A whistleblower who was forced to resign and was reported to the regulator for raising concerns about the care of nursery children has said it “ruined her life”.
Lindsay McNicholas, a former teacher, said her treatment was “horrendous” and was a “terrible big black cloud” which blighted her life for years.
Her 30-year teaching career ended in 2018 after she raised concerns about the care of children at the Highlands nursery where she worked. She was forced to resign and was reported to the General Teaching Council for Scotland (GTCS) with allegations over her conduct.
An employment tribunal has now ordered her former employers, the Care and Learning Alliance (Cala) and Cala Staffbank, to pay her a total of almost 400,000 after ruling the actions taken against her, including her forced resignation, her dismissal from Staffbank and the referral to the GTCS, were all direct consequences of her whistleblowing.
The tribunal, published this week, said the situation was a “warning to anyone who raises genuine concerns” and the parties involved had reacted aggressively, losing sight of the welfare of the vulnerable child at the heart of the case.
Despite the tribunal ruling, the GTCS continued its investigation and only dropped it when McNicholas challenged it in Scotland’s highest court.
Instead of being protected as a whistleblower, McNicholas, 62, told The Times she felt she was “thrown to the wolves”.
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