school that can't be left with the teacher so had to find cover because a call would come in from a resident asking her to move her car so when she went out to see what the problem was they were trying to say her car was parked illegal but in fact it was parked legal and the traffic police had been out to look a few times and didn't have any issues. they even pulled her out of a lesson 1 time because the police had actually called into the school over a complaint but said the police had looked and said they didn't see and issue and would go back and talk with the neighbour The school also had emails go round on there internal email system throughout the day from time to time asking odd members of staff to move their cars because of local residence complaints. while most found something else my wife refused to move hers because she said its parked legally while it may benefit the school and the local residence so the school doesn't get hassled it doesn't benefit me and I pay car tax and its parked legal so why should she move unless the school is going to pay her car tax for her. So the school wasn't interested and simply stated in their interests she is the face of the school and it doesn't look good on them if the residence want the car moving and they are complaining all the time while other staff move theirs she refuses legal or not she is out to intimidate the residence. she said she wasn't and parking further away would mean a 15 min walk to work so why should she its parked legally. So when the permit parking came into force they said she didn't meet the requirements which were time started and distance traveled. when in actual fact no support staff got parking only the teachers. she argued that for a year parked in the school resulted in no damage to her car and no residence complaining about her parking and no work related stress for her but they fell on deaf ears.

The owner of the dog was walking about 20yds in front of a grass area a few weeks ago, suddenly my wife pulled to one side as she saw a black shadow run out into the road on my side and pulled the car to the right and it bounced off the passenger side front wing. We got out the car and saw it run off, looked like a big dog lurcher or something, the guy shouted you just run into my f'ing dog then run off himself. I told my wife to go the way he did and that I would go the other way in the hopes of catching the person. I didn't see where she went but she caught up with him and saw the dog run into a house so she parked outside and phoned the police who weren't helpful at all. The guy must have noticed and he came out saying that his dog was ok had a bust lip and apologised. my wife at this point didn't explain to him the damage to the car as she was on her own and I couldn't reach her on my mobile. She explained that she would have to go to the police and report hitting a dog he was ok with and left his detials e.g. mobile, his name his address and his girlfriends address as said it was her dog and she lived across the road from him. The damage to the car is the front side passener wing now has a dent in it about the size of a small football and its pushed it back about 1 inch which is now catching on the passenger door when its opened and started to chip the paint. we also lost our aerial as it was on that side of the car the dog must have slid up and caught it snapping it as went back the accident scene and it was on the floor. Contacted the insurer who wanted us to claim first and then persue the other person later. We refused saying the car was safe to drive which it is and know how long cases can take to claim. our insurance is due in april and didn't want to lose our no claims. We got a letter from the legal department to say case was closed due to insufficent other party details. so phoned the insurer up and explained that we had given them the other parties details and informed them that CCTV from the council was in the area where the incident happend and asked if they could look at that also. We had to give them after chasing down the CCTV people the number and where they were based. they wouldn't even take down a witness statemtment from me as said it wasn;t needed. In the next comment she said what happens of the guy has no house insurance, pet or car insurance do we persue the cost of my car through the courts as she has legal cover with them. This women said well you did hit the dog, we were like no the dog ran into the side of the car not the front of it and we were on the main road the dog wasn't even on a lead. Just wondering if we have a leg to stand on here because I dont want a huge bill having to repair the car.

