A London “superhead” and Department for Education adviser praised by Michael Gove has been banned from teaching after a disciplinary panel upheld allegations of financial mismanagement and conflicts of interest involving £1m worth of IT contracts.
Greg Wallace, the former executive headteacher of the Best Start Federation of schools in Hackney, was barred for a minimum of two years after the DfE overruled a recommendation that Wallace should avoid a ban because of his “inspirational example” as an educator.
The National College of Teaching and Leadership had heard that Wallace conspired to award contracts worth more than £1m, without seeking approval from school governors, to a firm owned by a friend and partner, and then attempted to cover up evidence by deleting emails. The NCTL panel also heard that Wallace received payments from the firm, including one of £4,000.
The panel said Wallace was a victim of “an element of duress brought about by a combination of his own natural enthusiasm and others outside of the federation encouraging him to take on responsibility for more schools in order to address poor achievement levels in the local area”.
The panel suggested that Wallace was overburdened by “the breadth of responsibility on his shoulders” and that “an apparent lack of supporting infrastructure appeared to impact on his attention to the detail of some procedural requirements”.
However, the DfE’s decision-maker responded: “I believe that the panel has not taken sufficient account of the public concern that would arise, and that public confidence in the profession could be seriously weakened, if the conduct found proved in this case was not treated with the utmost seriousness.”
Last December the Observer revealed that Wallace was working for the Harris Federation chain of academies as well as serving as an unpaid adviser on maths teaching to the DfE. Several senior Harris staff members testified to Wallace’s abilities as an teacher before the NCTL hearing.
In 2012 Wallace was praised in a speech by Gove, the then education secretary, as a “magnificent” academy head running outstanding schools in deprived areas. However, two years later, Wallace was dismissed by Hackney council following an investigation into the awarding of the computer contracts to C2 Technology.
