Lottie Littlehales

Introduction

Lottie Littlehales was a class teacher at Temple Meadow Primary School in Cradley Heath from 1 September 2018, with a teaching and learning responsibility for dance and PE. Over ten weeks in 2019 she twice took cocaine — once at a party with colleagues after a work gathering, once the day after an Occupational Health appointment that followed an admitted alcohol problem — and on 7 October 2019 she attended school smelling of alcohol. A colleague who saw her take the drug asked what it was and was told it was cocaine. Littlehales admitted all three allegations through a statement of agreed facts, and the case was decided without a hearing at her own request. On 16 August 2021, decision maker Alan Meyrick banned her from teaching for life, with a three-year review bar before she may apply to have the order set aside — the panel having found there was a public interest in her being able to teach again in the future.

Background Information

The first incident came on 26 July 2019, at a party with colleagues following a work gathering: Individual A witnessed Littlehales consume a class A drug, asked what the substance was, and was told it was cocaine. Littlehales later admitted she had asked Individual A’s son to take her to procure the drug, which she took in front of Individual A. On 6 August 2019 Individual A disclosed this to Individual B, and the school referred the matter to the local authority designated officer, though the threshold for LADO involvement was not met. A meeting at the school followed on 3 September 2019 in which Littlehales admitted she had an issue with alcohol. The pattern did not stop: she admitted that on 27 September 2019, following an Occupational Health appointment, she possessed and consumed cocaine again, and that on the morning of 7 October 2019 — after messaging a colleague that she was not having a good day — two colleagues could smell alcohol on her in the staff room. In her own statement she accepted consuming significant amounts of alcohol and that it was possible it could be smelt on her.

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

Twice took cocaine and once taught smelling of alcohol; claimed the drug use was a “one off” but referred to “my dealer”; admitted all; banned with a three-year review bar. The panel found she had not been honest with her employer about her substance use from the outset.

The panel made its own determination on the facts despite the admissions, hearing Individual A’s witness statement about the July incident and Littlehales’s own account of sending someone to procure the drug. Her assertion that the first incident was a “one off” failed on her own words: the evidence referred to “my dealer” and to damage to her nose from previous drug use, which the panel held did not corroborate a single occasion. It found the conduct outside the education setting was nevertheless relevant because possessing a class A drug was serious and would damage the public’s perception of a teacher, and it found as a significant departure from professional standards that she “had not been honest with her employer regarding her drug and alcohol use from the outset, and later admitted to such use”. The Occupational Health referral form recorded good attendance, punctuality and no performance issues, but the panel noted a risk assessment had been undertaken regarding her sobriety at a previous school — context suggesting the problems predated her Temple Meadow appointment.

Public Reaction and Consequences

Mitigation was thin and partly unverifiable: Littlehales referred herself to an unidentified support service, supported by a letter dated 28 October 2019 that the panel found lacked detailed commentary, and she accepted responsibility for her actions. Against that, the panel found her evidence lacked insight into her behaviours — particularly awareness of her substance use and its potential impact on others — and that what remorse she showed was limited. The panel weighed the class A drug abuse factor, which ordinarily militates against any review period, against an express countervailing finding: “there was a public interest in her being able to utilise her skills and expertise as a teacher in the future”, such that a time might come when she could contribute again. It recommended prohibition with a three-year review period. Meyrick agreed that a two-year review would be insufficient given the serious class A drug possession and use and the lack of full insight or remorse, and set the bar at three years.

Current Status

Littlehales is prohibited from teaching indefinitely and cannot teach in any school, sixth form college, relevant youth accommodation or children’s home in England. She may apply for the prohibition order to be set aside from 20 August 2024, three years from the date of the order — a right that is not automatic and requires a panel to find the order should be lifted; without a successful application she remains prohibited for life. The order took effect on service, with a right of appeal to the High Court within 28 days. The determination is dated 13 August 2021 and the case was decided on the papers at a private meeting, with only the decision announced in public. No criminal charge arising from the cocaine use appears anywhere in the decision; the regulator’s finding rests on her admissions and the witness evidence.

Impact on Their Career/Life

The decision sits at the boundary of the regulator’s drug cases: possession and use twice, at a party rather than on school premises, with no allegation of use in school hours — yet still a prohibition, because the panel found the deeper failure was the concealment from an employer actively trying to manage her alcohol problem. The LADO threshold not being met in August 2019 did not shield her; the school’s own Occupational Health route surfaced the conduct within weeks. The case also shows the review-period machinery working as designed: the panel identified a genuine public interest in an eventual return — the express reason class A drug cases sometimes draw no review at all — and split the difference at three years. For Littlehales, the set-aside window opened in August 2024; her future in teaching depends entirely on whether a future panel finds the insight that the 2021 panel found missing.

Sources

• Dept for Education, “Teacher misconduct panel outcome: Ms Lottie Littlehales” — source