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Case ref:201300718
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Date:December 2013
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Body:Fife College
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Sector:Colleges
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Outcome:Some upheld, recommendations
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Subject:other
Summary
Miss C complained that the college had unfairly withdrawn her from her course and had failed to address her concerns about her placement. She had reported these, and when she felt they were not being addressed, tried to find an alternative placement herself. She said that the college did not allow her to take up the alternative and instead told her that she was being withdrawn from the course.
Our investigation found that the college had not allowed enough time to investigate Miss C's concerns before withdrawing her. Although some of the information Miss C gave us could not be verified, we took the view that the college should have arranged to slow things down by allowing time for proper discussion with Miss C to explore her concerns. We also saw no evidence that the college asked the placement for their views on what had happened, and we found they did not properly follow their procedures when withdrawing Miss C.
Recommendations
We recommended that the college:
- apologise for not addressing and investigating Miss C's concerns about her placement;
- apologise for not following reasonable procedures when they withdrew Miss C; and
- share our findings with relevant staff.