My wife has been dismissed on the grounds of:- Failure to follow a management directive Insubordination All of which have constituted to gross misconduct My wife already had an 18 month final written warning which was part of a disciplinary in June 2011 because of her lateness to work part of her case in that was about parking outside of school grounds, damage to the car and continued abuse from the local residence. There wasn’t enough parking in school 2009 a lot of staff had to park outside of the grounds due to building work going on in the school and the local residence didn’t like staff cars on their street. Our car was damaged 3 times, letter headed notes were stuck on the car from the school asking staff not to park between numbers **and** as it was illegal “stating the highway code” but the police had been out and they said parking was ok. All this evidence went into the hearing but was overlooked by the school governors and gave her a final written warning although she had to admit that some of her lateness was her fault. Sept10 – Oct 11 all staff were parking in school grounds. Nothing was said and cars were double parking. October holidays 2011 school principle issues a management directive to allocated parking for some staff in bays. All teachers got parking; none of the support staff were issued with parking permits and were told to park off site. Wife argued her case and was told no she didn’t meet the criteria and she would be disciplined if she parked inside….she did and ended up on a disciplinary. She had a meeting to put her point across and was asked why she didn’t find alternative parking and explained why and didn’t know anywhere else to park as some streets were permit parking and any further would be too far to walk to get into work. HR adviser argued that she is the face of the school and if neighbours complained she should move her car. She said why should I its parked legal even the police said. I pay my tax I can park it where I like that’s legal. HR stuck to her story and still argued she is the face of the school and they have a right to get involved if the local residence complain about it and the school were right to do so. They decided after that meeting it was going to the governors and on the 1 dec sacked her for the above regardless of the problems she was having outside of school and because she was already on a final warning which was part of the parking problems. The school claimed they didn’t get involved outside of school parking, but then we had evidence they did and the governors were only interested that she had gone against a management directive. They had evidence to show her 2 front tires were in a yellow boxed area of the school and thus “could” prevent school delivers taking place and emergency services being able to access parts of the school. She argued that all deliveries had taken place during that time so it wasn’t a problem but they didn’t want to know she also argued how could 1 car prevent deliveries and emergency services but 30+ double parked cars didn’t for a whole year. It fell on deaf ears. We have put an appeal in because they didn’t mention anything about parking problems which constituted to the loss of her job and 90% of her defence was all about the parking issues. The head made a statement on the 7th November saying that if my wife found alternative parking before the hearing he would consider the situation resolved. On the 18th November she emailed the school to say she had now found a safe spot outside of school and was wondering if this would be acceptable “gave the address to school” they ignored her email and sent a letter 2 days later for the governors meeting. Their response to the finding parking was too little too late. Since we put the appeal in we have photo evidence of staff parking in areas of the school they shouldn’t and I wish to ask anyone’s help that can we use this evidence as new evidence in an appeal case or will they say no? Sorry its long winded and I appreciate any advice.

thank you both for your replies. It seems I can ask for a copy of the reference's and if they refuse at least I can ask why they wont. One thing I never thought of asking is that I can ask any potential employee for a brief summery of a reference without breaking any confidentiality even though I know who the senders are. @ Evancosmo What I was saying is that 2 persons were named as a referee and further to this they have usually asked for a copy of any sickness records e.g 12/18 months and this has to go through HR who have the records for this. The person from HR who works in our department (school) who wasn't named as a referee decided to make her own comment as well (off her own back) This small comment she made was a deciding factor between me and another person for a job and they told me because of the comment she made I didn't get the job. So I was asking can someone make any comments e.g. 3rd party who are not mentioned as a referee? Thanks

You can have a meeting with the UNI CRB officer or whoever may deal with it and talk with them in confidence before applying and ask them if any of what you say will affect an application.

maybe something in this link will help you your rights: changes to contracts of employment - from workSMART.org.uk

I assumed it was law that 90 days noticed had to be given for any major changes especially job contract? Aside from all that if he has been given a new title and under contract now then something would have to be signed for. I assume he would have been CRB checked for working in the same environment as "vulnerable" people although this may have just been a standard check not an enhanced check as carers would need. He needs to ask them for a copy of his new contract and he needs something in writing stating this change.

Will I be allowed to have a copy of or see references that people send out to employers? I was told that the only time I can see them is when I have been given the job. Also if you put someone down for a reference is a 3rd party allowed to make a comment on it who hasn't been put down to make a reference?

I have a cordless phone how do I record my calls from Npower?

