Internal Confidential Advisers
Parents and students can turn to the internal confidential counsellor of their own school. Contact details of the internal confidential adviser can be found on the school’s website.
It is of great importance for Esprit Schools that the internal confidential advisers work well together with their external counterparts in order to deliver optimal quality in the field of social safety. More information about the tasks and powers of the internal and external confidential advisers can be found in the complaints procedure (Dutch).
Employees of Esprit Schools can reach out to the external confidential advisers directly.
External Confidential Advisers
Wherever people work or live together, inappropriate behaviour and integrity violations can occur. Examples include bullying, discrimination, sexual harassment, intimidation and misuse of power.
Matters can often be resolved by talking to each other, perhaps with the help of third person, such as a line manager, teacher or mentor. Sometimes, however, just talking is not enough.
Employees of Esprit Schools can reach out to an external confidential adviser. Following advice from the Executive Board, the Management Team and the Participation Council, Esprit Schools has deliberately chosen to appoint two external confidential advisers, a man and a woman.
Alice Vlottes
As a project manager at anti-bullying website and helpline Pestweb, Alice Vlottes has ample experience with bullying and cyber bullying. She has answered many questions from parents and teachers and has advised on dealing with unsafe social situations. She has also trained teams of teachers on how to deal with bullying. As a qualified mediator, she has the skills to successfully mediate conflicts so that people can return to being on speaking terms and make good agreements with each other. She has been a school psychologist and a teacher in Higher Education. In addition, she was a confidential adviser at a University for Applied Sciences. Besides being an adviser/confidential adviser, she works as a Health Centre psychologist.
Herman van der Wind
As a union manager, Herman has ample counselling experience, coming up with solutions for or engaging in conversations on problems between staff members and executives. As a mediator in conversations between perpetrators and victims, he has experienced that people can connect with each other even in the most difficult situations. As a confidential adviser, Herman offers a listening ear, helps come up with solutions and solve challenges, and keeps the interests of other people in mind. Sticking to your guns is rarely the solution. Nuance and pursuing the common good are more productive avenues. Herman has also served as the chair of several appeals and dispute committees. He deals with complaints about inappropriate behaviour and acts as a mediator.