Education Mutual is excited to announce the launch of our new service, Staff Reputation Legal Protection, available to all member schools starting April 2025.

In recent years, incidents of online defamation and abusive comments targeting school staff have become increasingly prevalent. We’re expanding our protection to include legal support for defamation cases. The service aims to provide swift and effective assistance to staff facing damaging statements arising from their professional duties. This proactive intervention aims to resolve issues swiftly, preventing escalation and reducing the long-term impact on staff which came from the education secretary, Bridget Phillipson, who recently expressed her “concern about the volume of complaints and the degree to which that can take up staff time”. Her comments came after a Tes article revealed that more than eight in 10 school leaders had had an increase in complaints.

This development has gathered attention within the education sector, with publications like Schools Week, recognising our new initiative to support staff in combating online trolls. Our Chairman, Nick Hurn, highlighted in this article the necessity of the new service, stating that the rise in unfounded online accusations has led to a culture where individuals feel entitled to make baseless claims against staff performing their duties. He emphasised that educators should not endure such attacks without recourse, and that holding perpetrators accountable is essential and anticipates that this proactive approach will address the majority of such incidents, making individuals think twice about the potential consequences of their online actions.

For more information about this new service and how it can benefit your staff, please have a chat with us via Contact Us | Education Mutual

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