They said that upto April 2005 she was paying by DD although will now have to contact the bank to get confirmation. As she doesn't have statements for that time period. Only found 2 statements for 2004 one when DD was being paid and the month after it had stopped. because that was when she went onto a token meter mid 2004 although they say she was on a credit meter then and we need to show them recepts from tokens bought from a shop in 2004 to prove to them she did have a token meter but she said to them that she doesn't have them as they get thrown away after a few months. So need to get statements from the bank now for mid 2004 to 2005 although in 2 years this is the first time Npower have said they were getting DD still in 05 because up until the other day when I phoned them they stood by the fact they never got paid for 2 years Partner is with Halifax and online banking wont go that far back when looking at past statements. We've been passed about since 2007 when the debt questioned. I was told the statements npower has are archived 2004-2006 and because they have to go where ever it is they are we have to incur an admin charge of £35 for each statement. when I said I thought it was a maximum charge of £10 (subject access request) I did put this in writing when I sent the letter to them 4 weeks ago. she went away and came back 5 mins later and said I just checked for you about the £35 charge and its a grey area I will have to call you back when I find out more about it and see what we can do. Well since then its been 2 days now and no calls? Just another thing I dont understand when I go into EM credit on a meter and incur a standing charge because I dont understand how this works. For instance if I use £2 of the £5 EM credit and I put in £10 I pay back the £2 and only get £8 credit. Is there an additional charge per day/hour/min or something I dont know about? Because I keep getting told that if I go into EM credit then that will be adding the debt up?

Me and my partner have been fighting Npower since the start of 2007 and it is still ongoing. When I met my partner 2 1/2 years ago she had a token meter and one day I went to put one of her tokens in to find that she had a debt on the meter of around £860 being taken at £3.02 a week. She was unaware that there was a debt that high on the meter and told me that it should have only been around £64 from when she changed from a credit to a token meter but thought it had been paid off through the meter a long time ago. We opened up a complaint well what a song and dance that has been. customer service have not been any help. one tells me one thing and they can do this and that while another says they can't. mid 2004 credit meter was changed to a token meter with a debt on an old bill found of £64. however once the complaint was opened Npower said they need to look at the meter e.g. take it out and put in a key one as they said old one maybe broken. We then find out the meter wasn't looked at and looking further into the account the debt is actually £1680 of which they can on the old meter only put a debt on of £999 as thats all it will allow on one go. this has gone on now since 2007 to the point we spoke to a manager on the phone for an hour and she said well you must owe it. Before speaking to her 1st April gets our quartly statement december 7 to march 10 bill was £1448.99 on the 3rd of april gets a letter saying that the debt of £1500 will be taken at £10 a week and added to the token key in a few days. We as manager why it has gone up £51 and she said it could be emergency credit. but it cant be right that from 10th march to april 3rd that it would be £51 She went onto say that a warrent of exacution was sent out to force a token meter in march 2006, however my partner phoned up june 2006 to ask why there was a warrent (this was logged on computer) when she already had a meter and they came march 2006 to change the something on the meter and gave her a new card. The manager said there was a new card around that time but we would have to send that old one back in to prove our case. partner said that the old card was sent back to them in 2006 as they requested in writing to send it back which they still do now because when we went onto this new key meter they wanted our old card sending back to them. She told us to put everything in writing explain everything and the back dated statements we had been asking for over the course of 2 years for 2004-2006 and mention this managers name so they know we spoke to her. Now the other day we were told we still owe the debt they are not looking into it anymore now and if we want the back dated statements from 2004-mid 2006 they are £35 each statement which would cost us around £350 Is this right can they actually charge £35 per statement I thought under the data protection act (subject access request) We are allowed for a small fee to have copies of whatever information companies hold on you for a fee of around £10?? She went onto say that they dont have to prove we owe the money we have to prove to them we dont how the hell can I do that when they wont release the information as we haven't got electric statements dating that far back. What Npower have tried to say is that we had a credit meter in from 2004-2006 and never paid them (hence the warrent of execution to force one in march 2006) although there was already on here. They haven't answered the question if we didn't pay electric for 2 years you would have cut us off.