Arriving at yesterday’s tribunal session are, from the left, Peter Liver, who was NSPCC divisional director for the Midlands and West Region when the Guernsey branch closed but who is now director of Childline; Sharon Copsey, business manager for the Midlands and West region and their lawyer, David Christie. (Picture by Steve Sarre, 1115666)

CONSULTATION on a proposal to close the Guernsey branch of the NSPCC led to a change in the charity’s plans for the island, an employment tribunal heard yesterday.

Senior NSPCC managers told the panel that the charity decided to keep two social workers on the island as a result of feedback from the month-long consultation in 2009.

Four staff lost their jobs last year when the Guernsey centre was one of nine branches closed as part of a new NSPCC strategy. Mick Dunbar, Rosalyn Priaulx, Julie Bowditch and Alison Wakefield have taken the charity to a tribunal, claiming unfair dismissal.

Their counsel, Advocate Simon Geall, has argued that the consultation process was a sham and the alternatives to closing the Guernsey office were never properly considered.

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