A former Ofsted inspector sacked for brushing water off a child’s head was unfairly dismissed, the Court of Appeal has found.
Andrew Hewston faced a disciplinary panel and was sacked in 2019 after he approached a student who had been drenched with rain and expressed his sympathy, wiping water off his forehead during a school inspection.
Following a disciplinary procedure, the watchdog said they felt Mr Hewston was unable to “maintain the professional boundaries” and hadn’t recognised his “error” despite him saying he would never do it again.
An employment appeal tribunal verdict in 2023 ruled that Mr Hewston had been unfairly dismissed, which Ofsted had attempted to overturn through a Court of Appeal hearing last autumn.
The Court of Appeal unanimously ruled in favour of Mr Hewston, who was represented by Unison, with one judge describing the watchdog’s decision as “deeply regrettable”.
They called the incident a “momentary and well-meaning lapse of professional judgement” that he was “unlikely to ever repeat.”
Judges called Mr Hewston, who had worked for the watchdog for over a decade, “an experienced inspector with an unblemished disciplinary record on safeguarding issues” and said it wasn’t clear which rules he had broken.
Mr Hewston described the past five and a half years he spent dealing with the “fallout” of Ofsted’s decision as a “very difficult time”.
“I am glad my name has been cleared and my exemplary record remains intact,” he said.
“Without the support of Unison, I would’ve accepted the original verdict and my 35-year career would have been destroyed. I shudder to think what my life would be like now if I’d done that.”
Unison criticised the watchdog for using public funds to pursue Mr Hewston through the courts.
The union’s general secretary Christina McAnea said: “Andrew Hewston’s career was unnecessarily cut short by Ofsted. He never should have been sacked and Ofsted shouldn’t have wasted public money pursuing him through the courts.
“The speed at which the judges rejected Ofsted’s appeal reflects how wrong it was to continue going after Andrew. Hopefully his long ordeal is now finally drawing to a close.”