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Sabrina Willmott, formerly a teaching assistant for Pioneer Learning Trust, was judged to have “abused her position of trust” by embracing a child with special needs, when she thought he was going to have a physical outburst.

Mrs Willmott was later alleged to have also kissed the nursery age pupil, an employment tribunal heard.

She denied this allegation, but she was still sacked for gross misconduct.

Now, her former employers have been ordered to pay Mrs Willmott £7,257.18 in compensation after she won a case of unfair dismissal.

The tribunal, held in Watford, heard Mrs Willmott started working as a level one teaching assistant at Whitefield Primary Academy in Luton, Bedfordshire, in January 2016.

In October 2019 she was assigned to a child in the school’s nursery who required support form a teaching assistant because of his special needs.

In January 2020, as a result of the pupil’s behaviour, the nursery teachers asked that he be removed from the main room to the separate ‘Nest’ room to be supervised.

Mrs Willmott was asked to continue to work with the child in the ‘Nest’.

The tribunal heard that, two days later, Mrs Willmott asked the child to do something and he ‘reacted badly’ to this request.

In the moment, Mrs Willmott said she was concerned he was going to physically harm himself and then “placed her arms around him in a hug to prevent a physical outburst to intervene before an outburst commenced”.

The following Monday, a meeting was called after a local authority safeguarding officer raised concerns about the hugging incident.

Mrs Willmott was told an allegation had been made against her that she had behaved “inappropriately towards the child by hugging him and kissing him”.

She “strongly and vehemently denied” she had kissed the child but admitted embracing him, adding she had hugged the child “to calm him down because he was really upset”.

The tribunal heard Mrs Willmott was ‘very distressed’ by the allegation of kissing because of the ‘very serious ramifications’ it could lead to.

As a result, she was signed off work by her GP with acute stress.

In February 2020 another teaching assistant, told bosses she saw Mrs Willmott get on her knees, put the pupil’s coat on, talk to him, do up his coat and give him a kiss on the right cheek.

The witness said that she did not see anything else and added Mrs Willmott was “very touchy-feely” and that it was usual for her to ‘cuddle’ the child.

A disciplinary meeting was held over Zoom in July 2020 to hear allegations of gross misconduct.

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The kissing allegation against Mrs Willomott was dropped due to insufficient evidence, however she was still sacked.

Employment Judge Bellamy Forde ruled the hugging incident did not amount to gross misconduct.

He said: “I accept that it is likely that [Mrs Willmott] should have been wary of inviting the child for a hug and that [she] was aware of the risks associated with doing this.

“I do not accept that hugging would always amount to gross misconduct…accordingly, I find that [Mrs Willmott] was unfairly dismissed.”

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