Cheshire East is facing questions about its staff vetting procedures after hiring an employee for its children's services department who has since been banned from teaching.

Susan Pletnick, who the council employed as a locality manager in its SEND (special educational needs and disability) team, was banned from teaching in February of this year following a hearing of the professional conduct panel of the Teaching Regulation Agency.

The 56-year-old can apply for the prohibition to be set aside in three years' time.

The disciplinary tribunal found she 'abused her role as a teacher' when she borrowed money from Broughton Jewish Cassel Fox Primary School in Salford, where she was employed at the time, from parents of pupils at the school, and a colleague.

Most of the money, which totalled more than £28,000, had not been repaid and the panel said her conduct 'lacked integrity and was dishonest'.

Mrs Pletnick was employed by the school from April 2013 to April 2019 and the matters being dealt with by the panel hearing in January of this year occurred between 2016 and 2109.

It is not known when Cheshire East employed Mrs Pletnick because the council has not revealed this.

She is listed as working at Cheshire East in September last year but today (Monday) the council said it no longer employs her.

The Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) raised concerns with the council about its vetting procedures because the report from the disciplinary hearing revealed the panel members had questioned the authenticity of documents provided to this year's tribunal by Mrs Pletnick.

The report, which can be found on the government's website, reveals Mrs Pletnick had requested the hearing be postponed on the grounds of her health.

It states: "As part of the postponement application, Mrs Pletnick relied upon two letters from Individual A, which were written on the headed paper of the [REDACTED] NHS Foundation Trust."

The panel's lawyers contacted the NHS trust which could find no record of Individual A being employed there.

The report states a search was made of the registers of the General Medical Council and 'the search results did not return any results indicating that "Individual A" was registered to practice as a [REDACTED] in England or that he was practising at the [REDACTED]'.

The official report states: "Whilst the panel did not make an express finding in respect of this matter, it did have concerns about the veracity of the letters from Individual A and the impact this had on Mrs Pletnick's credibility."

There were also issues with other documents.

The report states: "During cross examination, the presenting officer put the anomalies within the documents to Mrs Pletnick and asked her if she had authored some of the character references.

"Mrs Pletnick stated she had not authored the character references and indicated that this could be corroborated by the individuals.

"Mrs Pletnick stated that Individual B would be attending the hearing the following day as a witness and would be able to verify this.

"However, Mrs Pletnick subsequently decided not to call Individual B as a witness."

Again, the report states, while the panel didn't make a finding in this matter, it had concerns about the impact of this on Mrs Pletnick's credibility.

The LDRS emailed Cheshire East a link to the disciplinary hearing report and asked:

• what background checks the council undertook when employing Mrs Pletnick;
• whether references from her previous employers were followed up to ensure they were genuine;
• has the council checked the references provided by Mrs Pletnick since this tribunal decision?
• is Mrs Pletnick still working at Cheshire East Council?

A spokesperson for Cheshire East Council said: "Mrs Pletnick is no longer employed by Cheshire East Council.

"The events considered by the tribunal relate to employment at Broughton Jewish Cassel Fox Primary School between April 2013 – April 2019.

"The council is committed to supporting our children to be happy, healthy and achieve their potential. We do not comment on individual cases."

The LDRS has made attempts to contact Mrs Pletnick.

The TRA report can be found here